When last we left the search for Greg Robinson's successor at Syracuse, evidence was mounting that soon-to-be-terminated Raiders coach Lane Kiffin was the man for the job. That made sense: Kiffin has been a college coach most of his career and has connections with his old USC boss, Daryl Gross, current 'Cuse AD and open antagonist of his coach the last two weeks. The Post-Standard's Brent Axe has heard through the grapevine that Robinson's house may already be for sale and his contract could have already been bought out.

With Kiffin still waiting for the pink slip in Oakland, though, there have been much weirder sightings around campus back East, and I'm not talking about Ernie Davis' anachronistic shoes:

I have confirmed through three separate and independent sources that Lloyd Carr was in Manley Field House today. Still no word on what was discussed. This is now confirmed in my mind.

That was Friday, a few days after Axe heard whispers that Carr was at the Carrier Dome for the Orange's only win of the season -- probably the only win it will get, period, unless Rutgers is really that bad -- over I-AA Northeastern. Maybe his presence is good jus jus or something: the rumored Carr sightings have corresponded with a win and a solid three-quarter effort against Pittsburgh before a late collapse, which might as well count as victory by the Orange's recent standards. Axe apparently reported the Carr sightings on his radio show, as well.

Orange message boards, of course, proclaimed "Lloyd Carr is Syracuse's next coach" as soon as his name came up, which 'Cuse beat honcho Donnie Webb emphatically trashed Friday night as "BS, nonsense, stupid, dumb, reckless and disappointing." Gross was in L.A. Friday night for the premiere of "The Express," according to Webb, so he couldn't have been hobnobbing with Carr in the quad. And who brings potential coaches on campus to interview, anyway? Those things are done as far away as possible from the rumormongers, in places like, uh, Los Angeles.

Of course, Carr to Syracuse makes approximately zero sense. Carr to anywhere but a golf course, armchair-testing laboratory or reality show based on antagonistic halftime interviews makes zero sense. He spent virtually his entire career at Michigan as the embodiment of the grumbly but loyal "Michigan Man," and retired for a lack of energy and rumored health problems. If any job needed the full-blooded vigor of a young man willing to go from dawn till pre-dawn the next day, then start over again, it's Syracuse.

But the only other name with the tiniest shred of local traction outside of Kiffin? Terry Bowden, whose interest in seemingly every open position of the last decade has gone unrequited. But as long as we're throwing names around, and Robinson's still technically employed, why not?

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Photo of Carr via Getty Images.