Syracuse's Comeback over Miami Felt like the Old Days

All right

I wanted to take a moment to talk a little college football here for a moment

I'm reping my Syracuse Orange. And before the season began, Fran Brown was hired as a complete unknown as a coaching entity

He had been an assistant coach at Georgia, but never a head coach

And a lot of Syracuse fans said, who's that guy? And understandably, there was scoffing

when Fran Brown came in and talked tough. Okay, he talked about winning a championship

championships at Syracuse, football once. And this was a first time head coach

that nobody knew from a hole in the wall and people said, what's this guy talking about

What's this guy? He's getting ahead of himself. And I had a lot of my friends who are Syracuse fans

who went to school with me, et cetera, say, what do you think about the hire

I don't know about this guy. I've never heard of this guy. Can't we get a guy that somebody

you know, he's been a head coach before, et cetera? And I said, the best thing Syracuse can do

is find a head coach that's better than the job. And that's not what people want to hear

when you've had Dwight Freeney and Donovan McNabb, when you've played in a Sugar Bowl

albeit a long time ago. But, you know, you had Jim Brown there and John Mackey and Art Muck and all of these legends of the game Floyd Little It not what people want to hear But the truth of the matter is Syracuse football has been down long enough to where they needed a guy who was better than the job

Eventually, eventually. You're not trying to hire a guy for 15 years or 25 years

You're trying to hire a guy for five. And I said, this is worth it

This is worth the chance. Why? Because of two things. Number one, he had instant credibility on the recruiting trail because he came from a dynasty, a current dynasty in Georgia

And he knew Jersey. And you've got to get Jersey kids. At Syracuse, you're not going to go to Texas and get a bunch of kids

You're not going to go to California, get a bunch of kids. And oftentimes, your Pennsylvania kids, your Ohio kids, who are very good, end up going to Penn State, Ohio State, big 10 schools, etc

So what you have to do is you have to find Jersey kids

Because in Jersey, they play really good high school football, much better than the state of New York

And he had Jersey ties to get into that Catholic Jersey pipeline. And you have to be able to flip a couple of kids in the portal and make them believe

Fran Brown believes himself and he found Kyle McCord, the Ohio State quarterback

And gosh darn it, these two guys, Kyle McCord and Fran Brown's

deserve so much credit because what happened yesterday at the carrier dome now the JMA wireless dome against Miami was hard back to the old days You know I went to school and it was the McNabb years

And before me was the Marvin Graves years. And before that was the Dom McPherson years

I had heard and seen all the videos, the photos of the 87 squad that had the, you know, the

incredible, undefeated regular season, only go to the Sugar Bowl and have a tie against

Auburn. I saw the grainy photos of Jim Brown playing at Archbold Stadium. I knew the history and I saw

and it was all around us and it was about finding the next great players. And that was my era of

Syracuse football. The last 20 years since I graduated in 01 has been a lot of bad, a lot of bad and

not a lot of great and not a lot of belief and not a lot of anything. And it was struggling to get

to six wins and a Carquest Bowl. A pinstright ball. A pinstright ball

just ended up being the best thing ever. And Fran Brown said that's not enough

And he just went out in year number one. He won nine football games and beat Miami to knock up out of the ACC championship game at the Carrier Dome coming back from down 21 points

21 nothing they trailed. And they never gave up. And they looked Miami square in the eye down 21 nothing and said we're still coming

And that is a testament to Fran Brown. that a testament to a guy that believed when nobody else did And I just found his attitude to be contagious

It is just flat out contagious to have a guy that believes more than you think you are

you are, and that you're capable of. And that's him. And after the game, when he's speaking to the sideline reporter

and he's looking to the camera and saying, hey, dabbo, you owe me. That's for you

now you're in the ACC championship game. You know, that's interesting. That's kind of funny

Like, I got the big picture. Okay, this is not just about us

I know what this meant. And dabbo, now you're in. They took pride of knocking Miami out of that ACC title game

And I also thought it was very smart. But after the game, he thanked Kirby for sending him a message

You know, that's a big moment. And it's like, oh, for kids watching. Oh, yeah

He's down with Kirby. Okay. the Kirby wins titles. Okay. You know, and Kyle McCord on a day where Ohio State

struggled to score 10 points and losing against Michigan, for McCord to go out there and do what he did

and launch that comeback and beat Miami a top 10 team number six

in front of a full house. That's a special moment, too. So McCord and Fran Brown are the rest of those guys

They deserve a lot of credit. But McCord and Fran Brown specifically showed up saying

we're going to change things around here. And they did. Go Orange. Fram Brown said Syracuse is back

Wouldn't that be nice