Fran Brown Hired as Syracuse Football Head Coach

The Georgia defensive backs coach comes back to the Northeast to coach the Orange.

Mike McAllister | Nov 28, 2023

Fran Brown Hired as Syracuse Football Head Coach /

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Syracuse Orange

Syracuse football has hired Fran Brown as its next head coach. The school made the official announcement Tuesday evening. Brown was the defensive backs coach at Georgia the last two seasons, including winning a National Championship in 2022. This is his first head coaching gig.

"I am incredibly proud to be leading Syracuse Football at a university with a rich and storied tradition of academic and athletic excellence," Brown said in a press release. "Syracuse Football has outstanding talent, great facilities and passionate alumni. The success of the players is my No. 1 priority—on and off the field. I want my guys to succeed in life, because they played football at Syracuse. My immediate area of focus is building relationships with my current players and putting together an elite staff, while also having fun on the recruiting trail. I'm ready to get to work and look forward to building something special for our fans."

Brown has extensive ties to the Northeast. He was born in New Jersey and has coaching stops at Temple as well as Rutgers in addition to Baylor and Georgia. Brown was on Matt Rhule's staff at Temple and Baylor, serving as Assistant Head Coach at both stops. He returned to Temple after his time at Baylor to serve as Co-Defensive Coordinator before heading to Rutgers for two seasons as defensive backs coach. He took the same position at Georgia, where has been the last two seasons.

"Fran is an outstanding coach, recruiter and person, and exactly who we need to take Syracuse Football to the next level," Director of Athletics John Wildhack said. "Fran has clearly articulated a vision for the future of our football program, and he is a powerhouse recruiter with deep ties to the geographies from where we need to draw consistently. Fran has had tremendous success recruiting to a variety of programs—in the South, Southwest and Northeast, and I have no doubt he will bring that track record here to Syracuse. I am looking forward to welcoming Fran and his family to the Orange community. The future is bright for our football program."

Brown has made a name for himself as an elite recruiter. In fact, 247Sports rated him as the number one recruiter in the country. That is not just because of his success recruiting at Georgia. He has landed four star prospects out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania at both Rutgers and Temple.

During his one season as Co-Defensive Coordinator at Temple in 2019, he helped the Owls achieve an 8-5 record, including multiple wins over ranked opponents.

Brown replaces Dino Babers, who was let go following Syracuse’s loss to Georgia Tech. Babers finished his Orange career with a record of 41-55 over eight seasons.

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Published Nov 28, 2023

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.