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Kirby Smart praises Fran Brown after win over Miami: ‘Fran made me a better coach’
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Kirby Smart has built a machine at Georgia, and he’s had a lot of help along the way.
One of those countless assistants is Fran Brown, who was the defensive backs coach in Athens in 2022 and 2023 before landing a head coaching job at Syracuse. It was Brown’s first head coaching job, and he nailed it in 2024.
Just ask any Syracuse fan who isn’t quite used to so much winning. The Orange went 9-3 in the regular season. Or ask any angry Miami fan, after the Hurricanes fell to Brown’s Syracuse team on Saturday and might’ve seen their College Football Playoff hopes sucked down the drain with it.
Or ask Smart, who not surprisingly was asked during his Monday press conference about his former pupil whose team made one of the biggest headlines on the final weekend of the regular season.
“Fran made me a better coach,” said Smart. “Fran thanks me all the time for what Will (Muschamp) and I did for him. … Fran did more for us. … He’s been a great man, father, husband. … I’m so happy for him, and not shocked at all. He’s hired a great staff.”
Kirby Smart asked about Fran Brown:
“Fran made me a better coach. Fran thanks me all the time for what Will and I did for him… Fran did more for us… He’s been a great man, father, husband… I’m so happy for him, and not shocked at all, he’s hired a great staff.”
— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) December 2, 2024
Brown was part of the coaching staff that helped Georgia capture the national title in 2022, and last year Brown was named the No. 1 national recruiter by 247Sports.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
