It is too soon to be down about Fran Brown as the Syracuse football coach

Critics of how Brown is running the program have come out in force, after Syracuse dropped its 10th straight ACC game last Thursday night at Pittsburgh.

Sep 17, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Syracuse Orange head coach Fran Brown looks on during the second quarter against the Pittsburgh Panthers against at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Syracuse fans of a certain age may well remember the "Sack Mac Pack."

The year was 1983. Dick MacPherson, like Brown in 2026, was in his third season as Syracuse football coach, and after sporting 4-6-1 and 2-9 records in his first two seasons, there was a portion of the fan base that was simply convinced the former linebackers coach of the Cleveland Browns under Sam Rutigliano, was not the man for the job despite college head coaching (UMass) and NFL pedigrees.

Coach Mac bought some time in the '83 season, despite a 63-7 thrashing at No. 1 Nebraska, with the Orangemen finishing 6-5 by rallying for home wins over BC and West Virginia to end the season.

The following '84 campaign brought another 6-5 finish including the out-of-nowhere 17-9 upset and revenge against the top-ranked Cornhuskers in an all-time Dome upset, and by 1985 Mac had the program in a bowl game (the long forgotten Cherry Bowl in Pontiac, Mich. that we covered for five days on site) for the first time since 1979.

Although he would not shoot to consistent national fame until the magical , undefeated 1987 season, the point of the university sticking by the rebuilding plan Mac assembled in the Dome's formidable years, was there was no sense to overreact and tear down a three-year project, only to have to start all over again.

The parallels of an unhappy fan base for a Syracuse football coach early in his tenure

The world of where college football sits in 2026 filled with a new five year eligibility model, continued revenue payouts directly and through NIL, and a roster management financial picture that varies by tens of millions of dollars between the haves and have-nots among the Power Four conferences, is a different galaxy from the early 1980s.

But never has the size of 'Cuse football budget and staff size been larger than it has under Brown. The facilities and supports services for the athletes have never been more contemporary, and the overall quality of the top-to-bottom talent on the roster is impressive, all areas SU struggled to play catch -up 40 years ago.

Now off a rare 10-win season in 2024, then the disaster to end last season, along with the learning curve of roster management and assembling quality assistants, Brown finds himself staring a 1-2 season record after the Pitt defeat, a current 10-game ACC losing streak over the last two seasons.

Perhaps most alarming as it is tied directly to Brown's job responsibility as the program's CEO, is a 'Cuse team that is dead last among the 138 FBS schools (min. three games played) in total penalties (36) and penalty yardage (329).

As Coach Mac found in the '83 season, Brown and the '26 Orange still have plenty of football left to be played starting October 3 at Connecticut (12:00 p.m. ET / CBS Sports Network), a game in which freshman phenom Calvin Russell III is expected to make his collegiate football debut.

Let the regular season play out and match how the Notre Dame finale fares as compared to last year's 70-7 embarassment in South Bend, then we can see how AD Bryan Blair and the administration evaluate the direction of the program.

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