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At 21 years old, Elijah Robinson briefly lost all feeling from the neck down. Robinson switched from defensive tackle to right guard and was competing for a starting position on Penn State’s offensive line entering his redshirt junior season.

But during spring camp in 2007, he suffered a spinal injury that ended his football career. The Camden, New Jersey, native eventually fully recovered, though knew his playing days were over. He was unsure what to do next. With the help of his former coaches Larry Johnson and Joe Paterno, he eventually realized coaching was his calling.

Seventeen years later, Robinson is Syracuse’s defensive coordinator in the program’s first year under Fran Brown. The 39-year-old has worked as a defensive line coach at Penn State, Temple, Baylor and Texas A&M. He then led the Aggies as their interim head coach for the final three games of the 2023 season.

In year one with the Orange, Robinson has used his schematic expertise to build their defense into a formidable group, despite key absences from linebacker Marlowe Wax and top defensive linemen Dion Wilson Jr. and Kevin Jobity Jr. for much of the season. He entered the program looking to shape his defense around SU’s existing talent while adding other key pieces. The strategy quickly made him an esteemed figure among his players.

“From the first second he came in, he’s someone we knew we wanted to play for,” linebacker Derek McDonald said of Robinson.

The answer wasn’t immediately coaching for Robinson, though. Upon graduating in 2008, former Seattle Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, a close friend, offered him a marketing job in California for Excel 2 Excellence — a youth football league he founded while playing in the National Football League.

However, his marketing stint was brief as Paterno and Johnson offered him a graduate assistant role for the 2009 season. From there, his career took off.

Stints at a few colleges eventually brought him closer to his roots. Growing up in Camden, Robinson played at the city’s high school before transferring to Woodrow Wilson High School. His freshman year with the Panthers was Brown’s senior year, and the two built a close bond.

Reuniting with Brown was common practice. The two worked on defensive staffs together at Temple and Baylor before splitting for jobs at Texas A&M and Georgia. Brown has referred to Robinson as “one of the best defensive coordinators in the country,” and when Brown got the Syracuse job, Robinson joined his staff.

“It really wasn’t much besides me going to talk to my wife and my kids and saying, ‘Hey, this is the plan.’ And they were all on board with the plan,” Robinson said.

Oftentimes, defensive coordinators enter new programs and insert their philosophy, forcing players to adjust. However, Robinson didn’t see this as an effective way to get the Orange going.

Before Robinson arrived, he assessed SU’s defense as a strong group and one he could build around based on its returning cast. Syracuse retained its top four tacklers in Wax, Justin Barron, McDonald and Alijah Clark from last season. The idea was to figure out what the unit already did well, add incoming freshmen, hit the transfer portal and put all the pieces together to play to everyone’s strengths.

“You got to be able to adjust to the guys you have and what they do well,” Robinson said. “X’s and O’s means nothing if it doesn’t fit what you got with your personnel. We had to step out of our comfort zone as coaches to put our guys in the best situation.”

The philosophy was made clear immediately to returning players.

“When he first came in, he said, ‘You’re not fitting into my system. I’m fitting into y’alls,’” Clark said. “‘I’m gonna find ways for you guys to excel at what you guys do to get you where you want to go.’ That was something that pretty much grabbed everybody.”

Robinson also echoed the idea while bolstering SU’s roster from the outside, bringing in Fadil Diggs from Texas A&M and Duce Chestnut from LSU.

According to linebackers coach Robert Wright, Robinson told his coaching staff they weren’t going to have any solidified scheme. Instead, they’d focus on putting the best players on the field. And he made the message clear to transfers.

“He told me coming into here that he just wanted ball players, dawgs,” Buffalo transfer Devin Grant said. “We’re going to be a hard-fought defense regardless.”

Lily Zuckerman | Design Editor

Robinson’s final stop before arriving at Syracuse prepared him for the position of power he now holds. In 2018, he joined Jimbo Fisher’s staff at Texas A&M as the defensive line coach. He bolstered the Aggies’ pass rush, helping them become one of the most consistent pass rushes in the country with top-five finishes in rushing defense in 2018 and 2020.

After four seasons, he was elevated to co-defensive coordinator and eventually assistant head coach. As Texas A&M faltered down the stretch in 2023, Fisher was fired, and Robinson was promoted to interim head coach.

Robinson said the head coaching position was a challenge he took head-on. In the position, he managed schedules, figuring out when to send coaches home to families and how to keep everyone together during a tumultuous time for the program.

“It helps you with seeing a bigger picture and not just seeing things through your lens,” Robinson said of the experience. “It helps me out here now getting people all to work together and come together to make sure we are on the same page.”

Since arriving at Syracuse, he’s brought his unit together regardless of the circumstances, largely because of his advanced ability to scheme up a defense on any given week.

The Orange started the season in a 4-2-5 defense, allowing them to showcase their advanced secondary depth and bring four pass rushers with Diggs as the catalyst. Wax’s Week 1 injury forced immediate change. SU came out the next game in a primarily 3-3-5 look, with Diggs coming up from the linebacker level to disrupt Georgia Tech’s offense.

During Wax’s absence, the Orange also lost multiple key pass rushers. Robinson was forced to adjust again, this time using Barron’s flexibility. The senior was moved from a rover-type secondary position into the linebacker spot, where he’s excelled.

“You see Coach E come up with game plans every week, and it just blows your mind,” Barron said.

Now with Wax back in the fold, SU remains largely in a 3-3-5. Diggs moves around as a puzzle piece, while Wax and Barron play next to each other in the second level.

Per Grant, also a player who has been moved around in the secondary this season, it’s hard to ever know what Robinson is up to. On any given week, the unit can run something on Monday but another concept completely different on Wednesday. Each week, Robinson creates tweaks that make the defense different, never allowing an opponent to truly catch on.

Syracuse defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson views the field in SU’s contest versus Virginia Tech on Nov. 2. Robinson is in his first year with the Orange after being the interim head coach at Texas A&M for the final three games of 2023. Lars Jendruschewitz | Photo Editor

Robinson’s coaching style sticks out to his players. Clark said he’s usually level-headed, never cursing out his players but instead encouraging them and attacking the problem rather than the person. He questions what a player is thinking on a play and quickly educates them, taking the good within the bad.

Still, there’s a fiery side to the defensive coordinator. Grant said he’s surprised Robinson can keep his voice at times because of how enthusiastic he gets at practice.

“You love when a defensive coordinator is into the defense and always just right there cheering us on,” Grant said.

Through personnel changes thrown his way throughout his first season helming SU’s defense, Robinson has stayed true to himself. It was adversity in his own career that first got him into coaching. Now, his experience and tough love on a week-to-week basis help Syracuse’s defense excel.

“We can relate to Coach E. He played at Penn State and he’s been through a lot of things like us,” Wax said. “He puts us in great positions to make plays, and for that, we love Coach Robinson.”

Published on November 6, 2024 at 11:30 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky