The firing of Syracuse head football coach Greg Robinson was long overdue, plain and simple. After a dismal season with only two wins, and previous seasons with records that weren’t much better, Robinson deserved the axe. Everyone knew that. It was just a matter of when.

And that ‘when’ was all anyone could talk about this season. The students, the alumni, the media – it was the big question underlying this entire season, when it became evident that this year’s team would be no better than the last three. So when would the inevitable come? It seemed likely at any of SU’s routings: Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers. But instead, Athletic Director Daryl Gross chose to wait until after the final home game – when Robinson has two games left to coach.

Firing Robinson after the last home game allows him a fond farewell to the Carrier Dome but doesn’t accomplish much else. Gross should have either pulled the trigger much earlier in the season and replaced Robinson or waited until the end of the season.Now things will just be awkward for the team and the fans. Robinson has to coach a team that knows he won’t be around next year and appear on the sidelines in front of fans who are glad to see him gone. Both games are likely to be losses.

The timing of this decision should have been different. Surely Gross saw that this season wasn’t salvageable long ago. Everyone else did. Let Robinson either finish out the season or fire him early enough that another coach has the chance to show improvement.

While fans and alumni are likely happy to see SU has finally chosen to move in a different direction with the football program, the end of this loss-ridden era could have come to a much cleaner closing.