A single photo was enough to set off a fresh wave of talk around Syracuse football this week.
The image, posted by the X account Orange Fizz, showed Fran Brown and athletic director Bryan Blair talking on the field after the Orange’s home loss to Louisville last Saturday. From there, the conversation took off fast. The post has pulled in more than 50,000 views and hundreds of comments from Syracuse fans.
The reaction was immediate and predictable: plenty of Orange supporters read something into the moment. Some assumed a picture like that had to mean friction between Blair and Brown.
Brown, after all, was hired by John Wildhack, not Blair. On X, fans voiced their concerns, including one post from Pav that said, "That's not good"
Another fan, Jason, wrote: "Both need to collaborate and fix this. Syracuse cannot afford to lose games to teams it should handle."
Brown addressed the relationship two days after the photo circulated, and he pushed back on the idea that there was anything off between him and Blair.
"It's pretty good. We speak like every week.
We sit down. We actually have lunch together.
We talk together. .... He knew it was a tough game.
He is a good athletic director. He came over to talk to me and asked "Are you alright Fran?.
I'm seeing the progress and things of that nature."
The photo may have ignited the latest round of speculation, but it sits against a tougher backdrop for Syracuse. The Orange are 2-4 heading into Saturday’s game against North Carolina, and the season has not resembled Brown’s first year in Central New York.
In 2024, Syracuse rode a double-digit win season and a Holiday Bowl victory. Since then, the Orange have lost 12 of their last 14 games dating back to last season.
The struggles have been especially stark at home and inside the ACC. Syracuse has not beaten an FBS opponent in the JMA Wireless Dome in over a year, and the Orange are on an 11-game losing streak against ACC teams.
Now comes another chance to try to stop the slide. Syracuse heads to Chapel Hill, N.C. to face the North Carolina Tar Heels, who are 4-2 under head coach Bill Belichick. The Orange also enter the game dealing with multiple injuries in the quarterback room, which means Steve Angeli is expected to start under center.
Saturday night will tell the next part of the story. Syracuse is trying to snap the ACC losing streak and keep its bowl hopes alive.
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Fran Brown Is Trying A New Tactic To Fix Syracuse's Penalty Problem
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Brown and his players have been blunt about where the issue starts, pointing to discipline, accountability and simply playing smarter. There has been some progress in cutting down pre-snap penalties, but the post-snap flags remain a stubborn issue, leaving Syracuse with a problem it knows how to identify but still has to solve. [Read more 🡒]