Syracuse officially hires Texas A&M defensive line coach Elijah Robinson as defensive coordinator

Support The Daily Orange this holiday season! The money raised between now and the end of the year will go directly toward aiding our students. Donate today.

Syracuse has hired Texas A&M defensive line coach Elijah Robinson as its next defensive coordinator. The news was first reported by Billy Liucci of TexAgs.com on Dec. 3. SU Athletics confirmed the hiring Friday. Robinson, a native of Camden, New Jersey, has been with the Aggies in multiple capacities since 2018. He will replace Rocky Long, who was Syracuse’s defensive coordinator for one season.

Robinson played at Penn State as a defensive tackle before switching to offensive line in 2006. Prior to his senior season with the Nittany Lions, he was injured in practice and was diagnosed with a spinal condition that put him at risk of being paralyzed. He retired from football and began working as a graduate assistant in 2009 at Penn State. In 2011, while still serving as a graduate assistant, he was elevated to the defensive line coach.

When Bill O’Brien took over as the head coach in 2012, Robinson was moved to being the program’s director of community relations while also serving as the team’s NFL liaison. After serving in that role for two years, he became the defensive line coach at Temple for two seasons before becoming the team’s run game coordinator in 2016, a year he also was on staff with new Syracuse head coach Fran Brown.

He, along with Brown, followed Matt Rhule to Baylor in 2017, where Robinson was the defensive line coach for one season. Robinson coached seven All-Big 12 players and was then named the defensive line coach of Texas A&M. After four seasons in that role, where the Aggies finished the 2018 season with the second-best run defense in the Southeast Conference, Robinson was elevated to the run game coordinator in 2022. Prior to the start of this year, he was elevated to be the co-defensive coordinator and associate head coach under then-head coach Jimbo Fisher.

When Fisher was fired with two games remaining in the season, Robinson was promoted to interim head coach, where he went 1-1.