Fran Brown didn’t try to run from it after Syracuse survived UConn in overtime. He owned the mess.
The Orange had built a 20-point second-half lead and still found themselves dragged into a fight, then into overtime, before finally escaping with the win in East Hartford, Conn. The reason was obvious: Syracuse’s defense fell apart for long stretches after halftime, and Brown took the heat for it.
“Coach V.K., I’ll never try to take credit from him; he did good,” Brown said. “Everything bad is me, good is him.”
For one half, Syracuse looked in control. The defense was getting pressure on UConn quarterback Kalieb Osborne, the stops were there, and the Orange had surged ahead 27-7 late in the second quarter and 34-14 midway through the third. Brown said part of the plan was to make Osborne uncomfortable and “figure out what he can do” from there.
Then the game flipped.
UConn ripped off 27 unanswered points, turning a comfortable afternoon into a frantic finish. The Huskies piled up 302 total yards and four touchdowns over the back 30 minutes and overtime, even though they had the ball for just over nine minutes in that stretch. Syracuse’s defense, which had looked sharp early, gave up 41 combined points to Cal and Pitt in the previous two losses, but this one became its own kind of collapse.
“It shifted as a football game,” Brown said postgame of the defensive breakdown’s effect. “They had the momentum honestly all the way up until the two-point conversion when it comes to the second half.”
The Huskies chipped away in the third quarter, first with Cyncir Bowers bursting through a hole for a 10-yard touchdown, then with Osborne finding a wide-open Xavier Watson in the flat for a seven-yard score. UConn kept coming, and Bowers later tied the game on a 71-yard run in which he barely had to work for the final result. A huge gap opened on the right side, and he wasn’t touched the rest of the way.
In overtime, UConn scored first. Syracuse answered with Amari Odom’s clutch fourth-down touchdown pass and then added the two-point conversion run to finish it off.
Brown pointed first to the run defense when asked what went wrong. That showed up most clearly on Bowers’ two second-half touchdowns. UConn had only 14 rushing yards in the first half and finished the second half with 167.
The problems weren’t limited to the ground game. Brown also had sharp criticism for the defensive backs, a group he has coached before and still heavily influences at Syracuse. He said nobody looked sharp, and that the issue was less about UConn’s receivers creating separation and more about contested catches the Huskies kept winning.
“All the DBs seemed like they had a little bit of rust on them out there,” Brown said.
Brown made one notable change on the back end, moving Chris Peal from corner to safety. Peal, who entered the season as SU’s top corner and had been projected by some mock drafts as a first-round pick, looked rusty in the new role too, Brown said. Brown added that he wants Peal playing deeper moving forward.
Even so, he wasn’t ready to write off the unit.
“I feel that’s the worst they’re probably gonna play,” Brown said of his defensive backs. “That’s not usually who they are.”
Syracuse’s offense didn’t exactly steady things either. Odom’s completion rate dropped from 88% to 62% in the second half, and he didn’t throw another touchdown in the final 23 minutes of regulation. He also threw two interceptions and had another drive end on downs.
That only added to the pressure on a defense that was already cracking as the momentum swung UConn’s way in the fourth quarter. Against a team that entered 2-2 with losses to Maryland and Miami (Ohio), Syracuse was supposed to clean things up, maybe even get a look at players like freshman receiver Calvin Russell III or Odom in a more comfortable setting.
Instead, the Orange let it get away from them.
Brown made it clear who he thought should carry the blame. At this point, he’s carrying plenty of it.
In Other News...
Syracuse Escaped UConn But Fran Brown Just Sparked A Bigger Debate
Syracuse needed every bit of its composure, and then some, to leave UConn with a 42-41 overtime win after watching a 20-point lead evaporate. The late quarterback switch to Amari Odom gave the Orange a different spark, and he ended up factoring heavily in the comeback, including on the game-winning two-point conversion. It was the kind of chaotic road result that can feel like a turning point, even if it came with a long list of reminders about how thin the margin was.
Fran Brown still has plenty to sort through, because the win did not cover up Syracuses discipline issues or the defensive lapses that turned a game the Orange should have controlled into a one-score fight for survival. There was enough fight to escape, but also enough sloppiness to leave open a bigger question about whether this team can clean itself up before the schedule gets less forgiving. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse Just Got Pulled Into The ACCs Most Uncomfortable Week
The first weekend of October turned into a brutal sorting exercise across the ACC, with six league matchups suddenly clarifying who is rising, who is wobbling and who is simply trying to survive the month. Pittsburgh edged Virginia Tech but paid a steep price with starting quarterback Mason Heintschel going down with a season-ending ACL injury, while Miami made the loudest statement of the slate by rolling past Clemson. Wake Forest also looked sharp in a dominant win over Stanford, adding to a weekend that left Louisville and Virginia licking their wounds and Florida State looking far more convincing against Virginia.
For Syracuse, the larger lesson is less about any one final score than the way the conference is beginning to separate into uncomfortable tiers. SMU handled Boston College but still looked short of the expectations that came with the programs entry into the league, and three ACC teams ventured into non-conference play with mixed outcomes, adding even more noise to a week already crowded with consequences. In a conference this volatile, every result starts to matter faster than anyone would like, and Syracuse is now watching a race that feels like it could shift again by next Saturday. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse May Have Found An O-Line Answer It Suddenly Needed
Syracuse spent a recent game shuffling its offensive line, and the moves at least gave the unit a different look when it needed one. Kahlil Stewart stepped in at center and Jayden Mann took over at right guard, replacing Joe Cruz and Byron Washington as the Orange tried to settle things in front of quarterback Amari Odom.
The line still had its hands full, allowing eight pressures, but it did not give up a sack while Odom threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns. Syracuse also made changes in the secondary with mixed results, but the bigger takeaway was how the offense kept moving, with Umari Hatcher piling up 12 catches for 152 yards and three scores as the Orange searched for the right combination up front. [Read more 🡒]