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Instant reaction to Syracuse hiring of Fran Brown as head coach. An SU grad, Damon Amendolara, gives his opinion on why if Syracuse is going to get back to being a winner in football, Brown can be the guy to do it. D.A. gives you Brown's background and his connections to try to lift the Orange out of their 20-year malaise. He draws a comparison to the Cincinnati Bearcats program.
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Look, if Syracuse football is going to work, it's going to work with somebody like Fran Brown
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I'm left to think about when I was in school back in the late 90s, early 2000s
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when the dome was packed and Syracuse was competing for Big East Conference championships
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going to the Orange Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, Big Bowl games, and there was the potential number
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two pick under center in Donovan McNabb, a perennial Pro Bowl quarterback in the NFL
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We're a long ways from that, and I think the most important thing that Syracuse can do
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is know where it resides in the food chain of college football. What you're trying to do is
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go from third tier college football to second tier. That first tier is the Alabamas, the Michigan
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Ohio State, LSUs. These are the schools like Georgia that perennially churn out
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playoff caliber teams in NFL five-star talent. Syracuse does not need to look at that
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It's that second tier that Syracuse needs to get to. This is the tier where you win
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eight to ten games a year. You go to really good bowl games occasionally once every six to eight
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years. Maybe everything aligns and you compete for the conference championship, but you're not
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supposed to be an NFL factory with five-star kids coming through. But you have really fun Saturdays
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The stadiums are usually full. If you go four and eight, the sky is falling. Where Syracuse resides
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is the third tier. That first tier are the Kings, the second tier are the Princes, the third tier
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the Paupers. This is where Syracuse resides, where you wake up on Saturday of Labor Day weekend and
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you cross your fingers hoping for six wins and a Fenway Bowl. Fenway Bowl. And that's just a
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depressing way to be. And that's the bottom tier of college football. Syracuse needs to just try to
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get to the second tier, to the Prince level. And how you do that is to understand you are a stepping
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stone school. It's okay. You can drop the ego. What you need are young coaches looking to go from
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assistant coach, tier three prove themselves, to tier two prove themselves, to tier one. You've got
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to find somebody wanting to be on the Pauper level to then get to the Prince level and ultimately the
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King level. And if you do it right and you hire the right guy, it sets the foundation for the next
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guy to do so. So look at Fran Brown. 41 years old. He is not that old, not that far removed from the
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players that he's recruiting. He grew up in the 90s and played in the early 2000s. Have a young
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man in Fran Brown who understands the Northeast. He's from New Jersey. Played high school football
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in Camden, New Jersey. You must have the New Jersey high school coaches in your corner to win
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Witness Greg Sciano 1.0 at Rutgers. The only way Syracuse can win is to get some of the four-star
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kids, a lot of the three-star kids, and maybe every so often a diamond from the New Jersey
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footprint. There's just not enough great college football talent in the state of New York
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There is in Jersey. Also, Fran Brown has what is stamped as one of those jewel brands that he's
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associated with, Georgia. So like the King level, he can go into a household, he can go into a living room
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and flash the Georgia National Championships that mean a lot to a lot of kids and it gets him in
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the door. You also have to understand the pauper level of the Northeast where you've got to just
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work harder than almost any other place in the country to win to get kids to build a sustainable
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program. He's been at Rutgers. He's been at Temple. Very similar situations to Syracuse football trying
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to elevate back to where it once was. If you're Syracuse, what you want to be is Cincinnati
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You want to be on a tier where you are a good job for a young coach looking to springboard and you
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keep finding the good young coach. I know it's a lot harder than finding one good coach, but look
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at Cincinnati. Mark D'Antonio goes into Brian Kelly, goes into Butch Jones, goes into Tommy
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Tuberville, goes into Luke Fickle. Look, if Syracuse had a run where they had Mark D'Antonio who left for
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Michigan State and Brian Kelly who left for Notre Dame and Butch Jones who left for Tennessee and
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Luke Fickle who left for Wisconsin, you'd love it. You'd love it. It meant you were doing something right
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Understanding your place in the Pantheon is where Syracuse needs to be and finding the young guy
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that starts the process is the way to do it. It might not work, but if Syracuse football is going
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to work, it's going to work because of somebody like Fran Brown. Subscribe here for more videos
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like this. I'm DA. We'll see you next time
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