Fran Brown Hired as Syracuse Football HC; Won 2022 National Title as Georgia DB Coach

Syracuse is turning to a national champion as the next leader of its football team.

On Tuesday, Syracuse announced it hired Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown as its next head coach. Brown helped lead the Bulldogs to the College Football Playoff national championship last season.

The position was available because the Orange fired Dino Babers earlier this month.

The first thing that stands out about Brown is his recruiting ability.

In fact, 247Sports ranks him as the top recruiter among all coaches for the 2024 class thanks to the six commits he helped convince to join the Bulldogs. That group includes 5-star cornerback Ellis Robinson IV and 5-star linebacker Justin Williams.

Brown even highlighted how excited he is to start recruiting in Tuesday's announcement.

"I am incredibly proud to be leading Syracuse Football at a university with a rich and storied tradition of academic and athletic excellence," he said.

"Syracuse Football has outstanding talent, great facilities and passionate alumni. The success of the players is my No. 1 priority—on and off the field. I want my guys to succeed in life, because they played football at Syracuse. My immediate area of focus is building relationships with my current players and putting together an elite staff, while also having fun on the recruiting trail. I'm ready to get to work and look forward to building something special for our fans."

Prior to his coaching career, Brown played collegiately at Western Carolina before spending two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals at the NFL level.

His coaching resume includes stops as the co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Temple, the assistant head coach/defensive backs coach at Baylor, and the defensive backs coach at Rutgers.

He then joined the Bulldogs ahead of the 2022 campaign and helped lead them to the title. They are once again on the short list of championship contenders this season and will put their No. 1 ranking on the line when they face Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday.

While Syracuse likely won't reach the level of Georgia, which is one of the nation's premier programs, Brown's resume and championship experience is reason for optimism for a program looking for one.

The Orange have won double-digit games just twice in the last 31 years and have hovered around .500 of late. They finished the 2023 regular season with a 6-6 record after going 7-6 last season and 5-7 in 2021.

Babers was just 41-55 during his eight seasons with the program, although Syracuse did go 10-3 in 2018.