As Fran Brown looked back on the way Syracuse’s 2025 season unfolded, the message was clear: the Orange needed to grow up fast, and the defense needed a different voice.
That’s why Brown made the call to move on from Elijah Robinson as defensive coordinator and bring in Toledo’s Vince Kehres. It was not a small decision, especially because Robinson is Brown’s best friend. But Brown said the change was necessary, and he laid it out directly.
“I told Elijah, ‘This is the guy I want,’” Brown said Thursday at ACC Kickoff. “You’ll become the co-coordinator; he’ll be the coordinator.”
Brown said he met with the team the night of Dec. 1, two days after Syracuse’s season ended, to explain the change. Robinson eventually left to return to Texas A&M, where he had been a defensive line coach.
“Elijah had to make the best decision for him,” Brown said. “I think he did make the right decision.
I think he is in a place where he’s comfortable. Where he understands and he knows how to win.
“But me and Kehres started having those conversations and the first thing was just about being able to win a national championship. Being able to compete and this is the way I want the defense to look. And he had the same mindset.”
What Brown believes Kehres changes most is simple: when the first answer doesn’t work, there will be another one.
That was the point Brown emphasized again in an interview on Sirius XM, where he said the new coordinator’s experience should show up in the details.
“There will be answers to things,” Brown told Sirius XM’s ACC Radio, when asked what would be different about this year’s defense. “There will be adjustments.
There will be more adjustments because of his experience. I feel like there were times I put Coach Robinson in a bad situation.”
Kehres arrives with a long track record. He has spent 20 years as either a coordinator or a head coach, coached on nine Division III national champions at Mount Union, and comes from a family tied to Division III coaching royalty.
Brown started working on the hire before Syracuse’s season was even over, and the move was official by Dec. 6, a little more than a week after the Orange closed the year with a loss to Boston College.
The pitch Brown made to Kehres was rooted in the kind of defense he wanted Syracuse to play. He told him he wanted the Orange to resemble the Georgia defenses Brown knew from his time there. Georgia won national titles in Brown’s first season and then went 13-1 the next year, finishing with an Orange Bowl win.
Those Bulldogs were loaded on defense. In 2022, Georgia led the SEC in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense, while ranking third in sacks and interceptions. In 2023, Georgia again paced the SEC in scoring, total and passing defense and also led the league in interceptions.
Kehres’ Toledo defense brought its own numbers to the table. Last season, the Rockets finished fourth nationally in scoring defense, giving up just 13.31 points per game.
Brown also made sure Syracuse’s players were part of the process. As he worked to sell Kehres on the job, he put him on the phone with linebackers Gary Bryant III and Antoine Deslauriers and cornerbacks Demetres Samuel Jr. and Chris Peal. Deslauriers said Brown involved the top players in Syracuse’s hiring process for all of the new coaches.
On the field, the biggest changes may show up in how Syracuse uses its personnel. Deslauriers is part of a linebacker room with four players who need snaps, and the Orange also have Chris D’Appolonia, who followed Kehres from Toledo and gives Syracuse a stronger answer against the pass.
Up front, Syracuse has enough depth at defensive tackle to keep those players fresh. The bigger question is whether the defensive ends can hold up in the ACC.
Still, the strength of the defense may be in the secondary.
Samuel and Peal are both candidates for the ACC’s All-Preseason team, and Pro Football Focus ranks them among the top 10 returning cornerbacks in the country in coverage. Their profiles are rising in different ways: Peal is being viewed as an early NFL Draft pick, while Samuel announced a Nike endorsement deal on Thursday after negotiating it since the end of last season and signing it last month.
Samuel said Kehres will have to share him with offensive coordinator Jeff Nixon. He expects to spend 60% of his time on defense and 40% on offense. That was supposed to be the plan for him as a freshman, but a rough season for the offense changed that, and he barely played there.
“With Steve [Angeli] going down, I had to focus more on the defense,” Samuel said. “With him coming back, I feel like I’m going to have a major role in the offense.”
Even so, Samuel said he feels more “fluent” as a cornerback, while receiver is still where he has fun.
He also sees a bigger picture for Syracuse. Samuel said he wants to help Brown build a legacy by making sure he and Peal become first-round picks, and he believes Kehres’ scheme can help make that happen.
“He has a résumé of first-round corners and letting them play,” Samuel said. “Opposing teams have to adapt to us. If they’re not going to adapt to us, we’re just going to choke them out and we’re going to win.”
Samuel and Deslauriers both said Kehres will bring more personnel groupings and disguised coverages, making Syracuse tougher to diagnose than it was under Robinson. Samuel added that he thinks the Orange could have one of the best secondaries in the country.
On a personal level, Samuel said he spent the offseason getting stronger and faster so he can improve in press coverage. And with the NCAA’s new five-in-five rule, he’s looking at a long runway ahead: he’ll enter the season as an 18-year-old sophomore with four years of eligibility left.
Samuel said he expects the freshman year he just had to be the worst one he’ll have at Syracuse.
“[I’m looking forward to] winning and having a top defense,” Samuel said. “Anything that happened in the first year is really just the bottom ceiling.
I have everything else in front of me. ... I was young but now I’ve learned.
I’m mature.
In Other News...
Syracuse Mourns Former Quarterback And CBA Standout Chuck Zimmerman
Chuck Zimmerman, the former Syracuse quarterback who helped guide the Orange to two of the earliest bowl games in program history, has died at 90 in Jamesville. Zimmerman played for Syracuse from 1956 to 1958 and later remained part of the city he represented on the field, serving in the U.S. Army and staying active in the Syracuse community.
His time in orange included a run that helped send Syracuse to the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl, milestones that still matter in the schools football story. A burial mass is scheduled for July 21 at St. Rose of Lima Church in North Syracuse, offering one more chance for the Syracuse community to honor a player whose impact reached well beyond his college years. [Read more 🡒]
Boeheims Army Finally Has Its Coach As TBT Pressure Builds
Boeheims Army finally has its sideline set for this years run in The Basketball Tournament, a late but important development as the Syracuse-connected group prepares to open play in a best-of-3 series against Hall In. The staff now includes assistants Shaun Belbey and Pete Corasaniti, giving the team a more complete coaching structure as it tries to navigate the pressure that comes with every TBT summer.
The most interesting part is how quickly the pieces have come together around a coach with plenty of pro experience. The new lead voice comes from the Long Island Nets, where he is currently an assistant and has also spent time with other G League teams and NBA affiliates, while Belbey and Corasaniti bring their own Syracuse ties into the mix. With the bracket looming and the format leaving little room for error, Boeheims Army is trying to turn a fresh staff into an immediate edge. [Read more 🡒]