Indiana was the real story of the playoffs, but they also showed how deeply Nick Saban has impacted the game. The four semi-finalists were all led by head coaches who once served as the former Bama head coach’s assistants. The pipeline never stops delivering. But not everyone has tasted success like Kirby Smart and Curt Cignetti. One ACC head coach revealed what Saban told him after a tough season.

“One of my best conversations over the break, I got a chance to talk to Nick Saban for about half an hour,” Syracuse head coach Fran Brown said in an interview with ‘Cuse Sports Talk. ‘ “He told me the things that I’m extremely good at and to keep doing them, and don’t allow anybody else to do. To make sure that I do the recruiting so that I bring the guys in.”

Nick Saban is not directly associated with Syracuse’s head coach, nor has he ever worked under him. However, his time with Georgia head coach Kirby Smart makes him an indirect part of the tree. During his time at Georgia, Brown helped the team win the 2022 national championship. After his UGA stint ended, he was named the nation’s best recruiter by 247Sports.

Saban recommended that Brown delegate recruiting to his assistants while maintaining constant oversight. Not just that, Saban’s advice to let recruits blend in with coaches and “allow them to coach their players” is how the Bama legend himself managed things. That doesn’t mean the head coach shouldn’t know the schemes because, according to Saban, it allows the head coach “to change it” if things go south.

Under Brown, the Orange has improved on a lot of these aspects. The Syracuse head coach secured the highest-ever-ranked class by the program in 2026, highlighted by his prized 5-star recruit Calvin Russell. The program ranks 29th nationally and boasts 27 commitments. What’s more Saban-esque about the Syracuse head coach is his attention to detail and his management of every little aspect, if it helps land players.

“I’ve never seen a college coach like Coach Fran,” Syracuse recruit Walt Frazier said. “He’s everywhere. He’ll be in classrooms with students. He’ll just go stay in the classrooms for a day. He’s in every space, with everyone, truly a part of the program.”

A native of Camden, Philadelphia, Brown has heavily leaned on his home state roots. In 2024, Syracuse had six players from the Camden area, showcasing unrelenting recruiting acumen. The head coach wasn’t lagging in the transfer portal either. He landed star Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord, who went on to break the ACC passing yards record. In just his first year at Syracuse, Brown compiled a 34th-ranked recruiting class. When people remember how Saban approached recruiting, the resemblance of Brown replicating Saban’s blueprint is uncanny.

Fran Brown has adopted Nick Saban’s philosophy

Just like Saban advised Brown, he delegated recruiting duties to his assistants but always had a final say in which recruits would finally join the program. Academics were a top-3 priority for the Bama legend, and staffers used to put colored dots next to players to indicate any academic issues. That’s exactly what Brown is doing as well.

“If you sit in the front [of the classroom], you’re present. If you’re not in the front, you’re not present to him. He clocks that every day,” Syracuse player Ibn Muhammad said. Because of that, the program in 2024’s spring semester clocked the highest-ever team GPA in Syracuse’s history (3.05).

As for Nick Saban, much of the ‘process’ people talk about centered on elite recruitment. Upon his arrival in Tuscaloosa, Saban famously said, “Everything we do is about recruiting.” For the Bama head coach, playing with a weak crop of players was a clear no, and he was ready to do whatever it took to avoid it. Just like Brown, Saban used to approach top recruits personally, and 90 percent of the time he landed them.

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“You have two or three guys on the staff saying this kid is an offer for us, most head coaches, just because of time constraints, they’re fine with that,” Jaguars coach and former Nick Saban assistant Bill Sheridan said. “He confirmed every offer. We never offered a kid until Nick looked at him.”

Fran Brown is in his third season with Syracuse and has had the top-10 toughest schedules in the country in 2025. Owing to that and his QB1’s season-ending injury, the program finished with a 3-9 record. But for the 2026 season, everything points to a full-fledged redemption story.

Syracuse fired its special teams coordinator, offensive line coach, defensive backs coach, and linebackers coach. High-profile recruits are coming in in the 2026 class, and brown has now brought in 18 transfer portal players to his team this year. Will 2026 replicate Fran Brown’s 10-win heroics in the 2024 season? It is currently trending towards it.