Syracuse, N.Y. — Marlowe Wax knows he has an important decision to make.
Fran Brown hasn’t let him forget since he arrived on campus.
The fourth-year linebacker said Wednesday that Brown’s been in his ear “all the time” about coming back to play one more season for Syracuse football.
They’ve had talks about where Wax would fit in a more pro-style defense with an emphasis on having the best personnel on the field regardless of position.
It’s the same for Wax’s fellow captain, safety Justin Barron.
Neither has decided their plans for 2024 yet, whether that be staying at SU, transferring to a different program or declaring for the NFL draft.
“Obviously, there’s convincing from both sides,” Barron said. “I’m doing everything from my inner-circle and trying to make the best decision that’s gonna be best for my future.”
That convincing is just one item on an extensive task list for Brown in the opening weeks of his tenure at Syracuse.
During the busiest month of the college football calendar, when coaching changes, transfer portal departures and high school recruiting align like chaos-causing stars, Brown has handled it all as deftly as a seasoned head coach might.
On Wednesday, he signed Syracuse’s highest-ranked recruiting class of the modern era. Amid the recruiting hustle, Brown has continued hiring staff and made an effort to insert himself in the community, eating out at local restaurants like Vito’s with his family and coaching staff and participating in charity events.
On Thursday night, after the conclusion of the Boca Raton Bowl – an ugly 45-0 loss for Syracuse – Brown got to speak to the team for the first official time as their head coach, without caveats.
The program is fully his, and he couldn’t contain his excitement for it during a Zoom call on Wednesday addressing his new player acquisitions.
“I’ve been waiting my entire life for that opportunity and moment,” Brown said. “I’m gonna seize it. I’m gonna be excited about it, and then we’re gonna go to work.”
With this first transfer portal window open until Jan. 2 and the deadline to declare for the draft Jan. 15, Brown’s job recruiting the locker room isn’t over.
Though Brown was around the team the past few weeks as it prepared for the bowl, he was walking a tightrope of wanting to start developing relationships with players who plan to stick around and letting them close out their 2023 season.
By all accounts, he’s done so successfully.
“I don’t know that there’s a playbook for that, and I think he’s done a great job,” SU interim coach Nunzio Campanile said earlier this week. “That’s really hard to do when you’re on the road and doing all those things.”
‘There’s no BS’
Of the 14 high school recruits and transfers who committed to Syracuse after Brown was hired Nov. 28, most had pre-existing relationships with him or a member of his staff.
Four-star edge rusher KingJoseph Edwards, one of the highest-ranked players Brown landed, has known Brown for more than a year.
Brown said Wednesday that Edwards first caught his eye when he took his son, Fran Jr., to a high school football camp in Georgia. He started recruiting Edwards soon after.
He grew a relationship with Edwards and his mom. Edwards’ mom and Brown’s wife, Teara, grew a relationship, too.
It was a similar story with Ohio State-transfer quarterback Kyle McCord. Brown has known McCord since he was playing little league football in the Philadelphia suburbs. Teara Brown, a nurse, worked with McCord’s father while finishing up her clinical education.
Rob Hinson, the coach of Camden High School who also coached when Brown was in school, said that even in the era of flashy recruiting visits and big name, image and likeness contracts, relationships are still among the most important factors for high school players being recruited.
“All the people that are important to [the player], you have to also be able to kind of build those relationships with them,” Hinson said. “The only way you can do that and not get lost in that kind of pursuit is if you’re genuine in who you are.
“With him, it’s genuine and everybody around each kid, each player, each coach that he deals with knows that he’s genuine. There’s no BS coming from him, and that goes a long way.”
The fact that Brown will have more established relationships with the underclassmen on Syracuse’s 2024 roster than those who have been here multiple seasons is one of the quirky intricacies of coaching changes these days.
But the same rules that apply to earning the trust and loyalty of new players applies to recruiting ones already around, too.
Winning over Syracuse’s top players
Brown started winning over Syracuse’s roster in his first full-team address.
When punter Jack Stonehouse asked Brown how important special teams play is to him, Brown’s answer was enough to show Stonehouse he would be valued. Finding out later that Brown would be keeping special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky helped, too.
For tight end Dan Villari, who said he believes he’s “fully locked in” for 2024 at Syracuse, Brown’s talk of culture and discipline in his opening address was “music to [his] ears.”
After Syracuse’s win over Wake Forest — prior to Brown’s hiring — Villari spoke about how there were some culture and discipline issues he wanted addressed that he felt were holding the program back.
Villari wouldn’t elaborate on what he meant.
“I don’t gotta say nothing anymore,” Villari said. “It’s in [Brown’s] hands, and I feel 100% confident that he’s gonna take us to where we need to be.”
Brown, understandably, has taken interest in Villari. The rising star said he’s had a couple of 1-on-1 meetings with Brown but most of their conversations have come in passing.
In their first individual meeting, Brown told Villari something he’d never had a coach tell him before: “If I don’t do what I say, you better call me out on it.”
It shows Brown wants his players to have expectations of him just as he does of them, part of the reason he’s already begun instilling the rules of the program’s new culture.
Things like coming to breakfast, keeping team spaces clean, removing hats indoors and making eye contact while speaking with someone have all been emphasized.
“I think you can just see that he’s really serious about the little things,” Caleb Okechukwu said. “Things that we may have been able to get away with in the past is not really gonna fly now.”
Brown said Wednesday those rules are rooted in his own childhood, adding that he still doesn’t drink a beverage until he’s done with his meal. Getting to enjoy juice as a child only happened if he finished his food first, Brown said.
The hat rule has already gotten Stonehouse, who admitted he will have to get used to the change in policy because he wears a hat “24/7.” The rule also applies to durags and anything else players might wear on their heads.
“I like that,” Stonehouse said. “I like the, ‘This is exactly what we’re gonna do and that’s how we’re gonna do it.’ ”
Players have also gelled with defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson.
Though they’re from the same hometown and coach on the same side of the ball, Brown and Robinson have brought different styles and personalities, multiple players said.
Okechukwu – who said he’s exploring whether he has an extra year of eligibility but wouldn’t disclose more details – also commented on Robinson’s “cool vibe.”
“We actually talked about my game. Everything he said, it was just real,” Okechukwu said. “For me, it’s an honor for an SEC D-coordinator who’s seen some of the best of the best to be able to recognize your game and have those conversations.”
Brown may be the one getting in Wax’s ear consistently, but Robinson is doing it in his own way, too, the linebacker said.
He’s more relaxed about it, telling Wax he can make whatever decision he needs to, but teasing that he “should know where [he] needs to be at.”
“I feel like they’re just real genuine, thorough men,” Wax said of Brown and Robinson. “[Coach Robinson] and Coach Brown are like best friends. They’re locked in on everything.”
A new hope
After a brutal loss in the Boca Raton Bowl, Brown spoke to his team in the locker room.
He used what he witnessed and they experienced — the Orange’s worst loss of a disappointing season — as motivation: Never again was Syracuse going to feel like it did in those postgame moments, Brown told the team.
“He just told us that we’re not gonna lose anymore, and I believe him 100%,” Villari said.
A few of Syracuse’s new transfer additions, including McCord, were on the sidelines with Brown watching their future team Thursday night.
Campanile said Brown’s comments managed to successfully change the mood, turning the team’s focus toward the future even if it was bittersweet.
Brown told the players the first thing they have to do is go home and enjoy the holidays with their families. Rest, and recharge.
When they arrive back in Syracuse for the start of the spring semester, a new era of Orange football will be in full effect.
Brown said it best Wednesday: “On January 15, it’s on.”
Contact Emily Leiker anytime: Email | Twitter
