Fran Brown spent ACC Kickoff delivering a revealing message about what went wrong at Syracuse last season. Brown believes personal agendas were eating away at the culture of the Orange.
This week, we’ll have an exclusive conversation with D.A. and Coach Brown, talking specifically about those changes, and having the humility to recognize what wasn’t working and make significant changes.
Now his quarterback is saying something that should make Orange fans feel very good about what has changed.
Brown acknowledged that during Syracuse’s difficult season, not everyone inside the program was necessarily operating with the same priorities. Players weren’t the right leaders during the losing. His new standard is unmistakable: the Block S comes first, followed by the players, coaches and himself.
Brown also acknowledged that wasn’t always the feeling a year ago.
That made Steve Angeli’s comments on ACC Network particularly interesting.
Asked about Brown’s message entering the new season, Angeli said:
“We’re all facing the same direction. And we always talk about there can be no opposite. Everyone has to be facing forward and marching to the same beat.”
That’s almost a direct confirmation of what Brown has spent this offseason trying to fix.
Syracuse Needed More Than New Players
Brown didn’t respond to three wins by simply blaming injuries.
He made significant changes.
The coaching staff was overhauled. New players were brought into the program. Brown has openly discussed lessons learned about personnel and ensuring everyone associated with Syracuse football shares the same priorities.
It’s one thing for a head coach to stand at a podium and proclaim the culture has changed.
It’s much more interesting when the starting quarterback independently describes the locker room using essentially the exact same philosophy.
Angeli spent much of his lengthy rehabilitation getting closer to the people around the program.
“I really tried to put all my time into one, rehab and getting healthy, but two, into getting to know the relationships and who I’m with, who I’m sharing the locker room with, our coaches, really getting to know them on a personal level.”
His conclusion?
“I think that’s going to take us the distance.”
Now We Find Out if It Translates
None of this guarantees Syracuse wins.
Culture is easy to celebrate in July. It becomes much harder to maintain after a bad loss in October.
But Brown has been unusually candid about recognizing problems and making changes rather than stubbornly defending his original decisions.
And now his quarterback is telling us the result is a team “marching to the same beat.”
That’s exactly what Brown wanted.
Brown believes Syracuse needed to get everyone pulling in one direction.
His starting quarterback says that’s exactly what’s happening.
