Fran Brown reflects on what he learned from Kirby Smart, Matt Rhule, others throughout career

Now going into his second season as the head coach at Syracuse, Fran Brown is looking to make his name as a coach. He did that after years of learning and developing under several of the biggest names in the game, including Kirby Smart and Matt Rhule.

While at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff, Brown met with the ACC Network. There, he explained what he learned from those coaches who he’s worked for during his career.

“I think I took a little bit from everybody,” Fran Brown said. “The detail. I think working with Greg Schiano, he was a stifler when it comes to details. Kirby Smart, every day is important. He didn’t look forward. Never looked, don’t worry about anything else. We were playing UT Martin, and it was like we were about to play in the national championship.”

Fran Brown was a defensive backs coach at Georgia in 2022 and 2023. From there, he was catapulted into the Syracuse job ahead of the 2024 season. There was plenty he learned there, but he also learned from other stops, like Temple, Baylor, and Rutgers. In fact, he’s even learning by watching other coaches around college football that he hasn’t worked for before.

“I think Matt Rhule‘s approach to staying involved. You know? I like to do that. Then, even when it came to Coach [Rod] Carey, I worked with him one season at Temple. I just like how he was very note oriented for the staff and had things set up for all of them. So, I owe all those guys — Steve Addazio, that was me just learning. He gave me the mindset I could be a head coach because of some of the things I watched him do. That’s why I never wanted to be a coordinator. I was like I wanna be a head coach. I want to do that,” Brown said.

“Then, watching coaches now, I’m really watching Coach Spencer [Danielson] at Boise. I really like him. I love how he’s a man of faith and family. He’s a winner. Arizona State coach, I think he does the same thing. Coach Prime. I like what he’s doing. There’s so many coaches. I think James Franklin does a good job, but I just try to watch them all.”

Ultimately, however, Fran Brown doesn’t want to be another coach. He saw it with Kirby Smart. If you try to be Smart, you’ll fail. You have to be yourself.

“But, the number one thing, I just be myself. Because I see so many people leave from a program that’s prestigious,” Brown said. “And did as well as Kirby Smart did, and they try to go there and be Kirby. I never will be able to be him. I can only be myself, but I can implement some of the things he did. The models and things of that nature. God’s blessed me with the ability to love myself. So, I’m just going to be myself, and I have confidence because I’m humble enough to know that he’s given me this chance and this opportunity and the talent, but I walk with a little sense of confidence because I’m gonna put that work in every day. I’ll make sure I do that.”

The 2025 season will be Fran Brown’s second season as a head coach. He’s coming off a 10-3 campaign last year, which ended in a Holiday Bowl win.