Syracuse Football: Fran Brown, his staff bring ‘electricity’ and ‘swagger,’ per top analyst

New Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his staff are definitely catching the attention of national recruiting analysts, scouts and other commentators across the country.

Brown, officially introduced by SU Athletics as the next head coach of the Orange on December 4, replacing Dino Babers, has wasted no time assembling a terrific assistant coaching staff while recruiting like it’s nobody’s business both on the high school level and via the transfer portal.

On Wednesday, at the start of the early signing period, which runs through Friday, Dec. 22, the ‘Cuse hauled in arguably the program’s best recruiting cycle in recent memory.

The Orange’s 2024 class includes 18 high school seniors, several of whom are nationally ranked and rated four stars, along with six college transfers, led by former five-star prospect Kyle McCord, a junior at Ohio State who has been rated one of the country’s best quarterbacks in the transfer portal this cycle.

A top analyst dishes on Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown and his staff.

Steve Wiltfong is one of the top analysts out there. He’s the director of recruiting at 247Sports, and in a recent article from 247Sports national writer Chris Hummer, Wiltfong provided some interesting and encouraging insights into Brown and his assistant coaches.

“With Fran Brown and some of the people he hired, they’re going to bring some electricity to the coaching trail with their personalities and their swagger and the relationships they have and the confidence they have,” Wiltfong was quoted as saying in Hummer’s story.

As I noted in a column on Thursday, as of the early signing period, Brown has been named by 247Sports as its national recruiter of the year. Most recently, he was the defensive backs coach at Southeastern Conference powerhouse Georgia.

Elijah Robinson, who is currently the interim head coach and co-defensive coordinator at SEC school Texas A&M, will soon be the Orange’s new defensive coordinator. Robinson and Brown, who are long-time friends, grew up together in Camden, N.J., and have strong recruiting connections in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast corridor.

Hummer noted that Robinson, in the 2022 cycle, was deemed the top national recruiter by 247Sports.

Another new Syracuse football assistant coach is Nick Williams, who most recently served as the defensive line coach at Colorado and will be the new ‘Cuse defensive ends coach. National pundits also view Williams as one of the top recruiters in the sport of college football.

“They’re magnetic,” Wiltfong said of these new Orange coaches. “There’s no doubt about that. I think that’s a staff you’ll see make hay in the portal every year because of that.”

When I wrote this piece on Thursday, the Syracuse football 2024 class, via the industry-generated 247Sports Composite, arrived at No. 45 in terms of high school commits, No. 15 among transfer-portal classes, and No. 34 overall, taking into account high school and transfer pledges.

Let this sink in. As Hummer wrote, “Since 247Sports’ 2010 origin, Syracuse hasn’t had a top-50 high school class. It’s had just one other top-50 class (2007) in the modern internet recruiting era.”

And, yes, Brown and his assistants have only been (officially) guiding the Orange program since early December. Yikes.

I wrote on Thursday morning that, in recent days, Syracuse football had offered scholarships to a pair of five-star defensive backs in the 2025 cycle. Maybe the ‘Cuse will be a long shot for them, but then again, maybe not.

Still, as Wiltfong put it, Brown isn’t just known for his ace recruiting, something that is encouraging to me and the entire Orange fanbase.

“He’s going to take some swings at guys that are high profile,” Wiltfong said of Brown, “but he’s a guy, at his core, who is a developmental coach.”