'I'm thankful to go play against them': Everything Syracuse coach Fran Brown said about Notre Dame

Most opposing head coaches wouldn’t say they’re thankful to play against No. 9 Notre Dame (8-2), but Syracuse (3-7) is in a spot where wins and losses don’t matter as much as experiences and measuring sticks. For Fran Brown, the Fighting Irish represent a mighty intriguing one.

“We get to play against the number nine team in the country this weekend,” he said Monday, “against one of the better coaches in the country. I get to put myself up to test, like, Fran, you think you’re good? You get a chance to go compete against Coach [Marcus] Freeman.

“Coach Freeman has a lot of really good players. He’s built the program up. Got Notre Dame back where Notre Dame wants to be at. I’m trying to follow that same thing right now. I think this is a good test for us to be able to go out and play them.”

Here is everything else Brown said in his Monday press conference.

Opening statement

“Good afternoon, everybody. Excited about this week. Get a chance to play against Notre Dame. Top 10 team in the country. Really good football staff. Great coach. Coach Freeman, actually I consider Coach Freeman a friend. I think he’s a really good dude. Good person, football coach, father. Just everything you could possibly ask for in a man. I think he does a really good job at it.

“Coach, the offensive coordinator, coach Mike, I think he does a good job. Coach Ash, who I got to know from before, I thought he did a really good job. I think he’s doing a really good job as a coordinator. He did a really good job last year in the NFL and getting a chance to come back. The special teams coordinator, coach Marty, I think he does well too.

“I like their quarterback, CJ Carr. He’s a really good football player. Poise. Doesn’t get pressured at all. He just plays really calm and cool. He doesn’t feel under pressure a lot, seems to be. I think they got two of the better running backs in the country, Love and Price. I mean, it don’t really matter which one is in. I told our guys a while ago, I was talking about Love and I was like, he’s nobody’s backup. This kid is a bonafide, legit football player. From a receiver perspective, Faison and [Fields], [Raridon], all of those guys, [Pauling], [Smith], I think they all can play ball.

“On the defensive side of the ball, of course, I know Adon Shuler. I always thought he was a good football player from high school and getting a chance to see him now. And Moore. Sneed. They just got a lot of really good football players. I think their defensive line plays really well together. [Traore] is one of the best players in college football, if you ask me. Things that he can do and how electrifying he is from a defensive, off that D line and coming after the quarterback, I thought he’s played really well.

“I’m excited to actually play against them. Thankful for the opportunity to go and play against them. Our guys get to go out and compete. It’s going to be pretty fun. Good atmosphere going there. Getting a chance to go up to South Bend and get a chance to play ball. I’m excited about it.”

How how he used the bye week to galvanize the group

“We did some things team-wise and coaching-wise that I thought was needed to be able to finish out the last of the year. First and foremost for a lot of our seniors, they’ve played a lot of ball. So i gave them some time off a little bit. They had to be here at everything, but just from a practice standpoint, things of that nature. We took care of our bodies. We just had the opportunity of being in treatment and ice tubs, cold tubs, treatment. Just all the things that were needed for them to be able to do. A lot of those guys got thousands and thousands of snaps. So we wanted to give them the opportunity. At the end of every day, we were able to walk through some stuff with them. In that way, they’re ready for the game plan when it’s time to go out and compete against Notre Dame.

“I took advantage of the off week of using it as a bye due to the fact of us not having bowl practices. We took advantage of that with all of our young football players. Just to have a chance to see and look at the team for what it will be next year, minus Steve because he’s not able to practice. But he was there and we were able to feel and understand and know his leadership. So I took advantage of that right there.

“From a coaching perspective, I did a little activity of something that I wanted to figure out everybody’s thoughts on. It’s who we are and what we’re about and where we are right now. Think of some ways you can make changes because everybody has an opinion, right? Being able to get everyone’s opinion and see how those opinions are. I was able to take those opinions and look at them. Some things I was able to use. Some I didn’t use. That’s what I did.

“I’ve been able to spend some time with my sons, honestly. My wife left for a couple of days to go take care of some family stuff. But I was able to spend some time with my sons and talk to my sons and get to be a dad on Saturday. After we got done practice, I was able to hang with my family. My wife came back. I was able to sit down and have dinner with my family and talk to them about life and things I don’t get to always do on a Saturday. That was pretty cool to be able to do that.”

On the buy-in for these last couple of games

“They understand and they know we’re going to finish out the right way for them. It’s important that we do that. Most of the guys, there are a few that we got to bring in through the portal, but most of the guys, I wasn’t the one who actually got to recruit them. But I made sure that they understood and know that I had an opportunity to keep them here. We chose to do that and we all chose to be here together. We want to go out the right way with those guys.

“For the young guys, they know they have to play. Last week, if you look at the game, there were 20 freshmen that got meaningful time in the football game, that were able to play. I think out of those 20 freshmen, 17 were true. The other ones were redshirt freshmen. There were a lot of other guys that got to play when you go into the sophomore class. It’s promising and giving them a chance to see that. Letting them understand and know, like, look how many guys are playing. Look what will happen for the future. We are building the program.

“This is the best way to say why everyone is excited about it; last year, I was able to bring in a lot of strong senior leadership. I brought a lot of guys that I already had prior relationships. Some great senior leadership was able to come in. First off, starting off with the quarterback. Fadil Diggs. Then, they had some guys here that were very, very tough. Like I told you guys, always consider LaQuint [Allen] one of the toughest football players I’ve ever coached. You had Marlowe Wax. You had Justin Barron. Then you had Oronde Gadsden who is just a workaholic. I was able to have the Jackson Meeks come over. When you lose those guys and all that stuff, all those guys of that nature, the sophomores are still watching them, the guys I brought in. This is what you want it to look like. The freshmen are coming in. You guys seen who left and where it was at. This is what we want it look like. We just have to be able to build it.

“This is the down year, in my opinion. Just being down, especially after losing the quarterback. I feel it would have been the opposite with the quarterback. A lot of times, you want to make excuses for why we lost so many games. It’s never acceptable. But I’m learning so much about being a football coach. I’m learning so much about our football team, our program, coaching staff, players. There’s a lot of change that will be made. There’s a lot of things that will happen. I’m very thankful for it, to be honest with you. I couldn’t put it any other way. I wish that we were playing for the community. I think that our community, our fan base, the alumni, they always deserve to be in a bowl game. But when you’re able to sit back and really analyze everything.

“I get to do this with Dwight Freeney because he’s on the staff with us. We talk and we go through things. He’s played at the highest level so he understands the game and knows this is a blessing in disguise. But next year, we’ve got to come out and do what’s needed for us to do. I’m very thankful about everything that’s going on.”

On how Syracuse’s coordinators have done this season

“I’ll finish that at the end of the season.”

On if Syracuse’s coordinators will be back in 2026

“Yeah, they’ll both be here next year.”

On the biggest challenge during Sryacuse’s six-game losing streak and how he keeps the team motivated

“I come to work every day. I’m always motivated. I push. If you watch practice, you wouldn’t see a difference in practice. You can’t tell if we were 7-3 and not the opposite way. That, for me, is always being done the right way. I’m always pushing, always set up. As we started to lose, I’m a human, right. Some of the things I did was trying to do everything on my own. I’m not saying I didn’t try to use the coaching staff and things like that. For me, I’m always using God, using the man above, and going to Him with all the answers and just asking and doing everything. I feel like throughout October, I was just, dang, this can’t happen. I’ve got to fix this. I’ve got to, I’ve got to, I’ve got to.

“In November, I got a text from a friend of mine named Bruce Lee. We’re real close. We played college ball together. He was like, I know how you feel and I remember you in college, but you need to listen to this song. He sent me a pretty cool church song that I listened to. It had me crying. I actually got on my hands and knees and just started praying. Just different answers came. There was different things that came about. That’s how I was able to do a couple different activities with our staff. I was able to do some things with our players. Just being able to move on. Being at peace and understanding that I’ve got to always try to use the man above to be able to help me, to be able to get through situations that may be tough. That’s why it’s always two set of footprints in that sand and not one. When it is one, I better make sure that I’m counting on Him and not being myself.

“For me, I’m very thankful for all the opportunities and everything that I got to go through. I can’t stand losing. Like, I hate losing. But sometimes you’ve got to lose to be able to move ahead. Sometimes you’ve got to lose to be able to go forward. Honestly, for myself, that was happening throughout most of my life. From being where I was born and raised, the circumstances that I was born and raised under, and then for me to still be the head football coach, there was a lot of obstacles I had to overcome and push through and grind at. I just had to really sit back and be able to remember that. I think it’s going to make me a better coach going for the future. I’ll be able to coach the players better. I’ll be able to coach the coaches better. I think that our fan base, the alum and everybody here, they’re going to have a coach that they deserve and that they need throughout the rest of my career here, just being a football coach at Syracuse University.”

On his relationship with Fran Jr., who is a long snapper at Syracuse

“It’s good because I get the opportunity to raise my son. Usually they’re on other football programs and teams, so I know everything that I talk to every single player about, when he sits in that seat up there and I’m talking to all of them, I’m telling them the same thing that I would tell my son. Everything that I’m telling them is legit information. It’s from the heart. It’s motivating them to go be the best versions of themselves, to be able to lock in. Him being here just reassures that I’m doing it the right way, that the message is right, that the message is correct because I’m coaching my son, but I’m also coaching his friends. These are his teammates. He’s going to be with them forever, so I’ve got to do everything the right way or I could mess up his future teammates and his friends and the relationships that he’s supposed to have for the rest of his life, so I don’t take that lightly that he’s on our team and I’m very thankful he’s on the team, but it just reminds me that I am doing it the right way.”

On Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love

“He goes north and south really fast. He’s just fast. He’s super fast. Like a gazelle, he can hit it. He can go 0- to 60 really, really fast. And he’s not afraid of contact either. I like the fact that he runs behind his pads. He’s a good running back.”

On the Syracuse defense this season

“We’re going up and down. I would say we’ve been up and down. We’ve got to be a little bit more consistent throughout the game. I think you can watch some games and you can see us doing really, really well and then there’s a few plays that you wish you could get back, so I would just say up and down.”

On Syracuse’s quarterback situation

“I mean, it’s going to be, like. Joe [Filardi] is going to play this week. Joe’s a guy that’s going to be that quarterback and I’m thinking Luke [Carney] will probably get some time this week also. Joe and Luke and then the last week we’ll figure out the best way forward due to the fact that I want Luke to be able to redshirt. So, Luke may play this week or he may play next week. Not really sure, but it seems like Joe right now. We’ll find out because today is the first day we get to practice again, but last week was kind of, Saturday was when everyone was there, all of the guys, so we’ll see how it goes today, but I feel like Joe should go in because of being able to go down and put some points on the board. First time we had a touchdown in some weeks. So, I mean, it sucks saying that, but yeah, so I feel like Joe.”

On when he was seeking opinions from the players during the bye week

“I never said I was seeking opinions from the players. I said the coaching staff. We did a little thing that we did with the coaching staff and they asked some stuff.”

On the opinions he sourced from his coaches

“Yeah, that’s kind of personal. I can’t give you that information now about what we talked about and what we’ve done. I’m just telling you that we did an exercise that was good, but there was nothing. It was just continue to have fun, coach. Be yourself. I can tell you those are some of the things. Be yourself. Trust your gut. Usually when you go against what you think, it doesn’t work for us. Just really that. I’m trying to think of all like the common thing that was consistently going on. That was mainly the common piece.”

On if he used the bye week to talk to players about what their future plans are beyond the 2025 season

“Not really. There’s some things we handle and things that was naturally done, but I’ll handle that mostly when the season’s done. I mean, you know who you are. You know if you fit, if this is the fit. This isn’t like—they’re not little kids. These are mature young men and I’m telling them the biggest advocate for them is them. I teach them that and I make sure they understand that so they know how to come and speak to me as men and I know how to talk to them as a man. But right now that isn’t where we are. We talk about mental toughness, to be where your feet are. So we’re not really focused on that piece of it.

“There are some guys that I know will possibly go into the portal. There’s some guys that are going to go by their choice and there’ll be some that’ll go on my choice, just for the betterment of our program and for them so that way they can have the right mental and being able to go on the field and be successful. Sometimes new starts help people. There’s some things that will happen that way. There’ll be every team in the country will have some guys leave. Players and coaches alike. So I’m just praying and I’m just going to use the man above. I’m going to use the staff as much as I can to make sure that we get the team that we need at the end of that portal, that we got the guys that we need to go out and compete to win the ACC conference and the national championship.”

On how he’s operating knowing he won’t have bowl game prep to prolong the Syracuse season

“We operated the same way. I just get to focus a little bit more on the academic piece. I think that we got to pick it up academically right now. That’s something that I spoke with the guys about during the bye week of what we were looking for. Being able to pick it up academically, being able to lock in and move on because there are guys that’s going to want to transfer and want to go. And I want to make sure they are academically eligible because you can’t transfer being ineligible. And I want to make sure those things are done right. I just want everybody to be in the right space, the right mind space and the right mental. So that way when January hits, everybody can make a good decision with a clear mind. And you don’t have to worry about, ‘I got to stay.’ Or dang, getting rid of this kid wouldn’t be fair because he’s not eligible.

“So I’m speaking to everybody about everything so when I decide to make that decision or they decide to make that decision, everything’s been on the table the entire time and there’s nothing all of a sudden, you’re doing this. It just kind of is what it is.”

On the Syracuse offense after staff shakeups

“I feel like they were all professional, so everything’s working itself out. You know, sometimes anything you say, right, it could always come back to bite you. So I feel like with this question, the less I say, the better it’ll be. I don’t want to just say something about—I just think they’re doing a good job. I think the coaches are working well together. I think moving Coach Gattis to the receiver room is helping out. I think that all the coaches and all the moves and everything they’ve done is helping us for the betterment of our program.”

On why it’s important to build Syracuse through high school recruiting

“I feel like there’s one portal now. So everybody won’t be able to do those things two times. At some point, everything will lock in and it’ll be the way it’s supposed to. And then I just know I’m doing everything right. And I get to build a relationship with them, give them an opportunity to see. You also watch and see, you’ve seen 20 freshmen play last week. So why would you not want to come to the program where that many freshmen have a chance to play? Where, in my opinion, coming back next year, we’re going to have the best quarterback in the country. If I’m getting a chance to come here and play.

“And we’re just going to compete. We compete. Guys, at the end of the day, there’s not a football game you can look out there and watch, maybe one, I’m not sure, where we didn’t compete our butt off. Where then you can see, wow, if they had that spot, then it would have been a better outcome in the game. I can’t really say much about it because we lost all these games. And I’m going to accept that because I’m their coach and I’ve done those things. But when you watch us and you look at us, why would they not want to come? I’m going to still get one of the top players in the country. He’s going to come here. There’s going to be a couple of them coming. We’re going to compete. We’re going to win next year. It’s just what it is.

“But we’ve got a big game ahead of us, in my opinion. One of the better teams in the country. One of the better head football coaches in the country. I can’t wait to go out there and be able to compete against them, just to give us that test to see how good we are. To see where my players are. Being able to go against one of the blue bloods in college football. Being able to go against one of the better head football coaches in college football. We get a chance to go out there and compete against them this week. This is big for our program. This is big for our guys’ confidence. For our culture. I’m excited about going to play against Notre Dame this weekend because I think they’re a really good football team. I don’t want to really look in the next year or the 26s. But I’m so excited y’all coming. We’re going to have a lot of fun when y’all get here.”

On Notre Dame being able to score on 20- and 30-yard plays

“And don’t forget 99-yard plays, too. They can go the distance at any moment.”

On combating Notre Dame’s explosive offense

“You just got to tackle. You got to be able to tackle. You got to make open field tackles. I think open field tackles are going to be extremely important against the speed that they have. Especially in the backfield with Love and Price, being able to do that. Faison, who on the outside is good. Fields. Them trying to throw it up to Pauling. I think Will Pauling is his name. Number two, he’s a really good receiver also. He’s dynamic.

“We just got to open field tackle. But we just got to compete. We get a chance to play against Notre Dame this weekend. We’re not doing well as a program right now from a win-loss standpoint. At practice we’re doing extremely well. Everybody’s having fun. But we get to go against Notre Dame, like number nine or something. Nine or eight, something like that. They’re number nine. We get to play against the number nine team in the country this weekend. Against one of the better coaches in the country. I get to put myself up to test, like, Fran, you think you’re good? You get a chance to go compete against Coach Freeman.

“Coach Freeman has a lot of really good players. He’s built the program up. Got Notre Dame back where Notre Dame wants to be at. I’m trying to follow that same thing right now. I think this is a good test for us to be able to go out and play them. We get a chance to play them next year, too. It’s pretty cool for us to be able to do it. It’s something that we’ll be able to have and we’ll be able to talk about for the rest of our lives of what happened to us. We get one game this year and then we get one next year. I’m thankful to go play against them. I’m excited. Just watch and see how we compete.

“Appreciate y’all.”