Fran Brown became an overnight hero for Syracuse football in his inaugural season with the Orange. A program that dropped out of national recognition was awakened under the new HC era. But his run in the 2025 season will be a little difficult. He will debut a squad with a lot of new faces. The most important of them will be at quarterback, who is going through a complete do-over. Will Fran Brown’s choice keep his crown this time, or will the new addition win over the coach?

Gone is Syracuse’s 2024 squad, which Fran Brown helped turn around. This year, a lot of new players will join the old Orange, including QBs Rickie Collins and Steve Angeli. Both of them have a mammoth task ahead of them. One of them will replace Kyle McCord, who led the FBS in passing yards last season. Either Collins or Angeli will be the face of the Syracuse offense, which will see significant production getting replaced by newcomers. Who Fran Brown picks as his QB1 will definitely affect how they go through the season. According to insider Christian De Guzman, the projected winner has made himself known over the course of time.

He said in an August 4 episode of Cuse Sports Talk, “Definitely Rickie Collins is the more comfortable quarterback.” Much before Angeli joined the Orange QB room, Collins was already expected to be crowned McCord’s successor. “That’s just due to the nature that he’s been here for three months longer than Steve Angeli has. He’s also gotten the reps with most of the team before Angeli has, in terms of practice conditions or somewhat competitive conditions at least in spring ball,” Guzman added. Angeli, being an addition to the spring transfer portal, is crunched for time. Even Fran Brown himself leans towards Collins. “It’s 51-49. We gotta say Rickie is ahead because he was here in the spring,” Brown said after the first fall camp practice.

“Angeli doesn’t seem to have the connection quite yet to some of the receivers that Rickie Collins has had,” Guzman noted. The former Notre Dame QB was already part of the QB1 race at South Bend, but it was much harder there because of it being a 3-man battle. Collins failed to get time on the field during his LSU stint and transferred out to Syracuse. He has only 76 passing yards in his collegiate career, and rushed for 37 yards. But he arrived earlier than Angeli, and was also named the starting QB1 during Syracuse’s spring camp. But Angeli’s arrival shook things up for Collins, especially because the former Fighting Irish QB came with a total of 772 yards and 10 TDs in the bag. This unique situation has made things uncertain for Fran Brown once again.

“It’s still very much up in the air of who is a better one. There’s no clear indication of who exactly is the number one guy yet. But knowing Fran, he wants to choose one quickly because he wants to establish a leader quickly. So, my inclination is that he’ll make a decision relatively soon on who his starter is going to be,” Guzman said. But he also said that the outside world will likely have to wait for some time to hear the official news. “I think he will go down that path of not publicly announcing it and maybe just saying to the team, ‘Okay, this guy is going to be our starting quarterback,’ maybe in the next week or so…, because of just how different both quarterbacks are, I think it will still be secretive until the actual start of the Tennessee game,” he added.

Collins is a dual-threat QB, but lacks in experience. Steve Angeli’s resume shines in that aspect, but he hasn’t had the time to fit in with the system completely. Most importantly, Collins already has the backing of Fran Brown. But there’s a good chance Steve Angeli wins that favour as fall camp progresses. It’s going to be a crucial month ahead for Brown and his QBs, because they’re going to be looking at a not-so-forgiving schedule.

Fran Brown dealt with brutal reality in harsh 2025 schedule

By the end of last season, the only top-ranked team that Syracuse played was No. 6 Miami. And they pulled an upset win in that game, too. Brown’s second run this year is what is going to be the test of his coaching abilities. The US LBM Coaches Top 25 poll saw Syracuse finding a hit-and-miss mention, getting just 16 votes from the panel. The number is bad because Boise State, which is the 25 team on the list, got 246 votes. What’s more alarming is that Fran Brown will be facing 5 opponents from this list. Four of them will be away from home.

Yep, there is some cause for worry for Syracuse. The first opponent on the schedule, Tennessee, is ranked 18. Then comes Clemson (6), SMU (16), Miami (10), and Notre Dame (5). So, it looks like neither does Fran Brown seem to have a squad that’s worthy of being among the best in CFB, he also doesn’t have much ease in proving everyone wrong. Clemson alone should be the most feared opponent for Fran Brown. SMU, like Syracuse, is also coming back in 2025 after a magical run in 2024 – with a playoff spot.

As HC, Fran Brown has a better record in beating teams ranked at least below the Top-20. Syracuse was able to beat No. 23 Georgia Tech and No. 25 UNLV. Though he can flex his brilliant win over Miami, Syracuse did fall to No. 19 Pittsburgh. This season, he has all heavyweights coming in at similar ranks, in what is going to be a punishing schedule for Syracuse. Will this tough road ahead, and his new QB1, lead him to a dip in his coaching record?