Syracuse University football coach Fran Brown dismissed four assistant coaches on Monday afternoon after the Orange just wrapped a 3-9 campaign in 2025.

According to On3, Brown let go of special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield, offensive line coach Dale Williams, defensive backs coach Joe Schaefer and co-defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Robert Wright. He had fired receivers coach/passing game coordinator Myles White earlier in the season.

The Orange lost eight straight games to end the season, all of them after quarterback Steve Angeli was lost for the season because of a torn Achilles. After his injury, the team was forced to play inexperienced quarterbacks like sophomore Rickie Collins and true freshmen Joseph Filardi and Luke Carney.

Why this seems questionable

I'll start by saying this: We don't know what the internal dialogue is like in the athletic department. Perhaps Brown was told to change up the staff "or else," and this is way of following through on that. We don't know.

But short of that? This seems like an unnecessary slew of decisions. 

It's very clear that everything wrong with the Orange stems from when Angeli got hurt. The Orange were 3-1 and beat Clemson on the road with him at the helm. They also defeated a Connecticut team that ended the year 9-3.

Was the special teams coordinator really the reason why the Orange were 79th in passing yards per game? Is the defensive backs coach the reason why the team was 108th in the nation in rushing yards per game?

The Orange were ranked 128th in scoring defense, but is that really the sign of poor coaching, or is it the sign of an offense that can't get out of it's own way and turns the ball over and can't create positive field position? 

The Orange went 10-3 in 2024. Wright, Schaefer and Williams were all with the team during that season as the Orange won the Holiday Bowl over Washington State.

Is it their faults that injury forced Syracuse to play three inexperienced two quarterbacks, including two that had never seen collegiate action until this year?

Other moves made during the season

In that same vein, Brown made several coaching changes during the year, even beyond firing White.

He switched quarterbacks coach Nunizo Campanile to the tight end group and switched around Mike Johnson (to quarterbacks) and Josh Gattis (to WRs). Is it really fair to have expected those coaching changes to have worked instantly over the last month of the season? Especially in conjunction with the quarterback turmoil?

Is Brown desperate? 

It's clear that Brown has an urgency to win, which is good, but there's a fine line between urgent and desperate, and it seems like he might be flirting with it right now.

You can hear more in the video in the above player.

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