An SEC team is coming hard after a Syracuse football defensive coach

At the end of a week that included the second round of coaching changes on Fran Brown's 2025 staff and welcoming the highest ranked class of recruits into the program over the last quarter century, comes word Thursday that days after demoting his longtime friend Elijah Robinson from DC to co-coordinator and defensive line coach, Robinson may on his way out of the program.

Football Scoop.com reported that Kiffin wants Robinson to coach the Tigers defensive line as part of his new staff, having him return to the SEC after two years when he coached the defensive line at Texas A&M under Jimbo Fisher. Robinson then took over as interim head coach (see photo) of the Aggies after Fisher was fired near the end of the '23 season.

A hectic week among friends Brown and Robinson may end with a win-win situation

There is no doubt whom much of Orange Nation's anger was directed to during this past 3-9 flop of a season, even during the 3-1 start. The porous SU defense under coordinator Robinson was the subject of a lot of negativity, specifically its inability to stop the run (175 yards/game - 99th nationally out of 134 FBS teams), and put pressure on opposing QBs finishing with just 18 sacks in 12 games.

Granted, the anemic offense did nothing to help the defense with "three-and-outs" seemingly becoming the norm once Rickie Collins, Luke Carney, and Joe Filardi took turns at QB, forcing the defense to spend a lot of time on the field against some pretty good opponents' offenses.

With a fresh look needed and a highly regarded DL group of recruits coming aboard, Brown really had no choice but to shuffle his longtime friend from their Camden, N.J. and Western Carolina days to the DL position coach, while keeping his Assistant Head Coach and co-coordinator titles to go along with a $1M plus annual salary.

Like Brown, Robinson is a top-notch recruiter, no doubt something Kiffin is aware of from his A&M days, and with other new SEC coaches starting to fill in their staffs, LSU is ready to follow suit, quickly.

By moving on, Robinson can avoid any potential awkwardness working with his replacement, allocate use of his salary in hiring a new coordinator, and allow Robinson to work on the Tigers bowl game preparation and the February recruiting period.

An opportunity for Brown to re-shape the defense in a new coordinator's mold

If Robinson leaves, Brown has an opportunity to go in another direction with a new coordinator, saying this week he wants his defense to "be able to tackle the player with the ball", in a swipe at the poor tackling that seemed to plague his team during its nightmarish eight-game, season-ending losing streak.

Brown indicated this week that after the Holiday break, players will be back on campus January 10 for the start of winter conditioning, including early enrollees.

The next day, the annual three-day AFCA coaches convention kicks off in Charlotte, the site buzzing with activity as coaches from around the country convene to learn in seminars, share industry gossip, and seek to be hired for known vacancies.

It will be interesting to see how soon before that event Brownmakes his important hire ont he defensive side of the ball.

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