When Fran Brown accepted the job as the head football coach at Syracuse nearly two years ago, he made a vow to build “something special for our fans.”

The first season was a great start, with a 10-3 record and a win in the Holiday Bowl.

The construction project has faced some delays in the second season, however, as the Orange prepare to face Atlantic Coast Conference foe North Carolina on Friday night at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse.

Brown’s squad has lost four straight conference games since starting quarterback Steve Angeli tore an Achilles in an upset of Clemson in Week 4. The Orange (3-5, 1-4) need three wins in their final four games to become bowl-eligible this season, and the task is tall.

Syracuse closes the regular season with home games against the Tar Heels (2-5, 0-3) and Boston College, with road games against No. 10 Miami and No. 12 Notre Dame sandwiched between them.

The bowl game probably won’t happen this season, but Brown didn’t expect the 6-7 team he inherited to become a College Football Playoff team overnight.

Instead, he said in his news conference on Monday that he and his staff are building the foundation of the program. And that starts with the freshmen and sophomores, some of whom have faced adjustments to college football this season.

He had a meeting with the younger players.

“We want to finish this the right way for the seniors,” he said. “It’s important the we finish this the right way for the seniors.

Those seniors, Brown said, “truly helped push the culture over the top, showed us how to face adversity and move [on], so then we have a chance of going to win a national championship.”

QB Conundrum

Among those young players are Rickie Collins and Luke Carney, the top backups to Angeli. Collins is 0-4 as a starter; Carney has seen limited action.

Angeli is expected to return next  season, and Brown said there will be a quarterback competition. He said he was excited about recruits who have committed to the Orange. At QB, that’s Zaid Lott of Providence Day School in Charlotte, N.C.

Brown has supported Collins through his struggles but said Monday that the quarterback play must improve.

“If you look at where Steve was at, we were 3-1,” Brown said. “Probably one of the biggest games in Syracuse history was won down there in Clemson. And then it kind of went from highest of the high to all of a sudden. So, I think [Collins] has a long way to go to get to that point.”

Brown will hold a competition next spring with Angeli still working to rehab the injury.

“Everybody will get an opportunity to compete and an opportunity to play,” Brown said about the 2026 quarterbacks room. “If they don’t want to compete, then they’ve got to go. They’ve got that right to. Cool thing about it is it happens early. So, they don’t want to compete to play quarterback here, the portal opens in January.”