Retired NFL Coach Dick Vermeil's Impressions of SU Football
Head Coach Greg Robinson:
“It’s really an honor for all of us up here at Syracuse, specifically for me, to have Coach Vermeil come to Syracuse and speak at out coaches clinic. He shared a lot of thoughts with these fellas and I think that people really, really appreciated it. It was great for our team to have Coach out there. He was at practice yesterday and at practice today. Obviously, the players are excited about it. It’s very special.”
Dick Vermeil on why Robinson will be able to turn the program around:
“Number one, he is a very bright football coach. He is an outstanding person and he really cares about people. I don’t think he can hide his passion for the game and his passion for the kids he coaches. Those kinds of things, I think, are infectious and they grow in the organizations and they grow in the teams. You start out tough and you just keep getting better, better, and better because he’ll remain positive and supportive of the kids. They are kids, young men, who will really profit by being coached and led that way. That’s Greg. He really likes people. He is a very special human being. We have a great relationship and to be able to come up here today and yesterday too … the weather was better yesterday (smiling) … but to enjoy practice and watch the kids work with enthusiasm and having fun and getting better, doing all the right things, right, you’re forming a foundation for something special here in the future.”
Vermeil on the program’s facilities:
“I’ve been up here a number of times with broadcasting when Paul (Pasqualoni) was here. I was up here about 10 or 11 years ago, it has a great football tradition. You go around the Hall of Fame here, there are some great, great names; all-time names in both college and the National Football League. It’s a great atmosphere. Now, this new weight room facility, the new turfs, it’s progressing in a way that puts you in a position to compete. Greg and his coaches will do an outstanding job of recruiting and you’ll have an outstanding football program like they had here in the past under Dick MacPherson and Paul Pasqualoni. It’s a great area for football. It’s important to the people in the community, too, I think.”
Vermeil on what he told Robinson after last season:
“First off, nobody is immune to bad seasons or tough seasons, especially starting out new programs. There’s so much that can come out of losing seasons that are good for you, especially for the players and coaches working together, hanging together, working tough. When you leave here, life isn’t easy, and they’ll have an experience of handling tough times and sticking together, not blaming each other, not pointing the finger, not making excuses, just coming back and going to work and trying to get better. They had a very demanding schedule last year and the schedule is a little more realistic this year in the second year of a program in the system and the schemes they’re in and the mental attitudes that you’d like to develop in the program are starting in that direction, and they’ll continue to get better. Adversity is what tests you as individuals and as organizations and it’s what brings you together for the future.”
Vermeil on what he said to the team:
“This is a very precious time in those kids young lives. Being at Syracuse University and getting the education and getting to play football at the same time. It doesn’t all point to the National Football League and very few will play there. It points to a very solid future for each and every one of them, as long as they take advantage of it and invest their time wisely. Each time they come in here, they have to try and get better both in the classroom and on the field and as an individual. It’s just a very precious time.”
Vermeil on how much he will miss the relationships he built in football:
“There’s nothing in a leadership role or coaching position that can replace standing in a circle with the kind of young people you get to stand with in a circle in a football field today. There are great, great human beings in the National Football League playing the game and great young kids here at Syracuse and at the other universities. Every once in a while, you get stories of kids who make mistakes and we tend to dwell on those too much and forget how many great young people there are in this game and going to school and doing the right things. Greg put me in the circle this morning with those kids and I got goose bumps. It’s what I’ve done all my life.”
Vermeil on parting with Robinson in Kansas City:
“We have such an admiration for each other. There was no fault. It was just the right thing to do at the right time and the deep sense of everything, Greg wanted to be a college head football coach. The best way to do that is to get back on the college level and work back into a position such as the head coach at Syracuse right now. When you go through what coaches go through and really care about each other, the adverse times work the same way. They bring you closer together.”
Vermeil on if Robinson called him last year for advice:
“No, I’d call him from time to time because I’d try to watch as many games as I could on Saturdays. They lost some tough games and played really well. They just couldn’t get it done and against some of the teams they were playing, my gosh. I try to always stay in touch with people I care about.”
