Syracuse Hires Fran Brown As Next Football Head Coach

On November 28th, Syracuse Athletics Director John Wildhack announced that Fran Brown would be the program’s 31st head coach in program history.

“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. “I’m ready to get to work and look forward to building something special for our fans.”

Brown will be officially introduced as the Orange’s next football coach at a press conference on Monday, December 4th. 

“Fran is an outstanding coach, recruiter, and person, and exactly who we need to take Syracuse Football to the next level,” 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.”

Along with his coaching experience, Brown is also noted for being one of the top recruiters in all of college football. 247Sports has Brown ranked as the number one recruiter in their 2024 recruiter rankings. 

He was a part of a Rutgers staff that had the 33rd overall ranked class in 2022 and eighth-best class in the Big Ten, which included four four-star recruits and 15 three-star recruits (per 247Sports).

While never being a head coach, Brown does have coaching experience. He has spent the past two seasons as the defensive backs coach at the University of Georgia, where they have won back-to-back national championships, and will be looking to win their third in a row this season. 

He also coached multiple players to conference and national awards, including Georgia safety Malaki Starks, a finalist for this year’s Nagurski Trophy which is given to the country’s best defensive player. 

He was also a coach at Temple University, Baylor University, and Rutgers University. Brown was a candidate for Temple’s head coaching position after the 2021 season, but opted to stay at Rutgers.

The hiring of Brown as the head coach comes nine days after Syracuse had fired former football head coach Dino Babers. He had been the head coach for eight seasons.