Fran Brown addresses not showering after losses, mentality for 2025 season

Fran Brown made headlines last season with a tongue in cheek comment regarding his thinking after losses. The Syracuse leader told the media that he can’t bring himself to shower after losses, as he isn’t deserving of soap or to be washed. All he will do is brush his teeth, but nothing beyond that.

“Honestly, I got like a ritual. Like, when we lose? I ain’t even get in the shower until early this morning,”Brown said. “I just be mad. I just brush my teeth. It’s like I don’t deserve soap. I don’t deserve to do all that. I’m just focused on, like, trying to get back and trying to make sure that our players mentally understand and know that I let them down and that they didn’t do it.”

“There’s a process that I follow every week – win, lose, or draw. Only thing is, like, my wife? I can’t sleep in the bed if we lose because I’m not going to get in the shower for that day. I’m just mad. I just sit there. I just brush my teeth. That’s what I have to do so y’all won’t say my breath stink. But I’m just kind of locked into certain things, certain ways. I think you’ve got to earn the right to do certain things. So, you know, winners get washed, you know what I’m saying. I’m a loser so I just kind of wait a little bit.”

The Orange only lost three games last season, so at least Brown got his fair share of victory showers. As ACC Media Days rage on, the charismatic coach explained his philosophy a bit further, stating that it might not have been meant to be taken super literally, but the mentality remains.

“That was just something that I said. I mean, it just depends how you feel if you lose, right? For me, when you practice all week, you practice all week to win. You don’t practice to lose,” Brown added. “So when you lose, if you’re okay with that — you know how they be like, ‘Well, as long as you did everything you could, you shouldn’t worry about it.’ That’s BS. I don’t live by that. You lose, like, you took a piece of like, what I really — I was working on that. So, that means a lot.”

We’ll see what other soundbites Fran Brown delivers throughout 2025, but one thing is for sure, he’ll deliver the right type of motivation for his team. Syracuse will travel to Knoxville to face Tennessee in Week 1. We’ll see if he’s able to shower after a battle with the Volunteers.

— On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.