Timing is everything, and you can be sure Daryl Gross knows this.

Ultimately, it might have been the timing of Greg Robinson’s hiring that doomed the regime from the start. You think Gross took too long to fire Robinson? When Gross canned Paul Pasqualoni on Dec. 29, 2004, 19 other Division I-AA schools had already hired new coaches.

‘I just think it’s time to go in a different direction,’ Gross said that day. ‘We’re going into the heart of the recruiting season right now. We needed to act one way or another.’

That is a mistake he did not repeat.

The Syracuse athletic director chose Sunday as the day to dismiss Robinson, with two games to go in the 2008 season. Yes, Robinson’s future had been decided long before Sunday. But Gross saw how Robinson’s players continued to stick it out for their beleaguered coach and saw no reason to disrupt that earlier than necessary. Anyone watch Tennessee recently?

If this season was lost, then why not cut ties last year? Gross said he wanted to act in terms of fairness, believing that a coach should have more than three years to develop his system and bring in his own guys. That’s a nice principle, but it also shows potential candidates that Gross isn’t hiring and firing on a whim.

And it could have been an indication of the market. Last offseason, 11 BCS schools (Arkansas, Baylor, Duke, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas A&M, UCLA, Washington State and West Virginia) filled vacancies. This year, Syracuse will contend with at least Tennessee, Clemson, Kansas State and Washington. There will undoubtedly be more BCS openings, but not of the number and caliber of last year’s.

So then why not wait until the end of this season? Gross knows how crucial the time right after the final Saturday of the regular season will be. As he now has learned, he must move quickly to find Robinson’s replacement. On Sunday, he got the awkward part out of the way. Robinson’s tenure is over as soon as the final whistle sounds at Cincinnati on Nov. 29. Then the real contest begins.

‘To say that we feel we’re ahead of the game is an understatement,’ Gross said Sunday.

Of course, Gross has almost certainly been working behind the scenes for weeks. This is a hire that will define the rest of his career as an athletic administrator. This is a hire that is, perhaps, the most important in the history of Syracuse athletics. Mess this one up and there could be irreparable damage to this program.

It’s all about the timing. Now Gross can publicly interview whomever he’d like, or even use intermediaries, like coaching consultants, former alumni or the media, to gauge interest in potential candidates. Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall, proclaimed by some outlets as the favorite, told The Day (Conn.) newspaper on Monday he is not interested in the Syracuse job.

Edsall, who’s known to stretch the truth with the media when it comes to reporting injuries, could be bluffing. But without firing Robinson, this discussion wouldn’t be happening publicly.

Gross needs to know if his candidate is committed – and quick. The next coach at Syracuse must be in place before the bowl season begins. Simply, SU can’t afford to lose another recruiting class.

Currently, depending on the recruiting site, Syracuse has between four and six verbal commitments. One verbal commit, Raheem Cardwell, told The Daily Orange on Sunday that he is ‘exploring his options.’ He will wait and see who the next head coach at Syracuse is until he makes a firm decision and assuredly, he isn’t the only recruit doing so. National Letter of Intent Day is Feb. 4, 2009.

This is a major lesson Gross learned from his first hire. Timing is everything, especially when it comes to recruiting.

‘It’s great,’ Gross said of the head start on finding a new coach. ‘It’s fabulous. It gives us a chance to recruit. It gives us a chance to recruit and recruit well instead of rushing.’

Robinson inherited a team in 2005 that had tied for the Big East regular-season title in 2004. Syracuse won one game – against Buffalo – in Robinson’s first year. He had little time to prepare for spring ball, let alone convince every verbal commitment under Pasqualoni to stay in the fold. Ray Rice and Courtney Greene left for Rutgers and Cordarrow Thompson went to Virginia Tech.

Because Robinson was hired so late, the pool for his staff was depleted. Robinson wanted Mitch Browning to serve as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator in 2005, but Browning turned down the offer and didn’t join the staff until this season. So Robinson turned to Brian Pariani, who had never been more than a tight ends coach in the NFL, to install the West Coast offense in a matter of months. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.

It all trickles down, and that’s why Gross knows how important time is. The last four years of losing must be an important lesson to the always-proud Gross. Before Syracuse, he was a part of national championships at Southern Cal. Now, in Central New York, his team loses to Akron.

‘God has a way of balancing things in life,’ Gross said. ‘Before I came here, I was sitting on that platform with the crystal ball trophy and life was good in the football world. You win two national championships and then you go through this and it’s quite humbling.

‘It took us about 10 years (at USC). I don’t want to wait 10 years. We want to get this thing going fast.’

It’s year five. The clock is ticking.

Matt Gelb is a staff writer at The Daily Orange, where his columns appear occasionally. He covered the football team last season while serving as sports editor. He can be reached at magelb@syr.edu.

Published on November 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm