On Monday, Fran Brown was introduced as the 31st head coach in the history of Syracuse football with a Number 44 jersey with “Brown” across the back. How fitting. Brown takes over a program in need of a jolt of energy, something he provided on Monday when talking about his vision for SU and the future.
John Wildhack had a lot to say about the first football coach he has hired as the Director of Athletics at Syracuse, and that it was Brown who approached him about the job, going back to what Wildhack said about it being a position that had a lot of interest soon after Dino Babers was fired.
In terms of his actual coaching, Brown had some impressive and eye-catching quotes that should fire up Syracuse fans and get them to invest monetarily in the program, so the Orange can use NIL to their advantage.
“I’m going to be an animal at practice. Nobody here has more energy than me. Don’t say you want a championship but you give a 6-6 effort,” Brown said.
Recruiting is one of the biggest advantages Brown presents as Syracuse’s head coach after he had so much success at Georgia after stops at Rutgers, Baylor, and Temple. He says it’s going to be a holistic approach and a relentless one at that.
In terms of putting together his staff, it was widely reported and then confirmed today that Nunzio Campanile will stay on staff and be the interim head coach for the Boca Raton Bowl, and then into 2024. Further, Brown is set to hire Elijah Robinson from Texas A&M, another lethal recruiter, to be his defensive coordinator.
Another interesting thing from Brown was how he said he did not want to be a coordinator because he wanted to touch all aspects of the team, and that if he was only focused on one side of the ball, he would not be able to do his job effectively.
His praise and love for the Pasquoloni/DeLeone era of Syracuse football in the ‘90s and 2000s was evident in every media opportunity he’s had in the past couple of days, and his affirmation for them is a standard he wants Syracuse to get back to.
Overall, Brown sold himself in a great way to Syracuse fans, and it’s clear why John Wildhack chose him as the man for the job. There is a lot of work to do, but Brown is the Orange’s guy for the long haul.
