College Football Coach Hire Grades: Syracuse

Syracuse Orange: Fran Brown

Why the job was open: Syracuse is such a tough job, some coaches have found success for a period of time but sustaining it has proven to be more difficult. This program isn’t located in a great recruiting pipeline and it’s difficult to keep getting talent each year. Dino Babers ran a fun offense that helped get the program off the ground, and they had some really good seasons under him but eventually he lost momentum. Once that momentum is lost you can’t get it back here, it was time for a change.

Coach Profile: Brown has mostly been a DBs coach most of his career, he’s spent a lot of time at Temple, but followed Matt Rhule to Baylor. In 2018 Brown got his first head coaching shot interviewing for the Temple job, but finished as a runner up to Manny Diaz and joined his staff during that memorable 17 day stint. Once Diaz left he interviewed again but once again was the runner up, this time to Rod Carey, oh Temple. Brown would spend a couple years at Rutgers before joining Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia. His bread and butter is recruiting, he’s known as one of the best in the nation.

Why he will succeed: Brown has given Syracuse a much needed jolt ever since his opening press conference. He’s an electric human being. His recruiting has taken off much better than expected so far, with him adding a lot of talent from the portal. He has a lot of connections in the area and what talent is around might not be leaving anymore. In one offseason he’s made Syracuse football cool.

What obstacles are in the way of success: There’s still a lot, any downturn could spiral things quickly. It’s been all fun and games right now but what’s this going to look like once it takes the field? Brown hasn’t had this many GameDay responsibilities in his career and we’ve seen former position coaches end up way over their heads during games as a result (think Sam Pittman for example.) That’s the part that concerns me.

Grade: B- – Fran Brown has convinced me a little bit, not going to lie. I am not a fan of position coaches straight to HC for the reasons I mentioned above. It seems like the majority of the then this route doesn’t work, but Fran Brown could always be different and what he’s done this offseason has been impressive, also fun.