Camden’s Fran Brown is ‘committed’ to making a splash in his first year at Syracuse

It took just 22 days from the time Syracuse hired Fran Brown to finalize his first official recruit. Brown, a Camden native, who had two stints as a coach at Temple and most recently was the defensive backs coach at Georgia, is known as one of the nation’s top recruiters. During those three weeks, he landed Syracuse’s highest-ranked recruiting class ever and brought plenty of local talent through the transfer portal to upstate New York.

That extends to his coaching staff, too. Brown hired Elijah Robinson from Texas A&M as his defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Robinson, too, is a Camden native, and the duo paired under Matt Rhule during his time as head coach at Temple and Baylor.

In his first ACC football media day appearance on Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., as the Orange’s 31st head coach in program history, Brown revealed his core values, centered on “commitment,” “care,” and “trust.”

» READ MORE: Camden to ’Cuse: Local signees share why they are on board the Fran Brown express

“If you look at all the guys that we bring in, I think they’re truly committed to not just themselves, but to winning as the bigger piece of the program,” Brown said. “They truly care. And then I can trust them, and their teammates can do the same thing.”

One thing Brown kept coming back to during his 10-minute podium session: “I just want to win.” Brown won a national championship at Georgia in 2022 and was the co-defensive coordinator for Temple’s last winning season and bowl game in 2019. He has had success at nearly every stop in his coaching career, and he’s ready to replicate it with the Orange.

He cited some of Syracuse’s former greats, like Jim Brown, Ernie Davis, Donovan McNabb, and Marvin Harrison, as well as the undefeated 1959 and 1987 teams and emphasized that he wants to “get us back into that same era.”

“I want to make sure that Syracuse gets back to where they belong,” he said. “It’s like a nonstop race for us to make sure that we actually continue to go and try and accomplish greatness, and to just have these young men have an opportunity to show the country who they are, football-wise. So everything I do, though, I try to make sure that we just [follow] our way through.

“We’ve got a saying: ‘How you do anything is how you’ll do everything.’”

Brown’s players, like former local high school standouts Kyle McCord (St. Joseph’s Prep) and Fadil Diggs (Woodrow Wilson), took the podium at ACC media days to share that same sentiment.

“I think Coach Fran coming from Georgia, a similar school [to where I was], who’s been there, who’s won [a national championship], and he’s brought that same pedigree here,” McCord said.

Added Diggs, who transferred from Texas A&M: “[Coach Brown] is just going to be himself every day. He trusts in us, and we earned his trust over the spring. And just seeing that, pouring that into the guys is big, because you’re going to need that from your head coach.”

» READ MORE: Penn State has high expectations and James Franklin is embracing that

Before Brown took the podium, he joined the network’s set to discuss his transition from being Georgia’s defensive backs coach to Syracuse’s head man. The panel also asked how he landed McCord, a former Ohio State quarterback. They have a long history that spans a decade.

“My wife did that, [she] and [McCord’s] father worked together at the hospital,” Brown said. “My wife was in school, and her clinical was becoming a [registered nurse] before she became a nurse anesthetist, and he worked there also. And she kept telling me about this kid that was really good in middle school.

“I got a chance to go and watch him play little league football. And I was like, ‘Oh snap, he can actually play.’ … I just had our staff — that was the mission — if he hit the portal, tell me. As soon as he hit the portal, he told me. I called him and said, ‘What’s up? Where [are] you at? You need to play for me.’”

Brown says he flew out to Columbus, Ohio, the day McCord entered the portal and spent over seven hours with the Mount Laurel native. He added that in having McCord on his roster, it would “be great for my career to have such a good leader right away.”

McCord says his decision to transfer to Syracuse “was all about the people.”

» READ MORE: Temple football coach Stan Drayton eager to ‘change the narrative’ of the Owls this season

“Obviously, I’d known Coach Fran for a while,” McCord said. “I felt like it was a great situation for me to come in, have a lot of talent around me, and have success early on. And so I think when I made my decision, I was all in, and they put my recruiting hat on, [and] tried to get some other guys out of the portal.”

McCord was the Buckeyes’ starter last season and threw 24 touchdowns and 3,170 passing yards en route to an 11-1 starting record, but was much maligned for his performances in big games. He joined Ohio State’s program in 2021 alongside Marvin Harrison Jr., his high school teammate, who was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals No. 4 overall in the 2024 NFL draft.

Syracuse opens its season on Aug. 31 against Ohio.