Syracuse Football Head Coach Fran Brown on Week 1 Takeaways, Georgia Tech

line as promised uh it's 12:15 on a Thursday which means we are joined by the head coach of the orange Fran Brown and uh first and foremost coach congrats on your first win as a head coach uh now that you've had a chance to watch the film and and digest it all uh what stands out to you from that Ohio game I thought we were resilient you know we got we were down early U guys fall back um thought it stood out that we started slow um but um it was like a shock to everybody okay let's go um missed out that uh we got a lot of weapons on offense and that we needed to work on tackling on defense and you know just that just the tackling part of it but um I was just happy for the players you know happy for you guys Happy y'all got a first win and Syracuse is s overall our community deserve for us to come out and and start the season off with a win you know on tackling is that something you can improve in season is it or is it more of a desire thing where you got to work with the guys to to make him want to tackle a little both a little both just a little bit of both you got to he has to be a part of who you are and what you do so guys had to step up and do it you know um last week when I called it was Michael Jackson's birthday I think and you guys were playing uh looking at the man in the miror you know so it was like all let's look at the man in the miror what did I do wrong as a head coach what did they do wrong as players what did you do wrong as a a signal caller as a play call it and then uh you know we just kind of all came came to life about what was wrong and how we could fix everything up since you brought up your call last week uh you told us last Thursday that one of the things you were nervous about going into the game was the clock management the end of half end of game your first crack at it couldn't have gone much better right you used a couple timeouts on defense you save some time you score with 5 seconds left before the half uh do you feel better about that now after that experience no just keep watching I I'll watch some more today watch some more tomorrow just got to keep learning you know it's it's it's about football you know you need games under your your belt to feel better about it so I don't think there's ever cuz all you can watch as many scenarios as you want but that that may not be the scenario that you have to go through like for instance last week the one we went through I didn't go through that on uh C but but it happened you know um so it's just about understanding the game and listening to the coaches around you and uh trusting our coaching staff that we all know and we're all working together and we're on the same page so uh myself coach nuns as I told you he um me and him sit together and we work closely on that of just being able to manage the clock right yeah and going with your gut as you talked about last week you 100% that's what I said I was like look we got to give time back to the offense cuz I know we can score so so I'm making sure we get time back y'all just don't let them score and uh you know they were able to kick a field goal we stopped them I mean there was a few flags that was given out like I mean I don't want to say anything about that I don't know how finds and things go so they call what they thought they saw and um you know we managed to uh give our guys 58 seconds on the clock and uh you know they were able to go down the score so yeah Trevor Payne you scored that touch when you first got here coach and you assessed the roster did you know you had something special in Trevor Peña or was it a type of thing where he had to you know prove it to you and did he surprise you at all during the Spring and Summer Trevor pñ was committed to Temple University and Fran Brown recruited so before he came to Syracuse he was committed to Temple so you know kind of already knew who Trevor was it was just about polishing him up you know [Music] was awesome and he he seems to create some uh some matchup issues for uh for opposing defense I think he's a good kid and he when he's not injured and he's just doing everything right and he's following his uh time management plan that he has for the week he just stays focused on it he does exactly what he needs to do day in and day out good things happen to good people you know he's a good person he comes from a good mom good family you know his brothers and all so I'm just very thankful that he's on our football team you know yeah a fantastic opener for him and you know he's he's dealt with injuries since he's been here good to see him healthy and and uh certainly helping the team I I do want to ask you about the uh the offensive line how would you assess the way the the o line played on Saturday oh we about 75 about 75% we about 75 we got a lot more they can get done they much better group so we got to show that this week want to make sure people can see how well our offense and defensive line can play well coach obviously you know the run defense has been talked about a lot uh since Saturday and and you you spoke about it Saturday and then again on Monday you know that Georgia Tech wants to run the football uh what else stands out to you about the yellow jackets other than uh you know their their success with the ground attack I think they do a great job throwing a deep ball you know an immediate pass also but the quarterback um you know he can throw the ball man you got Rutherford you know you got singles in You Got a Boy carry they got some guys that they get the ball to you know so Chase Lane's a good play player so they got a bunch of guys that they can get the ball to and we um you know that's why he's a dual threat quarterback so we'll see when they come to town though Saturday you know excited about playing him coach said he was coming up here for a 4H hour physical game so I mean of course they saying they gonna come we just run it's like crazy so we just got to try and stop it obviously you'll miss uh Marlo wax on Saturday uh you know you started 39 consecutive games in an orange uniform longest active streak and that will come to an end on Saturday kind of a two-part question with Marlo I I don't know if you can share anything about the injury you had mentioned on Monday he's going to be out about 6 weeks more so than physically though coach how how's he doing emotionally you know dealing with the fact that he's he's going to miss some time here and and and how do the rest of the guys on that side of the ball make up for it uh so first off the way we make up is by doing our job don't try to come in and be Marlo cuz that's not you he did things different you know God gives everybody different pieces in their body and different ways that they move and do things so he done things different but it's come in and just do your job don't be Marlo uh second what it does is give Marlo opportunity to be a vocal leader Marlo leads well by example and does everything but now that he's not able to practice he's going to be able to vocally tell everyone what he sees what is going going on and what he wants because he's still our leader um then this also gives us an opportunity to show the depth that we have can these guys step up can we coach you know can we coach the number too now you know you got other guys that are coming in that going to do things so it's just I think it's a big opportunity for everyone everyone's going to be able to grow through this um Marlo will be back in about six weeks and um you know he'll be able to come and do what he does as Marlo but before we just want everyone to grow I want Marlo to grow and I want them to grow and then um Marlo mentally I mean emotionally he's doing really well his mental is super strong I mean you got a great mom grand mom scy mom um his girlfriend um me just all of them are they're all real close they're a close-knit family and they've been he from him I think they just left yesterday if I'm not mistaken they've been here all week and we' support Marlo we're behind him 100% so I mean he's he's the leader of our football team you know he may not be here in reference to on the field but he still has a role to be played and he's going to play his role well or he's going he got to answer to me so we still holding him accountable for everything that he needs to do um off the field since he can't be on the field right now good to hear that uh he will be back I do want to ask you about uh another defensive star from Syracuse uh from a while back and that's Dwight freeny uh he's going to have his jersey retired on Saturday and you know it seems like welcoming the alums back into the program has been a priority for you and I was hoping you could speak to that why is it so important to welcome the Dwight freies and Donovan mcnabs and and everybody back into the fold some of the best football players to ever play the game like period so if you don't welcome them back if you don't give them an open invite if you don't make sure they know that they will always have a room here then I I don't know you know it doesn't make sense to me it's like my oldest son will always have a room at my house no matter what goes on where it's at you always got a place to go this is their house I just came around so they always going to have a place here there's no they always going to play and they were so open armed to me like Mana white friend and me got on the phone like me being a coach and been watching them play all this time I get to call him and we talk and he talked to me about pass rush and how he help our players Donovan McNab did the same thing Donovan Dar is just the way and he's all down to earth dudes you know Kevin Johnson they all cool guys that was just open like I had um Keith bot come up here and hang out with me for about five days you know just talking and showing me different things that I can learn that I can see so I mean these dudes man they they love at school like why would I not let them come back home whenever they want it's theirs I'm just in here trying to make sure that I'm running it the way that they see fit it's well said uh last question for me coach just when you look at this matchup on Saturday Syracuse Georgia Tech noon kick what does this game ultimately come down to in your mind physical that's what D coach said on the thing he was just like this ain't about ex's and O's or none of that it was just physical like I feel that I'm there a real physical football team and they going to come in here and just they're just going to try to like Bully us you know that's what that's what he think or whatever so um they just going to be hitting for four hours like he said from his words and um he coached me and he said uh yeah I ain't really know him he was on the other side of the ball so like we don't know each other and um I'mma see you Saturday when you get here you know we ready to be physical so we just G we got to work on our physicality because they've shown that they're a real physical football team and they beat some good football teams in their physical so we just got to like we got to be ready for when they come in because they are good got to play against some last year at Georgia and um you know they they were able to run the ball there also so I mean he's a old offensive line coach and you know that's that's just what old line coaches like to do they want to run the ball so they can try to impose their will on you and um I like to hit so we'll see them Saturday won your first crack at a ranked opponent Georgia Tech number 23 in the AP poll this week coach thanks so much for the time best of luck on Saturday appreciate that