What kind of coach is Fran Brown?
Two years into his tenure at Syracuse, Orange fans have already witnessed two radically different seasons.
Year 1: 10 wins, a Holiday Bowl victory and the emergence of one of college football’s hottest young coaches.
Year 2: 3-9, an eight-game losing streak to finish the season, massive staff turnover.
So what does college football think of Brown now?
The Athletic’s annual ranking of FBS head coaches provides an interesting answer: apparently, the jury is still out.
The Athletic placed Brown in Tier 5, labeled “Up and Down.” Perhaps most interestingly, that’s exactly where Brown was ranked entering 2025.
Think about everything that’s happened since.
Brown entered last season coming off a 10-win debut. Then quarterback Steve Angeli tore his Achilles during Syracuse’s fourth game. The offense cratered without him, the Orange didn’t win again and finished 3-9.
Yet after all of that, The Athletic didn’t drop Brown a tier.
The ranking isn’t suggesting Brown is suddenly on the hot seat. The Athletic has an entire lower tier called “Tough starts and hot seats.” Brown isn’t in it.
Instead, he’s stuck somewhere in the middle — which feels appropriate.
Which Fran Brown is the real one?
That’s the enormous question 2026 could answer.
Was 2024 the beginning of something special? Brown won 10 games, developed a record-setting offense around Kyle McCord and immediately made Syracuse nationally relevant again.
Or was that season an outlier?
Even accounting for Angeli’s devastating injury, Syracuse still lost nine games last season. Brown hasn’t established enough of a track record to know which season better represents the program he’s building.
Tier 2: Mario Cristobal, James Franklin, Dabo Swinney
Tier 3: Jeff Brohm
Tier 4: Manny Diaz, Dave Doeren, Brent Key, Pat Narduzzi
Tier 5: Fran Brown
Tier 7: Bill Belichick and other coaches facing “tough starts and hot seats”
There are several ACC coaches above him in The Athletic’s tiers. Jeff Brohm sits in Tier 3, while Manny Diaz, Dave Doeren, Brent Key and Pat Narduzzi are in Tier 4.
Brown hasn’t earned that level of respect yet. But he also hasn’t lost the benefit of the doubt.
If Angeli returns healthy and Syracuse rebounds to eight or nine victories, 2025 suddenly looks like an injury-ravaged aberration.
But another four- or five-win season changes the conversation completely. Then Brown’s résumé would read:
10 wins → 3 wins → another losing season.
And that would make his magical debut look increasingly like the outlier.
Brown is definitely not coaching for his job this fall. But he could be coaching for something else:
his national reputation.
We’ve already seen what a Fran Brown Syracuse team can look like at its best and its worst.
The Athletic’s ranking suggests college football still hasn’t decided which version is the real one.
Year 3 may finally give us the answer.
