Fran Brown continues to do things that impress me every single week. Whether it’s what he does on or off the field the second year coach seems to make every right move. This weekend, it was the hiring of Hall of Famer and Orange legend Dwight Freeney. The 16-year NFL veteran has joined SU as a member of the Player Development staff. One of the best players in SU’s program history is coming back to Central New York.
This is the second major addition to the staff in a non-position coach position this week. Fran Brown hired former Broyles award winner Josh Gattis last week as an offensive specialist. He has worked at Michigan, Miami, Alabama, and Penn State. Gattis has had a few rough seasons, but he’s shown in the past that he has the knowledge to take a team to the next level.
Strong coaching staffs is a key part to success in College Football. At Alabama, Nick Saban was always known for having deep, talented coaching staffs that extended to analysts and development pieces. There were always former P5 head coaches like Charlie Strong, Butch Jones, or Mike Stoops. Those coaches make a difference at the end of the day.
This shows that Syracuse is fully investing in its staff and spending money to hire coaches that can take this program to the next level. This past weekend, the team officially opened the brand new facility. That’s another thing that can help bring the SU football program to national relevance. Syracuse Chancelor Kent Syverud made it clear during the opening ceremony that they thing that the Orange can be a consistant top 20 team in the country and that they win invest in the program to get there. All of the decisions that Fran Brown has made so far proves that to be true.
