Fran Brown has checked a lot of boxes during his first two games as Syracuse’s head coach. He’s managed the clock well, installed a successful offense, and made good defensive adjustments. Still, there’s a lot of challenges Brown hasn’t had to deal with yet. Right now, he’s in the midst of handling his first bye week.
There’s lots of positive opportunities with a week off. Fran Brown can rest his most used players, like like receiving threats Oronde Gadsden and Trebor Peña. Plus, it’s another opportunity for adjustments, which are sorely needed in the special teams department. However, bye weeks can also be a bad thing.
Under Dino Babers, Syracuse football was 4-9 coming off more than a week of rest. If you take away the Orange’s flukey 10-3 season in 2018, that mark would be 2-9.
Clearly, bye weeks can be bad in the hands of a bad coach. Why? It’s the age-old debate of rest vs. rust. For the last eight years, SU has started flat after a week off.
So how will Fran Brown do in this department? Well, it’s hard to tell. With him not being a head coach before, it’s almost impossible. You could look at how Georgia, Rutgers, Temple, and his other coaching stops did coming off byes when he was there, but how much control did he have as a secondary coach or a co-defensive coordinator? Maybe a decent amount, but those weren’t his teams or gameplans.
Based on the success Fran Brown has had so far, it’s probably fair to be optimistic. Regardless, how Syracuse plays in the first quarter against Stanford on Friday will say a lot about Brown and the Orange. Plus, with another bye week coming up in October, it’s all the more important for him to get this right.
