Sometimes in coaching, all it takes is a break. Greg Robinson gave Jim Salgado his.

Salgado, Syracuse’s cornerbacks/secondary coach, is a native Long Islander who grew up watching Syracuse every weekend and had friends play for the Orange. Yeah, but so did every wannabe football coach from Yonkers to Cicero. It wouldn’t do the quarterback coach at Long Island Lutheran any good.

Well, it did for Salgado, in a way. Now, he’s coaching the Orange’s defensive backs, focusing on a cornerback group that has two senior starters – Tanard Jackson and Terrell Lemon – and three interceptions in four games while serving as a crucial part of the defense’s early success.

There are three players in the secondary who converted from offense to defense this season – safeties Bruce Williams and Joe Fields and cornerback Nick Chestnut – which makes coaching that much more important. And it’s helpful that Salgado is the one helping the transition, considering the young coach specializes in relating to his players.

Salgado did what all coaches seem to do and worked his way up a coaching ladder. He started as a quarterback/secondary coach at Long Island Lutheran in his hometown in 1993. During the next 12 seasons, Salgado held seven different coaching jobs at six different schools throughout the Northeast. He worked at his alma mater, Hofstra, on two separate occasions.

An eager coach working his way up a coaching ladder – not that original.

But then came Salgado’s break. He was working assistant head coach/defensive backs coach at Northeastern when Paul Pasqualoni was fired down I-90. In came Greg Robinson, who had a stop with the New York Jets during his coaching career.

The Jets practice on Long Island. Hofstra is on Long Island. Salgado went to Hofstra. That’s where the connection started.

When Salgado was playing for the Dutchmen in the early ’90s, Robinson was the assistant coach/defensive line coach for the Jets. Pat Kirwan also worked with the Jets at the time with Robinson after serving as Hofstra’s offensive coordinator for six seasons. The pipeline was intact, and when Robinson was going to be named head coach at SU, his friend Kirwan suggested he look at Salgado as an assistant.

That was the break. The New Yorker was coming home for his first Division I coaching job.

‘It’s special because I’m from New York,’ Salgado said. ‘I used to watch (Syracuse) every week. For me to get my first big opportunity to coach here, it’s just unbelievable.’

And it happened relatively quickly. For a coach, the 34-year old Salgado can be considered young.

‘I can relate with the guys still,’ Salgado said. ‘Being a coach is about relationships with players, helping them grow up.’

And the good ‘ole days aren’t as fuzzy yet for the younger coaches. Dowayne Davis, SU’s starting strong safety, joked Salgado always talks about ‘a young Jim Salgado out on the field.’ Davis said Salgado claims he was a tough hitter – Salgado smiles in agreement, adding that he was a smart player, too. Davis sheepishly agrees, although he doesn’t have much of a choice.

But it’s a minor inside joke like that that makes Salgado so liked by his players.

Davis couldn’t hold in his laughter the minute he was asked about Salgado. He said the defensive backs keep it light in the meeting rooms because of the attitudes of Salgado and safeties coach Scott Spencer – who’s also a young coach.

‘We get done what we need to get done, but sometimes in the film room, there’s a lot of bloopers,’ Davis said. ‘Sometimes he might make a couple sound effects that are real cool.’

Davis did his best Salgado imitation – warning a reporter that it’ll be difficult to figure out how to spell the sound effect – and let out a quick ‘booop,’ which Salgado says after a hard hit on tape.

‘We laugh all the time in the meeting room,’ Davis said. ‘They create a good atmosphere where we can learn and not be tense.’

While Salgado deals primarily with the cornerbacks and Spencer the safeties, Davis said the whole defensive back unit is together most of the time.

It gives him ample time to learn the player’s tendencies and figure out what makes each one perform. In the case of Chestnut, a sophomore cornerback who played receiver last season – even catching a touchdown against Florida State – Salgado has the task of converting a player to the position full-time.

‘From day one, I knew he was my coach, even when I was on the other side of the ball,’ Chestnut said. ‘Coming back over, it was his job to help me out and get me back in a corner frame of mind. He played a big role in that.’

The teaching makes the college game unique to Salgado. He’s seen coaching at the professional level working as a coaching intern with the Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins. In the NFL, the players come primarily groomed. There’s still a fair amount of teaching, but the players are expected to know more than a kid from, say, Long Island Lutheran.

‘When a coach can adjust to his players, it’s good in building relationships,’ Chestnut said. ‘That’s a big thing in having them play for you.’

Salgado didn’t know which one he prefers. He’s coached high school and college his entire life, only seeing the NFL at an intern basis. But he’s not in the business of looking too far down the road. Two winters ago, Salgado got a break when Robinson called him about a job at SU. Who knows when the next big one will come?

‘I don’t know. I know this is a great opportunity and I’m thankful for this opportunity,’ Salgado said. ‘I get a chance to work with some great people, but lord only knows where you’ll end up.’

Published on September 26, 2006 at 12:00 pm