Former Western Carolina standout Fran Brown worked his way up and coached under Matt Rhule at Temple and Baylor, Greg Schiano at Rutgers and Kirby Smart at Georgia.
Brown was hired at Syracuse to replace Dino Babers and has hit the ground running. With help from the transfer portal, the Orange are off to a 4-1 start and have become one of the surprise stories in the ACC.
Syracuse travels to play NC State (3-3) at 8 p.m. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium on the ACC Network.
Five Syracuse players to watch
Junior running back LeQuint Allen
The 6-foot, 201-pound Allen was one of the breakout players in the ACC last year. He rushed 245 times for 1,064 yards and nine touchdowns, and added 38 catches for 210 yards and a score in 2023. He has followed up with 73 carries for 358 yards and three scores, and has 29 catches for 226 yards and three touchdowns through five games. He had a season-high 98 yards on 15 carries in the 38-22 win over Ohio on Aug. 31. Allen had over 100 yards in seven games last year.
Senior defensive end Fadil Diggs
The 6-5, 261-pound Diggs played his first four years at Texas A&M, and he collected eight sacks. Diggs made the move to Syracuse and already has four sacks, 27 tackles and eight tackles for loss in five games this season. He had two sacks apiece against both Ohio and UNLV. He was ranked No. 205 overall in the class of 2020 coming out of Camden (N.J.) Woodrow Wilson by Rivals.com.
Junior tight end Oronde Gadsden II
The lanky 6-5, 236-pound Gadsden, whose dad played in the NFL, is essentially a wide receiver playing tight end. Gadsden exploded in 2022 for 61 catches for 969 yards and six touchdowns, when current NC State offensive coordinator Robert Anae was at Syracuse. He had eight catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-9 win over NC State on Oct. 15, 2022. Gadsden got injured last year, but has bounced back for 26 catches for 395 yards and three scores this season. He wore out UNLV for 10 catches for 142 yards in the 44-41 overtime win last Friday.
Senior cornerback Clarence Lewis
Syracuse has young and old with freshman cornerback Marcellus Barnes II and senior Lewis, who played his first four years at Notre Dame. The 6-0, 201-pounder has 12 tackles, five passes defended and one interception this season. Lewis has 136 career tackles, 23 passes defended, three forced fumbles and four interceptions.
Senior quarterback Kyle McCord
McCord was the starting quarterback for Ohio State in 2023, with his lone loss 30-24 at Michigan. The 6-3, 220-pound McCord entered the transfer portal and landed at Syracuse, where he has thrived. McCord has gone 154-of-240 passing for 1,814 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He isn’t a threat to scramble much, but has thrown for at least 339 yards in all five games this season. McCord threw for 3,170 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions in 12 games at Ohio State in 2023.
What to watch for from Syracuse
1. High-powered offense. The Orange are averaging 35.8 points per game this season, with a season-high 44 points last week in the overtime win at UNLV.
The lone team to slow down Syracuse has been Stanford, which topped the Orange 26-24 on Sept. 20 in Upstate New York. The Cardinal picked him off twice and got four sacks.
McCord has been airing the ball out, and went 40-of-63 passing for 355 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, with four carries for 22 yards last Friday against UNLV. He’s completed at least 27 passes in all five games. McCord has been sacked nine times this season.
Syracuse has five threats in the passing game, plus running back Allen, who bring different skillsets. Junior slot receiver Trebor Pena has emerged with 34 receptions for 383 yards and five touchdowns, and Georgia transfer Jackson Meeks has been a welcomed addition, and has 27 catches for 343 yards and three scores.
Junior Umari Hatcher is a deep threat with 12 receptions for 218 yards and two scores, and sophomore Darrell Gill Jr. has chipped in 11 catches for 133 yards and a touchdown.
Allen and tight end Oronde Gadsden II are major threats in the passing game, with Gadsden a likely future NFL player.
2. The defense is suspect. Good teams have proven they can score against Syracuse.
The Orange are allowing 26.2 points, 136 rushing yards per game and 209.2 passing yards a contest this season. Syracuse has 11 sacks and five interceptions, but have only forced one fumble, which they didn’t recover.
UNLV hung 41 points on the board with Campbell quarterback transfer Hajj-Malik Williams throwing for 227 yards and three scores, and he rushed 12 times for 53 ayrds and a touchdown.
Georgia Tech scored four touchdowns — three on the ground — and quarterback Haynes King threw for 266 yards and one touchdown, and rushed for 67 yards and two scores, but the Yellow Jackets lost 31-28.
Stanford topped Syracuse 26-24 and did it on the ground. The Cardinal rushed 32 times for 173 yards, while throwing for 178 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Stanford had a pick-six in the win.
3. Offensive line has emerged. Syracuse has allowed 11 sacks in 244 passing attempts this season.
Four of the sacks happened in the lost against Stanford, with speed rusher David Bailey getting two of them.
Redshirt juniors Da’Metrius Weatherspoon and Savion Washington are both massive bookends. Weatherspoon, a Howard transfer, is at left tackle at 6-7 and 330 pounds. Washington is 6-8 and 340 pounds at right tackle, and is a Kent State and Colorado transfer.
Senior center J’Onre Reed is 6-3 and 316 pounds, and has two seniors around him with left guard Jakob Bradford, who is 6-5 and 304, and right guard Mark Petry, who checks in at 6-4 and 301 pounds. The group at their various schools have a combined 91 career starts.
Three keys to the game for NC State football
1. NC State’s secondary is going to get tested, no question about it.
Senior quarterback Kyle McCord might not have been appreciated enough at Ohio State, but that isn’t the case at Syracuse. For instance, the most passes he threw in a game in 2023 with the Buckeyes was going 21-of-37 passing for 240 yards and zero touchdowns in a 17-14 win at Notre Dame. The irony is that he threw the most in a game that was a low-scoring down to the last second thriller. He had six contests where he threw 29 passes or less.
McCord has thrown the ball 240 times in five games, and that means cornerbacks Aydan White and Devon Marshall, nickel Tamarcus Cooley and safeties Bishop Fitzgerald and Donovan Kaufman will be challenged.
NC State will also likely play cornerback Corey Coley or safety Kerry Martin in the dime package when Syracuse spreads it out with four wide receivers.
2. The Wolfpack will need to walk a tight rope between letting freshman quarterback Cedrick Bailey throw the ball some, but also control the clock at times with the running game.
As mentioned previously, teams have hurt Syracuse through the air for the most part, or with a scrambling quarterback.
UNLV’s top back only 42 of his 64 yards on one carry last Friday. He had six carries and no other running back had more than two. NC State won’t take that approach with freshman running back Kendrick Raphael and senior Jordan Waters.
Syracuse had a running quarterback, and its two backs combined for 17 carries and 126 yards. That could be more the formula that NC State will use, but maybe carries in the 25-28 range.
The one team that did torch Syracuse with the run game was Ohio in the opener Aug. 31. Former Northwestern power back Anthony Tyus III rushed 16 times for 203 yard and two score.To put things in perspective, Akron just held Tyus to 30 carries for hard-earned yards Sept. 28.
3. NC State has been much more aggressive blitzing the last two games, and McCord isn’t mobile.
Senior defensive end Davin Vann has proven he can consistently rush the passer out of the 3-3-5 scheme, but it’s been tough sledding at the other two spots on the defensive line. Vann has 2.5 sacks and the other defensive lineman have combined for 1.5 sacks.
That is where redshirt junior middle linebacker Caden Fordham, redshirt junior outside linebacker Sean Brown and senior safety Donovan Kaufman have tried to fill the void.
Brown has three sacks, Fordham, Kaufman, redshirt freshman nickel Tamarcus Cooley and redshirt junior outside linebacker Devon Betty have one sack apiece, among the non-defensive lineman.
Three numbers of note
0 Number of fumbles lost by the Syracuse offense, and fumbles recovered the Orange defense through five games.
44 The special number of Syracuse football, particularly the running back position, where 11 have worn it, including Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little.
55 Percentage for Syracuse on third-down conversions — going 44 of 80 — which ranks No. 5 in the NCAA. The Orange are 6 of 8 on fourth downs.
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