Talking about a head coaching father being lucky enough to coach their sons in their teams? Well, there is a good and a bad side to it. The Sanders are the biggest examples. Right now, there is another college football program that’s about to write a father-son story. That’s Syracuse Orange head coach Fran Brown and his long snapper son, Fran Brown Jr. “He works his bu-t off, but with Franny, I mean, it’s just a blessing to be able to work with him,” Father Brown should enjoy this special moment. Because when the season kicks off, the pressure of the schedule will follow.

Syracuse will enter hostile territory for its season opener against No. 24 Tennessee from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Orange squad is coming off a 10-3 campaign. Now, it was indeed the program’s best season since 2018. That calls for some high expectations. However, even amidst all this pressure, Brown takes care of his duties not just as a head coach but as a good human being.

On August 24, the Syracuse head coach faced the media. Analyst Samantha Croston tweeted, “Fran Brown says he pays his son’s tuition in full so that he can give a scholarship to another player👏.” In the clip the Syracuse head coach shared, “I’m blessed to have him here, right? But for me, it was better to have my son. Not saying that he can’t be on scholarship, cause he easily could be on scholarship, but it’s easy for me to pay and then get another kid, right?” 

He clarifies that his son is talented enough to earn a scholarship but that he chose to cover the cost himself. With this, he can allocate that scholarship to another player who might need it more, making room for others. At Syracuse, he is estimated to earn $3-4 million salary on at least a four-year contract. Talking about financial freedom? It won’t be that tough for Brown to sponsor his son. But there is a lesson here.

The Syracuse head coach wants to set an ideal example in front of his son. After all, growing up, he himself did not have his father around. As on The Good in the Game podcast, Brown once revealed, “It was tough just because I had a single-parent mom. My mom had me at 13 years old. By the time she was 21, [she’d had] four boys. So there was a lot of moving in the city, right?… So you might hear all types of gunshots at night, different things going on. You go outside, they’re hustling right in front of my crib. I grew up in the hood!” Brown does not want any other kid going through such instability.

Growing up without a father, Brown understands the value of support and opportunity. Maybe this move just reflects him giving these other kids the kind of help he once wished he had. 

Fran Brown takes a stand for himself after a twisted media narrative

The Orange squad is facing off against Tennessee, a program that reached the College Football Playoff last season. The Vols have defeated the Orange in all 3 of their previous matchups in the series. As they face off against Josh Heupel’s boys on August 30, this marks their first time meeting since the Vols defeated Orange 33-9 in Knoxville on Sept. 1, 2001.

On Monday, August 25, Brown was asked whether he felt motivated about the Tennessee face-off. “I’m just motivated that I wake up every day. I’m not sure. I mean, some of the questions y’all are [asking] me are like set-up questions. I don’t want to give anybody else ammo to be happy about us playing them or us happy to play [them]. Man, we’re happy to play football,” replied the Syracuse head coach. However, things turned bit off when the reporter twisted his answer for a follow-up question.

“You’ve mentioned a couple of times that you don’t necessarily feel motivated by Tennessee or the opponents you’re up against,” said the reporter. Brown immediately cut them off, claiming, “I ain’t say that. So watch how she said that and don’t try to mark that and have them all like, ‘Fran said he ain’t motivated [to play Tennessee]’. I said I am self-motivated. And I said that Tennessee is one of the better programs in college football.” That’s how he made it clear that one should not mess with Brown, nor with his team. 

As On3’s J.D.Pickell shared, “Tennessee? They recruit a better roster year in and year out than Syracuse. They will have more talent on the field than Syracuse. However, in spots like this, sometimes it’s not about having all the matchups when it comes to 11-11. You just got to have that one that you can go to till it’s out of business.” And here this “one” player is Johntay Cook, the five-star transfer whom Fran Brown flipped from Texas. Coming off as a package at 6-foot, 185 pounds, the five-star talent gives Syracuse a legitimate weapon that Tennessee will have to keep a safe distance from. Will the Orange squad finally open their victory book against Tennessee?