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[QUOTE="richmondcuse03, post: 5226686, member: 984"]
FB got a nice mention in mandel’s athletic mailbag today. That’s the extent of the positive vibes it seems.

[B]Which first-year coach — other than Curt Cignetti — have you been most impressed with this season? And which have you been most disappointed with? — Andrew, Chicago[/B]

I’m impressed by Syracuse’s Fran Brown. I admittedly knew next to nothing about the former Rutgers and Georgia secondary coach when Syracuse hired him, but he quickly made his mark in the transfer portal, landing former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord; then in recruiting, where a program that previously ranked in the 50s or 60s nationally is looking at a second straight year in the mid-30s; and now on the field.

Syracuse, 6-2, has two very bad losses, at home against Stanford (now 2-7) and 41-13 at Pitt two week ago, but it won at UNLV and beat Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. With games remaining at Boston College, at Cal and against UConn, before closing against Miami, the Orange have a good shot to win eight games for just the second time since joining the ACC in 2013.

Note: Brown may be the perfect example of my belief that being a good coordinator is not an indicator of whether someone will be a good head coach. The 42-year-old New Jersey native had never been a coordinator. But as ESPN’s Andrea Adelson reported this spring, “On his iPad, (Brown) has folders from every stop along the way, with notes, schedules, schemes, reminders and plans for how he would run his own program.”

Syracuse AD John Wildhack was an unconventional hire, having spent the entirety of his career at ESPN. Credit to him for looking in a less obvious place.
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