Fran Brown recalls being recruited by Matt Rhule at Western Carolina

When Fran Brown wanted to get his foot in the door of college football, it was Matt Rhule who offered him his first opportunity. Now as Brown prepares to take his first head coaching job at Syracuse, he knows he owes a a great deal of what he learned to Rhule.

Rhule was an assistant coach at Western Carolina in the early 2000s when Brown was then trying to break through from JUCO to the next level. When Rhule showed up on campus, it was Brown who first introduced himself to the coach. He approached the coach to let him know what his plan was to make sure he qualified academically.

“Rhule wasn’t coming there for me,” Brown told On3‘s Andy Staples. “They were coming for someone else. The coach didn’t think I would get done all my school work in one year, but I had a plan. I went in the summer and took 12 credits. During the school year, I was taking 21 credits. I ended up passing 18 of those 21 and I stayed over the Christmas break. I met coach Rhule and I saw him in the hall and was like, ‘coach, I’ve got a plan. This is what I’m gonna do to pass. I’m taking 18 credits now and I’m gonna pass these and be up there for Christmas. I’m gonna have 60 credits in a year. You need to recruit me. I’m the best corner in the conference anyway.'”

Rhule took a look at the Brown’s tape and and decided that he wanted to extend him an offer. He went on to play for Western Carolina for three seasons before transferring to Cincinnati. He went on to become first team All-SoCon and was also named a team captain.

“He went through it and he watched my tape,” Brown said. “Coach Rhule’s from New York, so I kind of took it from there with him being from New York. About the school that was purple and gold. I went to Camden High, purple and gold. NC State had Phillip Rivers, Jericho Cotchery, they was just killing. I played pretty well but they beat the bricks off of us. I just remember the whole game crying because I got left back as a senior in high school. I went to JUCO and was able to do all that stuff in a year and I was now getting an opportunity to play college football for real after that year.”

When Brown got into coaching, he later reunited with Rhule and Temple and following him to Baylor. He used those opportunities to work his way up and become an assistant at Georgia under Kirby Smart.

Now he’ll get the chance to show what he can do as a head coach as he takes over a Syracuse program that went 6-7 a year ago. As he does so, he’ll hope to carry the lessons he learned from Rhule with him.