Fran Brown

[CuseCrew08]

Fran is way down my list of candidates... Don't see him being ready... Maybe he is all we can afford.

But if he is hired I will take my medicine and convince myself the handful of 4* recruits he brings in is going to turn around the program. (sad face)

 

[jgeorge322]

Fran Brown is kind of the mold of a Dion Sanders, Juwan Howard, Penny Hardaway. I kind of like it. Not saying he is those guys, but the idea is they are expected to bring in players and then you surround them with great coordinators support staff.

I know JW likes our assistants. I just don’t think he respected Dino as much. He said he doesn’t think were that far off. Maybe he intends on keeping the staff relatively in tact and thats part of negotiations w Fran.

 

[JackBauer44]

I’ve talked myself into believing this could work.

Needs to really hit on the coordinator positions. I like this much more than Chesney. I know for a fact we would have lost a lot of offensive starters if he was the hire.

Brown has the reputation to put this roster in a good spot come the fall.

I have the feeling we at either hitting a home run or striking out. There’s no in between.

Should be an interesting offseason, that’s for sure.

 

[Reilly35]

There is this:

It shouldn’t be hard to recruit for any of those schools. $$

 

[Frozen]

It shouldn’t be hard to recruit for any of those schools. $$

Brown was considered to be an elite recruiter before he got to UGA.

 

[Cuse4455]

 

[Dmcnabbrules]

So I would have never guessed that Fran Brown would be the lead candidate 48 hours ago. I believe at least one person who was considered any early favorite wasn’t interested. Really curious to see who the coordinators are. This gives you a great chance to keep LeQuint.
Also I have added so many new people to ignore in the last seven days. It’s very refreshing.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I’m going to have to completely disagree with the bold. Any coach in the universe of any sport will tell you they can’t be an elite program without top talent. If you don’t Have talent to develop, then you have a very low ceiling for growth. Right now I firmly believe a huge part of our problem is a talent deficiency, particularly at key offensive positions, and depth virtually everywhere. Brown (or insert another recruiter) can help fix that.

now if you (or anyone else for that matter) believes we actually are a top 5 - 9 talented team in the ACC right now and are merely underperforming due to gross coaching negligence, than I would be more inclined to agree with your stance. But I just dont see us that way right now.

You completely missed the point. The difference between the 6th most talented ACC team and the 12th most talented ACC team will be minimal. When the talent is on par, coaching matters. We aren't going to have a talent advantage, so then what?

To think we can have elite talent at SU is laughable. If that is the thought process here, we have idiots running our FB program. We are not ever going to have Clemson or FSU talent.

 

[McNabb2Brominski]

The first 2-3 years whomever is the HC will need to coach up bottom half of the ACC talent. We aren't getting top talent over night. If they survive that, then things can take off.

Eh, with transfer portal and unlimited transfer rules you can change a roster pretty quickly

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Brown is a slightly better recruiter and less experienced coach than Ash, yet people are loving Brown?

 

[IthacaMatt]

Thank you. Cuse is a bottom level P5 program. If Brown stinks Cuse is in the same place.

I'll bet the University is glad they've spent all this money on sports-related facilities upgrades, then.

 

[Toga]

Regardless of whether it's Chesney or Brown, they're going to need to bring in a set of coaches. Chesney can't bring an entire Patriot League staff. Brown can't bring his staff because he doesn't have one. So which guy likely has the most contacts among quality staff candidates? I would have to go with Brown on that.

 

[CuseBlood44]

I’m going to have to completely disagree with the bold. Any coach in the universe of any sport will tell you they can’t be an elite program without top talent. If you don’t Have talent to develop, then you have a very low ceiling for growth. Right now I firmly believe a huge part of our problem is a talent deficiency, particularly at key offensive positions, and depth virtually everywhere. Brown (or insert another recruiter) can help fix that.

now if you (or anyone else for that matter) believes we actually are a top 5 - 9 talented team in the ACC right now and are merely underperforming due to gross coaching negligence, than I would be more inclined to agree with your stance. But I just dont see us that way right now.

Texas A&M had all the talent in the world and still couldn’t win under Jimbo. Culture and coaching matters just as much as talent

 

[Cuseman78]

Mullen was the Home Run hire, there's no doubt. Disappointed that we couldn't land him.

But since that ship has sailed, with the remainder of the reported candidates, I like the fact that we're going after an ace recruiter. As we enter the Portal era, which is sure to be insane, we need to have a leader who can CLOSE.

All of the other stuff, is he a good gameday coach?, who will be the coordinators?, etc, will work itself out.

In the meantime, Brown will get us some dudes this offseason, and keep a ton of our Jersey guys (LQA, Clark, etc). Good time to have a weak schedule in '24 so he can get off to a good start and then really crank up recruiting.

Big fan of this hire. High risk, high reward. Very un-Syracuse. Kudos to Wildhack if this happens.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Eh, with transfer portal and unlimited transfer rules you can change a roster pretty quickly

The Top portal kids are not going to mid level programs. We aren't going to get kids that make us a Top 5 ACC team on talent alone. Football factory rejects aren't going to make us on par with a football factory.

 

[CU44SE]

On one side you have people saying we needed to hire a solid coach to keep the team in tact. Then on the other side you hear we needed to hire this recruiter because we need to increase the quality of player.

Bottom line, people will talk themselves into anything. Hope I’m wrong. But I just can’t fathom where Syracuse is in the pecking order right now. We may be in the P5, soon to be P4, yet we are probably like the 85th place to coach.

I was on board for Chesney because of what he built and how he did it multiple times. But ultimately, the candidates all had flaws. And if this is truly the final 3, there is a major perception problem with the program. Candle who has been at Toledo for several years on autopilot since Campbell left and has been up and down. Chesney who is an FCS coach, and Brown a guy that has never been a primary offensive or defensive coordinator.

Hitting me pretty hard right now at how far we have fallen. Night everyone.

 

[kcsu]

Going from the bottom of the ACC to 9th (exact middle) would be a minor miracle. We would need to call him Saint Fran. But being 9th cannot win you games on talent alone.

There is a ton of parity in the ACC outside the Top 2-3 teams and the bottom 2-3 teams. Talent isn't going to make a difference. Coaching is what will. Going for a talent guy makes no sense whatsoever.

If Chesney is not qualified enough, fine don't hire him. But you don't go out an hire another unqualified guy. There are easily a half dozen better candidates.

I dont agree. JB made his bones as a recruiter. He became a great coach over time but in the early years he did well because he landed some very talented players.

 

[sdhall01]

Mullen was the Home Run hire, there's no doubt. Disappointed that we couldn't land him.

But since that ship has sailed, with the remainder of the reported candidates, I like the fact that we're going after an ace recruiter. As we enter the Portal era, which is sure to be insane, we need to have a leader who can CLOSE.

All of the other stuff, is he a good gameday coach?, who will be the coordinators?, etc, will work itself out.

In the meantime, Brown will get us some dudes this offseason, and keep a ton of our Jersey guys (LQA, Clark, etc). Good time to have a weak schedule in '24 so he can get off to a good start and then really crank up recruiting.

Big fan of this hire. High risk, high reward. Very un-Syracuse. Kudos to Wildhack if this happens.

There's a very real chance that we recruit exactly 0 additional highly rated players for next year at this point in the cycle.

EDIT: And that has nothing to do with Brown's abilities. It's just super late.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The first 2-3 years whomever is the HC will need to coach up bottom half of the ACC talent. We aren't getting top talent over night. If they survive that, then things can take off.

We can dramatically improve through the portal immediately.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

I dont agree. JB made his bones as a recruiter. He became a great coach over time but in the early years he did well because he landed some very talented players.

You can change the direction of a BBall program with one player. In FB you need at least a dozen of those.

 

[illi3]

Texas A&M had all the talent in the world and still couldn’t win under Jimbo. Culture and coaching matters just as much as talent

So I guess my only thought is to ask how you know exactly that Brown can’t create a culture or that he can’t coach? No one here knows anything about those yet; both TBD. Obviously this guy did something in his multiple conversations with the AD that led him to believe he’s the guy. That’s enough for me at the moment. It’s Wildhacks rep and career on the line so I’m comfortable and confident that he knows more than we do. Either way, my rear end will still be there.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

We can dramatically improve through the portal immediately.

Which mid level programs have thus far? We are trying to do what every other mid level program is and none has been successful at yet.

 

[Cuseman78]

There's a very real chance that we recruit exactly 0 additional highly rated players for next year at this point in the cycle.

You're thinking like it's 2015. Have you seen how many dudes just entered the Portal today? We're in a free agency scenario here - high school recruiting is way way less important than ever.

 

[UnknownOrange]

To me, Chesney is a Vanderbilt kind of hire, and Brown has the upside of Mike Locksley.

Vanderbilt is awful and Locksley is going to his 3rd straight bowl after winning 2 in a row

What point are you even making here

 

[JDubbin]

It’s so wild to me that posters on here are seemingly demeaning Fran Brown’s ability to recruit… like that doesn’t matter for Syracuse football. Really? The risk is we don’t know what is X & O’s/running a program abilities are… what if he’s great at it? You add that, WITH his recruiting chops & it’s an exciting risk to get behind. Syracuse needs to do something different than we have for 20+ years… this is something different & out of the box from my perspective.