Syracuse's Fran Brown shares what he's learned from other coaches

Fran Brown heads into year two as the head coach at Syracuse with a bit of momentum. His Orange went 10-3 in his first season as a head coach, and that included a win in the Holiday Bowl.

Brown is seen as one of the bright up-and-coming coaches in college football, and a part of that is because he's had a lot of help along the way.

He's a former cornerback at Western Carolina who had a cup of coffee in the NFL on practice squads with the Cincinnati Bengals. He started his coaching career under Steve Addazio at Temple as a graduate assistant in 2012 before becoming the defensive backs coach for the Owls under Matt Rhule.

He followed Rhule to Baylor, took a few more stops (including a stop at Rutgers where he coached under Greg Schiano), and then he ultimately wound up as Kirby Smart's coaching staff at Georgia. 

At UGA, Brown became a nationally respected defensive backs coach and recruiter.

It all led to the job at Syracuse, where he's hit the ground running. Brown is potentially a star in the making as a head coach, but he recently spoke at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff and made sure to give credit to the coaches who coached him up.

“I think I took a little bit from everybody,” Brown explained, according to On3. “The detail. I think working with Greg Schiano, he was a stickler when it comes to details. Kirby Smart, every day is important. He didn’t look forward. Never looked, don’t worry about anything else. We were playing UT Martin, and it was like we were about to play in the national championship.”

Brown revealed that Rhule taught him how to stay involved with a program. It's tough to be a head coach and a leader while still seeming approachable and down to earth, but that's one of the things that Rhule does best. That's become evident at Nebraska, where he's trying to turn the Huskers around.

There are other coaches around college football that Brown has been keeping an eye on. He specifically mentioned Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson, Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham, Deion Sanders at Colorado and James Franklin at Penn State.

Ultimately, though, Brown has been successful so far at Syracuse because he's not trying to cosplay as someone else. He's learned to learn from the people around him, but he's become his own style of head coach, and it's working for the Orange. 

“The number one thing, I just be myself. Because I see so many people leave from a program that’s prestigious and did as well as Kirby Smart did, and they try to go there and be Kirby. I never will be able to be him," Brown explained. "I can only be myself, but I can implement some of the things he did. The models and things of that nature. God’s blessed me with the ability to love myself. So, I’m just going to be myself, and I have confidence because I’m humble enough to know that he’s given me this chance and this opportunity and the talent, but I walk with a little sense of confidence because I’m gonna put that work in every day. I’ll make sure I do that.”