Fran Brown, head coach at Syracuse
Photo: Kiran891, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fran Brown

Fran Brown went 15–⁠16 as a head coach, 2024–⁠2026, at Syracuse. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 2–⁠3); by them his record is 15–⁠15.

Record
15–⁠16 career
Seasons
3
Schools
1
Final AP top 10
0 seasons
Born
Feb 3, 1982
Best season
2024 10–⁠3, No. 20

Season by season

Wins and losses each seasonfinal AP rank above★ national titleline: the team’s Elo at season’s end, best 1614 in 2024
SeasonSchoolRecordConference finishBowlAP final
2024Syracuse10–⁠3T–4thHoliday Bowl W20
2025Syracuse3–⁠9T–16th
2026Syracuse2–⁠4 (Wikipedia: 2–⁠3)

Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.

How his teams did

Kind of gameGamesRecord
Against ranked teams83–⁠5
Against top-10 teams31–⁠2
Against rivals94–⁠5
Conference games206–⁠14
Bowls and playoffs11–⁠0
Decided by 8 points or fewer149–⁠5
At home169–⁠7
On the road135–⁠8
At neutral sites21–⁠1
As our Elo’s favorite136–⁠7
As our Elo’s underdog189–⁠9

His own 31 games on file, 2024–⁠2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.

Against other head coaches

CoachRecordTheir schoolsGames
Pat Narduzzi 2024–⁠20260–⁠3Pittsburgh3

Fran Brown’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.

Most-faced opponents

OpponentGamesRecord
UConnseries33–⁠0
Pittsburghseries30–⁠3
Californiaseries21–⁠1
Georgia Techseries21–⁠1
Miamiseries21–⁠1
Boston Collegeseries20–⁠2
Holy Crossseries11–⁠0
NC Stateseries11–⁠0

National title staffs

Every title staff

The champions’ staffs from 1990 on, as the schools listed them that season: Staff lists: Drew Hoover’s how-many-rings (MIT), from the schools’ media guides and staff pages. Roles as the source words them.

How he was hired

Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.

Career

YearsTeamJob
2010Paul VI HS (NJ) high schoolDefensive backs coach
2012TempleGraduate assistant
2013–⁠15TempleDefensive backs coach
2016TempleAssistant head coach and defensive backs coach
2017–⁠18BaylorAssistant head coach and defensive backs coach
2019TempleCo-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach
2020–⁠21RutgersDefensive backs coach
2022–⁠23GeorgiaDefensive backs coach
2024–presentSyracuseHead coach

Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.

Coaching tree

Worked under

Fran Brown

Assistants who became head coaches

Worked under (6)
Head coachTeamYearsHis job
Steve AddazioTemple2012Graduate assistant
Matt RhuleTemple2013–⁠162013–⁠15: defensive backs coach; 2016: assistant head coach and defensive backs coach
Ed FoleyTemple2016Assistant head coach and defensive backs coach
Matt RhuleBaylor2017–⁠18Assistant head coach and defensive backs coach
Rod CareyTemple2019Co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach
Greg SchianoRutgers2020–⁠21Defensive backs coach
Kirby SmartGeorgia2022–⁠23Defensive backs coach
Coached under him, later head coaches (5)
CoachWith himHead coach at
Elijah RobinsonSyracuse, 2024–⁠25: assistant head coach and defensive coordinatorTexas A&M
Nunzio CampanileSyracuse, 2024–⁠25: quarterbacks coachRutgers, Syracuse
Don BrownSyracuse, 2025–⁠26: consultantPlymouth State, Northeastern, Massachusetts
Kevin CoyleSyracuse, 2025: senior defensive analystAtlanta Legends
Vince KehresSyracuse, 2026: defensive coordinatorMount Union
Other assistants under him (6)
CoachWith him
Jeff NixonSyracuse, 2024–⁠26: offensive coordinator and running backs coach
Mike JohnsonSyracuse, 2024–⁠26: co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach
Robert WrightSyracuse, 2024–⁠25: co-defensive coordinator
Josh GattisSyracuse, 2025–⁠26: wide receivers coach
John Scott Jr.Syracuse, 2026: assistant head coach, co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach
Perry ElianoSyracuse, 2026: defensive backs coach

From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.

How he coached

Brown’s teams went for it on 31% of fourth downs and on 54% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 57% of plays and took 25.3 seconds a play, 2024–⁠2026.

SeasonWent for it on fourthWhen the model said goPass rateSeconds a playEPA a play
2024 13 g30 of 87 34%59%63%25.3+0.19
2025 12 g31 of 109 28%49%52%25.5−0.07
2026 6 g15 of 46 33%57%52%24.7+0.05
All 31 g76 of 242 31%54%57%25.3+0.06

His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.