Fran's Game 8 Press Conference | Va Tech

[swish7]

Im not impressed with our coaches/team out of two consecutive bye weeks. To me that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong. Maybe DART is BS. Maybe in needs more time to be implemented. Maybe Fran and company will figure it out eventually. I know one thing, well coached teams don’t usually come out of the bye and look worse than they did going in.

Am I bailing on Fran year one? No but that is a concern.

It's a huge concern and to act blind to it is telling. We haven’t had a complete game all season. That is telling. 1st year head coach who made a huuuuuge leap from a position coach. So, probably shouldn't be a surprise.

If he can recruit his way out of the situation, great. We'll know in 2 more years is my guess. The magic & connections to GA will be worked through and it will all be on Fran.

I like the words he says and hope they are backed up w better actions and results.

I hope he tweaks his staff if needed.

 

[javadoc]

It's a huge concern and to act blind to it is telling. We haven’t had a complete game all season. That is telling. 1st year head coach who made a huuuuuge leap from a position coach. So, probably shouldn't be a surprise.

If he can recruit his way out of the situation, great. We'll know in 2 more years is my guess. The magic & connections to GA will be worked through and it will all be on Fran.

I like the words he says and hope they are backed up w better actions and results.

I hope he tweaks his staff if needed.

I hope he tweaks the roster as well. We've already heard a comment about not everyone having bought into the culture halfway through the season. Just as likely that we're not done turning things over.

 

[SYRtoBOS]

Im not impressed with our coaches/team out of two consecutive bye weeks. To me that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong. Maybe DART is BS. Maybe in needs more time to be implemented. Maybe Fran and company will figure it out eventually. I know one thing, well coached teams don’t usually come out of the bye and look worse than they did going in.

Am I bailing on Fran year one? No but that is a concern.

The bigger concern for me is that when Kyle has off games/quarters, the team is ineffective at best. Without him what is this team? What is the offense? That is the scary reality that faces DART right now. If hes not at his best, other guys need to step up and they dont seem to be able to quite yet.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

It's a huge concern and to act blind to it is telling. We haven’t had a complete game all season. That is telling. 1st year head coach who made a huuuuuge leap from a position coach. So, probably shouldn't be a surprise.

If he can recruit his way out of the situation, great. We'll know in 2 more years is my guess. The magic & connections to GA will be worked through and it will all be on Fran.

I like the words he says and hope they are backed up w better actions and results.

I hope he tweaks his staff if needed.

I am curious to see how he does next year and if the O still is pass heavy without McCord.

His tenure can go in a million different directions. I don't think we will know enough until mid next year.

I do worry about the team lacking focus. Lacking fundamentals (tackling/blocking). And of course Special teams. But at the same time we have been better when it comes to fewer penalties.

When he was hired I thought of Locksley, who is 27-20 the last 4 years and 3-0 in Bowls. That looks great on the surface but he is also 12-20 in the B18. This year isn't looking good either as they will have a hard time being any better than 5-7. If Locksley has another poor year next season, he might get the axe (signed through 2027).

At least he hasn't been like Schiano with a meathead O.

 

[JRHEETER]

Im not impressed with our coaches/team out of two consecutive bye weeks. To me that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong. Maybe DART is BS. Maybe in needs more time to be implemented. Maybe Fran and company will figure it out eventually. I know one thing, well coached teams don’t usually come out of the bye and look worse than they did going in.

Am I bailing on Fran year one? No but that is a concern.

I think it’s okay to have concerns but the way that other post was written, wasn’t what you were implying.


I think we all need to remember we are currently 5-2 with a first year head coach, a first ever head coach for that sake, and we have three home games in November.

We have a chance to be 8-4, 9-3 and get a very good bowl game in the first year of a brand new head coach.

Yes, some things absolutely need to be tweeked and cleaned up but at least give the man a full year. He’s literally learning as he goes.

He’s implemented some awesome things and has certainly got some big time recruits to at the very least strongly consider Syracuse. Something we haven’t seen in a really long time.

The cake takes time to bake

 

[DoctahLexus]

The root of the problem in our two losses has been a nonexistent run game due to a weak O line. McCord is both throwing more than he should be and dealing with a great deal of pressure. Allen has had 25-30 yards in each loss. Maybe that is a bigger factor than the losses happening to be after a bye week? Bringing up the bye week thing just seems like a weird attempt to pin things entirely on coaching. I think lacking talent at key positions is still a much bigger factor.

 

[swish7]

I hope he tweaks the roster as well. We've already heard a comment about not everyone having bought into the culture halfway through the season. Just as likely that we're not done turning things over.

Nice to see an OG poster on here. Its been a minute. Hope all is good.

Agree. I fully expect him to clean house, assuming he can find replacements.

 

[swish7]

His tenure can go in a million different directions. I don't think we will know enough until mid next year.

I do worry about the team lacking focus. Lacking fundamentals (tackling/blocking). And of course Special teams. But at the same time we have been better when it comes to fewer pepenalties

Great points & agreed.

We won't need 3 years, but it will be more politically correct in 3 years.

Hope we show improvement in the fundamentals & 'coaching up'. To me, this is what the DA in dart mean.

 

[djorange1989]

One of the things people forget with a first time head coach is they have assembled a staff for the first time. You have to figure out, trial and error, who fits and who doesn’t. When you bring in a coach from elsewhere they always bring staff that they have been working with and a lot of that trial and error has been removed. Obviously there are always situations (think Dino with Ward) where things don’t work well at your new school even when you bring a guy with you. This team has a lot of flaws, and the bye week is certainly one of them, but they play hard for Fran, they need upgrades at a lot of player positions and at a couple of coaching staff positions too.

 

[Bulldog04]

One of the things people forget with a first time head coach is they have assembled a staff for the first time. You have to figure out, trial by error, who fits and who doesn’t. When you bring in a coach from elsewhere they always bring staff that they have been working with and a lot of that trial and error has been removed. Obviously there are always situations (think Dino with Ward) where things don’t work well at your new school even when you bring a guy with you. This team has a lot of flaws, and the bye week is certainly one of them, but they play hard for Fran, they need upgrades at a lot of player positions and at a couple of coaching staff positions too.

Hey hey hey calm down. This is too sensible of a post

 

[cusefan88]

One of the things people forget with a first time head coach is they have assembled a staff for the first time. You have to figure out, trial by error, who fits and who doesn’t. When you bring in a coach from elsewhere they always bring staff that they have been working with and a lot of that trial and error has been removed. Obviously there are always situations (think Dino with Ward) where things don’t work well at your new school even when you bring a guy with you. This team has a lot of flaws, and the bye week is certainly one of them, but they play hard for Fran, they need upgrades at a lot of player positions and at a couple of coaching staff positions too.

This is a 10-15 year thing. Fran is rebuilding the program. Can't wait to see how he improves as the HC and what tweaks we see for the program going forward.

 

[CbusCuse]

Im not impressed with our coaches/team out of two consecutive bye weeks. To me that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong. Maybe DART is BS. Maybe in needs more time to be implemented. Maybe Fran and company will figure it out eventually. I know one thing, well coached teams don’t usually come out of the bye and look worse than they did going in.

Am I bailing on Fran year one? No but that is a concern.

I agree in regards to not getting specials fixed quicker. But regarding our performances after byes, the issues seem to be less about us improving and more about what our opponents schemed against us defensively in those games. We adjusted in games after Stanford's defensive scheming, hopefully we can adjust after Pitt's as well. Against Pitt I was hoping that we would have been more prepared and expected teams to move to more blitz pressure with the addition of tight coverage at the line and covering the short routes and dump offs. But executing against it is another thing as there is only so much you can do successfully with a below average line and a QB who is not mobile. I was yelling for more RB screen plays which barely seemed to be called. Hopefully Wohlabauh just wasn't quite healthy enough yet, and hopefullly is and he can be the addition that leads to offensive line improvement.

Our staff seems to have adjusted defensively since game 1 against Ohio U. I'd still like to see a few more blitzes and stunts thrown in there but we have been fairly successful overall considering some injuries we've had.

 

[kcsu]

He has done an incredible job. Period. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and on one side list all of the positives that have occurred under him. Negatives on the other. Bottom line is he isn't just doing well he is crushing it.

 

[OrangePA]

He has done an incredible job. Period. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper and on one side list all of the positives that have occurred under him. Negatives on the other. Bottom line is he isn't just doing well he is crushing it.

He is doing well.

 

[oldpinepoint]

I personally miss hearing about fried noodles and movie recommendations, my Sunday night movie night had not been the same since!

 

[Irishsecra1]

I also worry about how we are coming out of our bye weeks. Though in fairness, the teams we faced also came out of bye weeks and were super motivated to beat us.
Stanford pointed to our game since the beginning of camp as the one they had to win since it was their first ACC game. and they played like it was their Super Bowl.
Pittsburgh was humiliated by their loss last year to our gadget offense with the non quarterback.
They were going to jump all over us no matter what.
That being said, I honestly don't think Fran understands the best way to use a bye week.
He said their main focus the last bye week was academics and community service.
Ok to academics but I think the best community service would have been to improve the team.
JMO

 

[JRHEETER]

Let’s also not forget that the players could have EASILY given up in that game to Pitt and just not put effort into it.

We won the 2nd half of that game and if it wasn’t for some crazy fluky INTs we probably are right in it the whole time.

Give the guy credit for keeping these kids heads into the game in a very lopsided win. We also had a coach who didn’t give up the entire time

 

[phil77]

Im not impressed with our coaches/team out of two consecutive bye weeks. To me that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong. Maybe DART is BS. Maybe in needs more time to be implemented. Maybe Fran and company will figure it out eventually. I know one thing, well coached teams don’t usually come out of the bye and look worse than they did going in.

Am I bailing on Fran year one? No but that is a concern.

This is a big concern to me as well. I would think with an extra week of practice a lot of issues/problems would be cleaned up according to Fran's DART motto but I see a team that looks unprepared for the opponent and the same problems repeating themselves from previous weeks.

 

[baggerbob]

The root of the problem in our two losses has been a nonexistent run game due to a weak O line. McCord is both throwing more than he should be and dealing with a great deal of pressure. Allen has had 25-30 yards in each loss. Maybe that is a bigger factor than the losses happening to be after a bye week? Bringing up the bye week thing just seems like a weird attempt to pin things entirely on coaching. I think lacking talent at key positions is still a much bigger factor.

Allen is a warrior, but not an exceptional runner. He is a good to great receiver, and that's probably his best shot in the NFL.

 

[007]

He is doing well.

Agreed. I fully support that Fans are entitled to have their own definition of what constitutes "well."

One man's opinion, but the talk of "minimal" expectations of 8-4, comparing win totals to last season, claims that the teams left on the schedule mostly stink, and the like, lack an understanding/appreciation (maybe acceptance is a better word) of how late to the table the university is in terms of devoting resources to facilities, AND to support staff additions, AND to NIL. This is in addition to the challenges of a first time HC and all new staff, as well as the very real lack of quality depth and playmakers on this roster.

Some will likely see a lot of that as excuse making, or point out exceptions where there have been immediate turn arounds. I see them more as contributing reasons for why things are the way they are at this moment.

Fran is doing well to date at navigating those challenges, IMO. That is not to say that we should be content. From what I know, Fran is definitely not content. He, and the university, still have a ways to go.

 

[CusefanATL]

I am curious to see how he does next year and if the O still is pass heavy without McCord.

Look for a some PBJ pass heavy offense next year.

Steve Angeli

fightingirish.com

 

[CNYGuy]

Nothing is built overnight. 8+ wins (after two 6+ win seasons) would be a big step for the program. We've had 1 (2018) 8+ win regular season in the last 23 years and it was sandwiched between losing seasons. 8 would be something rarely done recently. 3 bowls in a row hasn't been done in significantly longer. Huge for us to keep compounding winning years to get to where we want to be.

 

[Chip]

One of the things people forget with a first time head coach is they have assembled a staff for the first time. You have to figure out, trial and error, who fits and who doesn’t. When you bring in a coach from elsewhere they always bring staff that they have been working with and a lot of that trial and error has been removed. Obviously there are always situations (think Dino with Ward) where things don’t work well at your new school even when you bring a guy with you. This team has a lot of flaws, and the bye week is certainly one of them, but they play hard for Fran, they need upgrades at a lot of player positions and at a couple of coaching staff positions too.

Yeah, Marrone hired Rob Spence. 10 games and 8,000 tunnel screens later he took over the reigns himself and fixed the glitch.

Fran will figure out what works and what doesn't work.

 

[orangecuse]

I think it’s okay to have concerns but the way that other post was written, wasn’t what you were implying.


I think we all need to remember we are currently 5-2 with a first year head coach, a first ever head coach for that sake, and we have three home games in November.

We have a chance to be 8-4, 9-3 and get a very good bowl game in the first year of a brand new head coach.

Yes, some things absolutely need to be tweeked and cleaned up but at least give the man a full year. He’s literally learning as he goes.

He’s implemented some awesome things and has certainly got some big time recruits to at the very least strongly consider Syracuse. Something we haven’t seen in a really long time.

The cake takes time to bake

The sentiment you post is reasonable for sure. However, I wonder if Fran adds any caveat to his very own words he uttered just before the season commenced, specifically relative to the year's "success."

I'm going to show you what success is. See that on my [wall] up there? Do you see that [points his camera to two photos of Syracuse's only two undefeated teams in 1987 and 1959]? 1959. 1987. That's success. That's what [success] is for me because that's why I was hired. I wasn't hired here to be anything less than that. So when that doesn't happen, that's what I feel success is, I put a lot of pressure and weight on myself because I can handle it. To whom much is given, much is required."

"So that's success to me. I'm not going to sit in here, like I told you guys when we were on the show before, I think it was us and coach Robinson, I'm not going to tell you 8-4 is successful." ~ Fran Brown.

 

[CbusCuse]

The sentiment you post is reasonable for sure. However, I wonder if Fran adds any caveat to his very own words he uttered just before the season commenced, specifically relative to the year's "success."

I'm going to show you what success is. See that on my [wall] up there? Do you see that [points his camera to two photos of Syracuse's only two undefeated teams in 1987 and 1959]? 1959. 1987. That's success. That's what [success] is for me because that's why I was hired. I wasn't hired here to be anything less than that. So when that doesn't happen, that's what I feel success is, I put a lot of pressure and weight on myself because I can handle it. To whom much is given, much is required."

"So that's success to me. I'm not going to sit in here, like I told you guys when we were on the show before, I think it was us and coach Robinson, I'm not going to tell you 8-4 is successful." ~ Fran Brown.

He’s not going to say 8-4 is successful. He’ll say it was an improvement over last year but we didn’t reach our goals. I’m good with that mentality.