Darrell Gill Jr. transferring to Ole Miss

[sufan59]

llandz its certainly been a little bit of a trend lately where some folks are waiting for Fran to “soften up” and smell the roses a little bit and it’s not happening and it’s starting to rub some people the wrong way. Some people are okay with the toughness and think it’s “what we need” so there’s always 2 sides (of that story). Tough to hear about that story about Gill as he seemed like a really good kid…

There was a story floating around about Mike Hart and Fran that made Fran not look so great and it made a lot of locals quite mad. So as much as I love Fran, seems like it’s gotta be dialed back and you have to treat your players the right way
No matter what

I would imagine they have reporting mechanisms for when things cross a line. There is always room for Fran to get better and be better on these things. It’s also P4 conference football. We have people complaining about our QB3 potentially being an Oregon backup that was passed over by a walk on. This is a high pressure job and competitive environment. I personally am hopeful things will get better once Fran is completely surrounded by players and coaches who rock with him, it takes time to get that right. When it is right you have a good culture. If it doesn’t work, he won’t last after the next 2 years I would guess maximum. If he is really crosses lines whatever that would mean I would hope it’s getting reported and the disciplinary action is taken. Until then, I just keep a reminder that this is football. But you know, it sucks to lose Gill from the fan perspective, but when your adding 4 and 5 star wide receivers from High School and guys who were 4 star wide receivers in the portal, it seems clear he has a plan and is trying to execute it.

 

[Blanko97]

Well this sounds to me Fran specifically wanted him gone. I’ve said before and you see it based on mainly the upperclassmen leaving to the portal, I don’t think he liked how many the older players on the team handled the Angeli injury situation. How, I don’t know, just an outsider, but just look on who was prioritized to stay in the program. He’s preached this before, but he expects a lot more from the older guys who are on his team more than what you can produce on the field. He wants tough leaders as Juniors and Seniors.

lol how the PLAYERS handled it? He quit on the season. He can get bent if he thinks the players should be held to a higher standard than himself. I saw all I needed to last year and Llandz’ story just confirms that sometimes there’s a reason guys don’t move up the chain.

 

[MSOrange]

Gill had 7 figure offers on the table almost from day one of the portal. Ohio State was late to the game. He was already down to his final 3 earlier this week, all with 7 figure offers. His final 3 were Ol Miss, Oregon and Washington. He turned down Indiana, Louisville and Michigan among others. He had also been contacted by QBs in the portal to see if they could go someplace together.
He was asked back by Fran, and everything was great but during another conversation with Fran a couple of days later, Fran started saying very bad things about Darrell. This was after Gill asked how to better prepare for the NFL and how could Fran help him to prepare. I don't know if Fran didn't like the question, but all of a sudden he said terrible things to Darrell. The horrible comments were repeated by Fran to a family member, and then before entering the transfer portal Darrell hired his agent, and asked the agent to call Fran. The agent confirmed that Fran said terrible things about him, and never heard such vile language from a college coach about one of their players. Darrell had no idea what set this off, but felt very disrespected by his coach, and that is why he left.
We were paying him zero NIL, but even last year he had offers and came back to Syracuse with no NIL money. Nixon and the assistants were calling him almost daily, but not a word from Fran Brown. Fran basically ruined Gill coming back.
I still hope Fran works out. But others have told me they have heard similar stories regarding other players on our team. Fran needs to learn how to operate with a little more tact.
And that is the story in a very condensed version. I am leaving out all that was said. But hopefully this explains why Darrell loves SU and wanted to stay at SU, and also all of the comments about money or the "bag" were just not true. But in the end, I guess he really found out his worth. Because he never found out his worth at SU.

Interesting story. Sounds like there is a chance IthacaBarrel's feeling about Fran might not have been as far off base as some thought it was, including me.

 

[illi3]

So we all know Javon will be linking to this on Twitter and have a PS story up by end of day, right?

 

[richmondcuse03]

Guys. Players get paid some revenue share plus NIL for endorsements. NIL isn’t representative of all the money a player can get.

NIL is bonus money within this context.

Correct. Lot of inaccuracies on here about who’s getting money and not.

NIL is supposed to be approved through the clearing house to reflect a players true marketing value. In exchange you have to do marketing work with the businesses that contractually sign with the collective.

A lot of schools are blatantly breaking the rules but of course nothing will ever happen because the entire thing is a joke. Best thing for players and the schools that can’t help themselves is a CBA and a real spending cap.

A lot of players are not worth 7 figure NIL deals. They may be worth it in terms of the market for playing or for rev share purposes but certainly not marketing. But if the caps were real, the market would adjust.

For example - if you were doing a marketing deal for an influencer online, you wouldn’t think of doing a deal for someone with 4k followers on instagram. Not saying I support any of this because I think it’s all insane.

 

[illi3]

lol how the PLAYERS handled it? He quit on the season. He can get bent if he thinks the players should be held to a higher standard than himself. I saw all I needed to last year and Llandz’ story just confirms that sometimes there’s a reason guys don’t move up the chain.

I'm reading into this above my pay grade, but if the story is accurate (and I have ZERO reason to think it's not), then it seems like Fran got angry that Gill may be looking past next season to the draft. Which is ironic since, as we all know and you stated here, he did the same damn thing with the back half of the 2025 season. Again, I may be wrong but that's my quick 6am interpretation of it.

 

[OrlandoCuse]

Gill had 7 figure offers on the table almost from day one of the portal. Ohio State was late to the game. He was already down to his final 3 earlier this week, all with 7 figure offers. His final 3 were Ol Miss, Oregon and Washington. He turned down Indiana, Louisville and Michigan among others. He had also been contacted by QBs in the portal to see if they could go someplace together.
He was asked back by Fran, and everything was great but during another conversation with Fran a couple of days later, Fran started saying very bad things about Darrell. This was after Gill asked how to better prepare for the NFL and how could Fran help him to prepare. I don't know if Fran didn't like the question, but all of a sudden he said terrible things to Darrell. The horrible comments were repeated by Fran to a family member, and then before entering the transfer portal Darrell hired his agent, and asked the agent to call Fran. The agent confirmed that Fran said terrible things about him, and never heard such vile language from a college coach about one of their players. Darrell had no idea what set this off, but felt very disrespected by his coach, and that is why he left.
We were paying him zero NIL, but even last year he had offers and came back to Syracuse with no NIL money. Nixon and the assistants were calling him almost daily, but not a word from Fran Brown. Fran basically ruined Gill coming back.
I still hope Fran works out. But others have told me they have heard similar stories regarding other players on our team. Fran needs to learn how to operate with a little more tact.
And that is the story in a very condensed version. I am leaving out all that was said. But hopefully this explains why Darrell loves SU and wanted to stay at SU, and also all of the comments about money or the "bag" were just not true. But in the end, I guess he really found out his worth. Because he never found out his worth at SU.

Yikes. Not good

 

[Irishsecra1]

Well based on how Fran handled the team after Collins imploded, I am not surprised at all.
If anyone quit on the team, it was Fran.
And based on this, his wierd treatment of Carney makes more sense,

Frans job is to to not only win but to prepare his players for the NFL.
To apparently find Gills request an insult means he will have serious issues holding on to his truly talented players.
Fran needs to really grow up!

I hope Gill does great things at Ole Miss.

 

[JarHeadJim]

 

[shu 49]

I am a Fran fan but this isn’t good. My idea of a coach is someone who helps these kids be the best they can be. Why wouldn’t Fran want him back and help him get ready for NFL. Fran is an idiot. Why would u get mad at that, it’s literally your job to help these kids. Kirby wouldn’t do this crap. It’s gonna get around and no one is gonna want to come here. WTH. I had high hopes with this guy. He just made next year harder bye not keeping his best receiver with the most experience. Plain DUMB.

 

[OrangeTown]

Did you not say before he was not getting paid here??

She did say that. I see nothing in her post that you quoted contradicting that.

 

[orangmannc1]

Gill had 7 figure offers on the table almost from day one of the portal. Ohio State was late to the game. He was already down to his final 3 earlier this week, all with 7 figure offers. His final 3 were Ol Miss, Oregon and Washington. He turned down Indiana, Louisville and Michigan among others. He had also been contacted by QBs in the portal to see if they could go someplace together.
He was asked back by Fran, and everything was great but during another conversation with Fran a couple of days later, Fran started saying very bad things about Darrell. This was after Gill asked how to better prepare for the NFL and how could Fran help him to prepare. I don't know if Fran didn't like the question, but all of a sudden he said terrible things to Darrell. The horrible comments were repeated by Fran to a family member, and then before entering the transfer portal Darrell hired his agent, and asked the agent to call Fran. The agent confirmed that Fran said terrible things about him, and never heard such vile language from a college coach about one of their players. Darrell had no idea what set this off, but felt very disrespected by his coach, and that is why he left.
We were paying him zero NIL, but even last year he had offers and came back to Syracuse with no NIL money. Nixon and the assistants were calling him almost daily, but not a word from Fran Brown. Fran basically ruined Gill coming back.
I still hope Fran works out. But others have told me they have heard similar stories regarding other players on our team. Fran needs to learn how to operate with a little more tact.
And that is the story in a very condensed version. I am leaving out all that was said. But hopefully this explains why Darrell loves SU and wanted to stay at SU, and also all of the comments about money or the "bag" were just not true. But in the end, I guess he really found out his worth. Because he never found out his worth at SU.

Thank your for sharing. Not sure what Fran is thinking here.

"I still hope Fran works out. But others have told me they have heard similar stories regarding other players on our team. Fran needs to learn how to operate with a little more tact."

Seems that Fran needs to grow up as well. Next 12 months will tell if Fran is the coach that we hope he can be.

 

[Hawknate144]

Thank your for sharing. Not sure what Fran is thinking here.

"I still hope Fran works out. But others have told me they have heard similar stories regarding other players on our team. Fran needs to learn how to operate with a little more tact."

Seems that Fran needs to grow up as well. Next 12 months will tell if Fran is the coach that we hope he can be.

I think that can be said for a lot of things, not just player interactions.

 

[Archbold44]

Well based on how Fran handled the team after Collins imploded, I am not surprised at all.
If anyone quit on the team, it was Fran.
And based on this, his wierd treatment of Carney makes more sense,

Frans job is to to not only win but to prepare his players for the NFL.
To apparently find Gills request an insult means he will have serious issues holding on to his truly talented players.
Fran needs to really grow up!

I hope Gill does great things at Ole Miss.

I am sure that there are two sides to every story. Suppose Gill's questions were seeking assurances from Fran that was going to address the QB#2 situation to help Gill use 2026 to elevate his draft stock. That seems to be in the same spirit of the Pena conversation that everyone dismissed as untrue because Fran said it wasn't.

But we are seeing a bit of a trend here... where Fran has a dark side. He could not handle someone going to the portal last year without telling him first. But if players go to him first about the portal to talk to him like a Dad, he runs them off. He put his faith into Collins and then got upset that Pena called him out on it. And then when Angeli got hurt and Collins was not nearly as good as Angeli, he was not going to let the fans have their wish of seeing Carney. He will lose games to not placate fans and players. Any fan can appreciate the coach being a hard-liner when it comes to PT and effort... i.e. JB benching guys for taking ill-advised shots. That is part of the game. Fans tend to like the notion of coaches holding players accountable.

Acting like an entitled, spoiled brat is not. Acting like the player's Dads in public, and then a selfish, uncaring stepdad behind closed doors is hypocrisy. Everyone is a shell of the image they project. Everyone. But not everyone is on a stage where it will be exposed to the detriment of many. Agents and coaches will not hesitate to share these stories. We are a P4 team. There will always be players looking for a chance to play on the stage we have set up. But we will start to get a reputation that interferes with the product we are capable of putting on the field. I don't see how it works long term though.

A lot of talk on this board about how Syracuse cannot give guys like Cook a chance. At a minimum, we need a coach that shows the character we hope that the kids with character issues will develop. And let's really hope there is a better second side to this story...

 

[sufan59]

lol how the PLAYERS handled it? He quit on the season. He can get bent if he thinks the players should be held to a higher standard than himself. I saw all I needed to last year and Llandz’ story just confirms that sometimes there’s a reason guys don’t move up the chain.

He’s the head coach, he’s not going to fire himself. He held players and coaches accountable for what happened down the stretch of the season, he took responsibility. At some point he himself will be held accountable if he doesn’t turn it around results wise. And yes glad you got your confirmation bias you’ve been be looking for. If things cross a line, you would hope it’s getting reported and any disciplinary action that needs to be taken is taken. Whether you think it’s right or not, what Fran has said how things were going to be handled in press conferences and interviews is essentially how they are being handled in action. Again, whether it works we will find out.

 

[Chip]

Correct. Lot of inaccuracies on here about who’s getting money and not.

NIL is supposed to be approved through the clearing house to reflect a players true marketing value. In exchange you have to do marketing work with the businesses that contractually sign with the collective.

A lot of schools are blatantly breaking the rules but of course nothing will ever happen because the entire thing is a joke. Best thing for players and the schools that can’t help themselves is a CBA and a real spending cap.

A lot of players are not worth 7 figure NIL deals. They may be worth it in terms of the market for playing or for rev share purposes but certainly not marketing. But if the caps were real, the market would adjust.

For example - if you were doing a marketing deal for an influencer online, you wouldn’t think of doing a deal for someone with 4k followers on instagram. Not saying I support any of this because I think it’s all insane.

You mean to tell me that the Deloitte interns and fresh out of college auditors aren't holding these teams to the NIL standards that have been set forth by the leaderless NCAA?

 

[javadoc]

He’s the head coach, he’s not going to fire himself. He held players and coaches accountable for what happened down the stretch of the season, he took responsibility. At some point he himself will be held accountable if he doesn’t turn it around results wise. And yes glad you got your confirmation bias you’ve been be looking for. If things cross a line, you would hope it’s getting reported and any disciplinary action that needs to be taken is taken. Whether you think it’s right or not, what Fran has said how things were going to be handled in press conferences and interviews is essentially how they are being handled in action. Again, whether it works we will find out.

50 points for (seemingly) proper use of the term "confirmation bias".

 

[SU68]

I never realized how many members on this forum have been involved in contract negotiations and know all the $$ amounts!

 

[Archbold44]

He’s the head coach, he’s not going to fire himself. He held players and coaches accountable for what happened down the stretch of the season, he took responsibility. At some point he himself will be held accountable if he doesn’t turn it around results wise. And yes glad you got your confirmation bias you’ve been be looking for. If things cross a line, you would hope it’s getting reported and any disciplinary action that needs to be taken is taken. Whether you think it’s right or not, what Fran has said how things were going to be handled in press conferences and interviews is essentially how they are being handled in action. Again, whether it works we will find out.

This Gill issue, if true, is not something that results can/should fix. Because results do not fix problems... they hide them.

 

[cali315phan]

I'm starting to feel like maybe year 1 was a fluke and Fran may be DARTing to a new home within 2 years.

 

[HyattsCuse]

Interesting to read about some of the things people have heard about Fran.

I’m getting some Tom Coughlin type vibes. Seems like the strict/tough style works in times of success, but can wear on people when things aren’t going well.

Did 10-3 give Fran that confirmation that his style works only to find it doesn’t work as well coming off 3-9? It took a few years for Coughlin’s approach to wear on people, but I suspect that gets old much quicker in present portal/NIL times.

 

[Blanko97]

He’s the head coach, he’s not going to fire himself. He held players and coaches accountable for what happened down the stretch of the season, he took responsibility. At some point he himself will be held accountable if he doesn’t turn it around results wise. And yes glad you got your confirmation bias you’ve been be looking for. If things cross a line, you would hope it’s getting reported and any disciplinary action that needs to be taken is taken. Whether you think it’s right or not, what Fran has said how things were going to be handled in press conferences and interviews is essentially how they are being handled in action. Again, whether it works we will find out.

it’s not really what I think is right, he’s just clearly the one in the wrong. There is seemingly nothing that gill did to indicate there was an accountability issue, he wanted to think about his future, a very fair thing to talk about with someone who is supposed to guide you on your path to a career.

 

[Archbold44]

Interesting to read about some of the things people have heard about Fran.

I’m getting some Tom Coughlin type vibes. Seems like the strict/tough style works in times of success, but can wear on people when things aren’t going well.

Did 10-3 give Fran that confirmation that his style works only to find it doesn’t work as well coming off 3-9? It took a few years for Coughlin’s approach to wear on people, but I suspect that gets old much quicker in present portal/NIL times.

It is one thing to be a hard-nosed coach with no tolerance for poor play or poor effort. It is hard enough to pull that off in the modern era--college or pro. But I am failing to see what Gill did wrong here.

 

[Bayside44]

A lot of our players don't get anything. It seems NIL is used to bring players in. The Babers players never had that chance. He did get that profit sharing thing with the school this year, but not NIL money. Eventually that probably won't be a problem. Anyone decent will have come in as a freshman or through the portal and will get paid.

Unless something has radically changed we were doing a minimum of around 60K for the back half of the roster.

 

[sufan59]

This Gill issue, if true, is not something that results can/should fix. Because results do not fix problems... they hide them.

This could be about Fran continuing to fill his roster with his guys and the staff with his guys that see eye to eye with him on process and how things need to operate day to day. People that see eye to eye with him. If he does that these problems will be less and hopefully a non issue moving forward. Darrell Gill seems like a great football player and person and could easily be NFL bound. Fran clearly didn’t see the value in maintaining the relationship and keeping him around. It’s best for both parties to move on in these situations. Fran will be held accountable if he crosses a line or doesn’t produce results on the football field.