Syracuse Football: National analyst gives relatively strong grade to Fran Brown hire

National experts continue to dole out grades for the off-season hiring of new head coaches in college football, including SU Athletics’ hiring of Fran Brown as the new Syracuse football boss.

Brown, most recently the defensive backs coach at Georgia, was officially introduced by Syracuse University leaders as the head coach of the ‘Cuse in early December, replacing Dino Babers.

In an article this week where he dished out grades for various head-coaching hires, Rivals.com national recruiting director Adam Gorney gave the hiring of Brown a B+.

Not too long ago, 247Sports national writer Brad Crawford gave the Brown hiring an above-average grade, while other pundits have been less favorable in their outlooks on Brown’s hiring to lead the Orange program.

A national analyst discusses the hiring of new Syracuse football head coach Fran Brown.

As Gorney notes, in themes we’ve discussed a lot lately, Brown previously has never served as a head coach. He’s also an ace recruiter who, along with his staff, has compiled an excellent 2024 class consisting of numerous four-star high school seniors and college transfers.

By extension, Brown and his staff have proven quite busy with their recruiting efforts in the 2025 and 2026 cycles in recent weeks, picking up their first 2025 verbal pledge last Saturday and gaining steam in both the junior and sophomore classes.

Gorney, in his story, writes in part, “There might be some growing pains in terms of how Brown, most recently the DBs coach at Georgia, handles in-game management but his coaching staff is more than capable. This is a very difficult job, though, and other than one season Dino Babers and many other coaches couldn’t figure it out. A new vision and a breath of fresh air from Brown could be what Syracuse needs.”

Much of what Gorney says are things with which I totally agree. It remains to be seen how Brown fares as a head coach in the 2024 season and beyond.

Recruiting is its own animal, and Brown, in just around two months, has shown he can excel there. The Orange, to me, does have a favorable 2024 docket, and the ‘Cuse roster for the upcoming term has been buoyed by several key guys from other recent seasons electing to return for another campaign.

But we’ll have to wait and see how Brown performs as the leader of a college football team. I recently opined that he’s not only winning at recruiting, but in the Syracuse-area community as well. Let’s hope that success carries over to the field later this year.

Much like recruiting rankings in general, these sorts of grades on head-coaching hires are, naturally, subjective. I also believe it’s kind of tough to grade such hires when the new head coach has never been a head coach before, because there isn’t a track record there to rely on as context, at least at the head-coaching level.

In any event, Brown and his staff have the Orange fan base energized, the ‘Cuse has landed some terrific commitments of late, and there’s a palpable buzz in the air on the Hill.

Needless to say, myself and many other fans out there are jazzed to see what Brown, his assistants and their players will do in the 2024 stanza.