Fran Brown talks up QB Amari Odom and his Orange before Saturday's ACC road test at UVA

Brown held his weekly media availability Monday before the (latest) big game of the season Saturday night at Virginia.

Syracuse coach Fran Brown speaks with the media Monday at the Lally Athletics Complex, before the Orange look to end a 10 game ACC losing streak Saturday night at Virginia. | Screen shot courtesy of Syracuse University Athletic Communications

Syracuse football has yet to have any sustained success winning ACC games outside of the Dome under both Scott Shafer, Dino Babers, and now Brown, dating back to its 2013 maiden campaign.

Shafer went 3-8 in three seasons, Babers was a miserable 5-26 in eight campaigns, and now Brown has his second league road test of 2026 after the 27-13 defeat at Pitt September 17, and a 3-5 mark overall.

That all adds up to an ugly 11-39 record in 14 seasons of ACC road play, as the Orange (2-2, 0-2) travel to Charlottesville Saturday night (7:30 p.m. ET / ACCN) to face a Cavaliers team (3-2, 1-1) coming off a 38-7 shellacking at Florida State this past weekend.

If there was ever a time for the 'Cuse under Brown to record its first ACC road win since the Steve Angeli-led Clemson shocker over a year ago in Death Valley, then it would be the present week under new QB Amari Odom with the angry Hoos and a home crowd awaiting.

A behind-the-scenes perspective of the new Syracuse starting QB

Odom put himself into the Syracuse record books after his first game as a starter. In last week's 42-41 OT thrilling ending at UConn, Odom accounted for six TDs, tying the legendary Jim Brown (1956), Eric Dungey (2018), and Angeli (2025), and one behind Zack Mahoney's seven TDs in 2016's wacky76-61 loss at Pitt.

On Monday, Brown had nothing but praise for how Odom has responded since joining the program in an off-season flip of QBs with Rickie Collins going to Kennesaw State, and Odom traversing up north to join Brown's faith-driven program.

"I talked to him (Odom) when we named Steve the starter (in August), he said 'I'm fine, this happened before, I'm good coach, let's go win these games'", Brown told the media when asked about his QB's character. "

"He's done an outstanding job," Brown added. "He waited his turn, he pushed, he led from being the number two quarterback. He wasn't upset when other people were having success, he pushed and led and that stood out."

What if Syracuse did not beat Connecticut?

We usually do not like to play the "what if" game, but there were clearly a few fourth down plays in the fourth quarter and overtime in the eventual win by the one point necessary against UConn to make all of Orange Nation wonder if Brown's future as SU coach was close to approaching the stove top flame.

Dropping to 1-3 with only a win over New Hampshire and a loss to the Huskies added to the Cal home defeat, a new administration, which is working on a key three year timeline to shape up Orange athletics, would have a lot of discussing to do about the football program's immediate and future direction..

Brown, like every coach, says they do not pay attention to the outside noise, but all coaches have such deep staffs all the intel gets back to their desks anyway, certainly in one form or another.

"You have got to come to work everyday and work your butt off, or they'll try to find somebody to replace you," Brown said when explaining that every job is on the line in the program with or without the success of winning games.

"Remember the story you all (the media) were saying, 'Is Fran the guy?' So you have to work hard everyday, I'm teaching our players to do that,' Brown added. "We have to work like our life is on the line, every single day is important."

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