A new era of Syracuse football officially kicks off Saturday as Fran Brown’s Syracuse Orange take on the Ohio Bobcats.
Head football coach Fran Brown brought the “DART” mentality to the Syracuse Football team emphasizing being detailed, accountable, relentless, and tough. The team has more than 40 new players between freshmen and players brought in through the transfer portal. Brown said they’ve worked on how the team gels together.
“It's almost like a puzzle," Brown said. "You don't want to force anything. Whatever fits fits. And then you start to see things that do fit, and then you just understand their weaknesses and their strengths, and try to play on their strengths, but then continue to grow their weaknesses.”
In addition to the reseat of the JMA Wireless Dome, replacing metal bench seating with chairback seating, Syracuse University Athletic Director John Wildhack, speaking in a video posted to Syracuse Orange, said they’ve added more premium areas and installed touchscreen wayfinding to help people navigate. Maximum capacity for football games with the updated seating is now 42,784 seats.
“When you walk in the JMA Wireless Dome it looks like a professional arena and it looks great," Wildhack said. "It's going to be more comfortable for our fans. It looks better. We've done a number of things with the reseat, which went incredibly well, and we're thankful for our fans because reseats are challenging and our fans were great.”
Also new this year, is the “quad walk.” Two hours and 15 minutes before kickoff, Brown and the Orange football team will walk from Hendricks Chapel through the quad to the JMA Wireless Dome, and Syracuse fans are encouraged to come out to Cuse on the Quad to cheer on the team.
Brown said he’s looking forward to Saturday’s atmosphere.
“I know it's going to rock," Brown said. "I know how it's going to be there. But I'm also excited about all the kids that come to school here. Our future — all the future student-athletes and just all the future guys, it's gonna take over America."
Kick-off is set for 3:30 p.m. at the JMA Wireless Dome.
