Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse football coach Fran Brown apologized to Orange fans on Monday, two days after his program suffered its worst loss since the 1800s.
Brown offered the apology unprompted to open his weekly press conference, saying he was sorry for the team’s performance in a 70-7 loss to No. 9 Notre Dame on Saturday.
“Before I get going I want to, first and foremost, apologize for the last game we played,” Brown said. “Me, as the head football coach, I did not have our team prepared, ready to go in and compete or play at all. ... I have to prepare our team way better. It is completely unacceptable.
“I want to apologize to Syracuse, the community, our football staff for not even helping them prepare well enough. Alumni, fanbase, just everyone that has any love or heart to care about Syracuse football at all, I just want to make sure you know that I apologize. That won’t happen again. Hold me responsible. It is completely unacceptable.”
Syracuse’s 63-point loss to the Fighting Irish on Saturday was the most lopsided defeat for the Orange since a 66-0 loss to Union College in 1893.
It was the fourth-most lopsided defeat in Syracuse history. The worst defeat in modern-day history had previously come in 1999, when Syracuse lost 62-0 to Virginia Tech.
Syracuse fell behind 21-0 before Notre Dame even ran an offensive play on Saturday, giving up a pair of touchdowns on returned interceptions and another on a deflected punt that was returned for a score.
The Orange trailed 35-0 after the first quarter and 49-0 at halftime. Syracuse didn’t score until 7 seconds remained in the game.
The performance made Syracuse a national punchline throughout the weekend.
In addition to the lopsided margin, Syracuse’s defense also produced one of the school’s worst efforts in program history against the run, surrendering a school-record 13.7 yards per carry.
It’s the second memorably poor performance against the run in two seasons under Brown. Syracuse gave up 313 rushing yards last season in a 37-31 loss to Boston College, a meeting in which the Eagles played the majority of the game without their starting quarterback.
When asked what he might have actually done differently in order to better prepare his team over the two weeks it had to practice for Notre Dame, Brown said he could have mentioned the possibility of falling behind the No. 9 team in the country by a big margin and mentally prepared the Orange for having to deal with that emotional challenge.
Notre Dame has been blowing teams out routinely this season. The Fighting Irish have won nine straight games by double-digits, with seven of those victories coming by more than three touchdowns.
“I should have prepared them to be down 21-0 and continue to fight,” Brown said. “I should have just prepared them to adapt. ... If the game gets out a hand and we’ve got to be able to come back, these are the things that have to happen. I didn’t talk about that.”
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