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Fran Brown has made his most pivotal coaching staff change yet. After a 3-9 season in his second year helming Syracuse, Brown announced Tuesday the Orange will move defensive coordinator Elijah Robinson into a co-defensive coordinator role. The shift leaves the defensive coordinator role open.

Under Robinson, SU turned in one of the worst defenses in the Atlantic Coast Conference twice. In 2025, the Orange finished last in the ACC with 34.9 points allowed per game — over two points more than anyone else. Defensive woes reached their boiling point in Syracuse’s final two weeks, when Notre Dame dropped 70 points, and conference bottom-feeder Boston College scored 34.

Brown fired linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator Robert Wright and defensive backs coach Joe Schaefer as he looks to rebuild his defensive coaching staff. Moving Robinson adds an even more prominent opening.

Here are five viable options for Syracuse’s defensive coordinator role:

Kevin Coyle, UCLA Interim Defensive Coordinator

Brown has already utilized Kevin Coyle’s defensive expertise at Syracuse. The head coach brought in Coyle to begin the 2025 season as senior defensive analyst, helping the Orange’s defensive staff through training camp and the first few weeks. He then moved to UCLA to be the interim defensive coordinator for the remainder of the season.

Coyle and Brown go way back to the mid-2000s, when Brown was an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals and Coyle was the defensive backs coach. Coyle also has a history with the Orange, serving as their defensive coordinator for the first three years of the Paul Pasqualoni era.

Coyle will turn 70 in January, which could make this a short-term solution and not advantageous to Brown. But through his experiences as a defensive coordinator in the NFL and multiple stops in the college game, Coyle is a trustworthy and experienced option.

Tray Scott, Georgia D-Line Coach

Tray Scott might be Brown’s best chance at securing a star defensive mind before he receives an in-house promotion to defensive coordinator. Scott has served under Kirby Smart as Georgia’s defensive line coach since 2017. And since then, the Bulldogs have become one of the gold standards for defensive line play in the SEC.

Scott’s been part of two national championship-winning staffs (2021, 2022), coached 10 future NFL Draft pick defensive linemen and edge rushers — including Jalen Carter, Travon Walker and Mykel Williams — and was nominated for the 2024 Broyles Award, which recognizes the nation’s top assistant. There are few better resumes out there for a position-group coach.

Brown worked with Scott for two seasons from 2022-23 while he served as UGA’s defensive backs coach. Syracuse’s head coach has made it clear he wants to turn his program into the Georgia of the northeast. To do that, he could start by calling his former colleague in Athens.

Geoff Collins, South Carolina Senior Defensive Assistant

Jumping back into Brown’s past as a player, Geoff Collins has known Brown since 2002. Collins served as Western Carolina’s defensive coordinator throughout Brown’s college career, utilizing him as a captain. Collins even told The Daily Orange in October he babysat Fran Brown Jr.

Collins has added a flurry of experience to his resume since those days in rural North Carolina. He served as Temple’s head coach from 2017-18 and led Georgia Tech from 2019-22. He worked his way up the coaching ladder, with prominent defensive coordinator roles in the SEC and led a top defense in the country at Florida in 2016.

Collins spent the 2025 season as a senior defensive assistant at South Carolina and last served as a defensive coordinator at North Carolina in 2024. He also told The D.O. he enjoyed Brown’s “heart on your sleeve” attitude, saying he’s always been that way. Syracuse currently has zero former college head coaches on its staff — Nunzio Campanile was an interim twice — so this would be a big get.

Don Brown, Syracuse Consultant

The Orange have potential to promote from within for this crucial defensive coordinator hire. Don Brown, a former head coach at Northeastern and UMass, as well as a longtime defensive playcaller at Maryland, Boston College, UConn, Michigan and Arizona, worked at SU this past year as a consultant. The 70-year-old Massachusetts native boasts a wealth of experience and likely won’t have too many suitors that Syracuse would need to compete with.

Brown could add another coach with his namesake to his staff in Don, who led Michigan’s defense to four straight top-10 finishes in yards allowed per game from 2016-19. Though former Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh fired Don after a disappointing 2020 season, he proved he could dial up a dominant defense when given the proper resources.

Don’s clearly got plenty of fire left in him; he returned to UMass as its head coach from 2022-24 after leading the program from 2004-08. Since he’s already in the building, the Orange should at least give him a lengthy interview for their DC vacancy.

Deion Barnes, Penn State D-Line Coach

The midseason firing of James Franklin still has the college football world waiting on what will happen to his remaining assistants at Penn State. The Nittany Lions haven’t hired a replacement yet, so time will tell if a new head coach brings in his own coaches or lets select assistants stay. In any scenario, Syracuse would be silly not to reach out to Penn State defensive line coach Deion Barnes, a young up-and-coming assistant ready for a bigger role.

Barnes, a Philadelphia native, has spent the last six seasons on the Nittany Lions’ staff and coached future NFL first-round picks Abdul Carter (2025) and Odafe Oweh (2021). He’s also coached five First-Team All-Big Ten selections and served on Penn State’s 2024 squad that made the College Football Playoff Semifinal — a team led by Carter, Barnes’ top lineman.

Barnes has no defensive playcalling experience, but the 32-year-old could be inclined to leave his alma mater at Penn State to join Brown’s regime in a coveted role.

Published on December 2, 2025 at 2:21 pm