Syracuse might have won its first game of the season, but that didn’t mean the Orange’s coach was all that thrilled with the effort.
Quarterback Steve Angeli’s touchdown pass in overtime helped Syracuse survive, 27-20, over UConn, but head coach Fran Brown said afterward it was not the overall result he was mad about.
It was how the Orange carried themselves in the victory that made the second-year coach in central New York “pissed.”
So after the game, Brown had his entire team run sprints on the field instead of just going straight to the locker room and celebrating.
“Guys not running to get lined up, guys not running to the ball,” Brown told reporters after the game at JMA Wireless Dome. “I just want to celebrate the win with the people, but I’m so pissed. I’m mad as heck right now.
“I was taught through a lot of the coaches that coached me, you either coach it or allow it, so I feel that I’m allowing it. There’s just some things that I gotta do. I just want to hold them to the standard of who they are. These guys are excellent men, they’re going to be great fathers and husbands, and I want to make sure that I’m always holding them to that standard of who they are and not allowing them to underachieve at anything.”
Syracuse was held to just six points through the first three quarters before breaking out for 14 in the fourth quarter, taking a 20-17 lead with under two minutes left before UConn kicked a 41-yard field goal to force OT.
Angeli’s six-yard strike to Justus Ross-Simmons and a Syracuse defensive stop sealed the win.
The quarterback finished the game completing 33-of-53 attempts for 417 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
Brown added after the game that he was going to fulfill his no-nonsense approach that he promised.
“When I signed up for the job, I told them it was going to look a certain way, and it didn’t look like that for about 50 minutes of football,” Brown said. I just want to do what I promised I was going to do.”
Syracuse hosts Colgate on Friday night at 7 p.m.