Syracuse football: a look at the history between Fran Brown and Georgia Tech HC Brent Key

“I’ll see him on Saturday.”

Towards the end of Saturday’s post-game press conference, Syracuse Orange HC Fran Brown quickly, after he made his remarks, added a bit about Georgia Tech’s HC Brent Key — who was on the coaching staff for a year at Western Carolina while Fran was a player.

Two days later, during Brown’s opening statement at his weekly press conference on Monday, Brown referenced Key again.

“Honored for the opportunity we have this week to go against Georgia Tech, especially the opportunity to go against Coach Key as a head coach. He’s known me since I was 20 years old when he was a coach at Western Carolina,” Brown added. “He’s been a part of helping me become successful.”

After Key finished his time as an offensive lineman at GT, he joined the coaching staff in Atlanta for two seasons as a graduate assistant. His next position was at Western Carolina as the running backs and tight ends coach (2004) before he joined UCF for several years.

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On Tuesday, at Key’s weekly press conference, a reporter asked Key about his prior relationship with Brown during the short time they spent together at WCU.

“I was only there for like four months. I got there in early August and was at UCF by December or January. He was a good football player when I was there, a defensive football player, that was a long time ago,” Key said.

Also, I thought this was worth mentioning. Shortly after Key answered the question regarding his relationship with Brown, he shared a story about his first encounter with a real-life catamount, more commonly referred to as a mountain lion, at the door of his trailer in Cullowhee, North Carolina.

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I asked Fran on Monday if he and Coach Key would catch up over the phone before Saturday’s game, and his answer was pretty brief.

“Nah, I’ll see him on Saturday,” Brown added. “Whenever we see each other, we talk.. but we’re not going to be calling each other, I’m not doing that with anybody, we’re out here to compete.”

There’s no denying the history between these two, but make no mistake, it’s all business headed into Saturday’s matchup. If, and it’s a big if, Syracuse can pull off an upset win at home over 23rd-ranked Georgia Tech, it’ll be interesting to hear what Fran says about beating one of his former college coaches.