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New Hiring Follows Major Firing With Campanile in the Middle New Hiring Follows Major Firing With Campanile in the Middle

By Lindsay Arons

REPORTER: The Syracuse Football program has been in a whirlwind over the past few weeks: firing head coach Dino Babers, clinching bowl eligibility under interim head coach Nunzio Campanile and hiring Georgia defensive backs coach Fran Brown to be their future head coach

REPORTER: I’m here at the Ensley Athletic Center where the Syracuse Football team has been practicing for their upcoming bowl game. I had the opportunity to get the inside scoop from players and coaches about how they’re feeling going into the big game

ELIJAH WRIGHT: “It’s awesome, it means everything. This is what we put all the hard work in for through camp, summer, everything. To get this one more opportunity to have an extra game, it means the world.”

REPORTER: While the senior tight end appreciates the opportunity to play one more game, he said doing so without Coach Babers has been difficult.

ELIJAH WRIGHT: “Being underneath one coach for all your college career, you know unfortunately the past week he wasn’t with us. So it was weird without him, but you know we’ve all came together, worked hard and we were able to get that last win for him.”

REPORTER: That last win was a big one for Interim Head Coach Nunzio Campanile. I asked him if this is a role he ever expected to be in during his first season with the team

NUNZIO CAMPANILE: ”I definitely didn’t anticipate that at all. I mean to be honest it’s not a situation you ever wanna be in. It was an honor to have the opportunity to do it and represent this program and help our guys get to a bowl game, but in reality that was never something that entered into my mind.”

REPORTER: While having the opportunity to lead the team to a bowl game victory this season, next season Coach Nunzio will be led by a familiar face.

NUNZIO CAMPANILE: “Super excited for Fran, we’re good friends. I had the opportunity to work with him for two years. We spent a ton of time together, he’s gonna be a tremendous addition to this program”

REPORTER: Syracuse will head to the Sunshine State as they take on University of South Florida in the Boca Raton Bowl on December 21st. Reporting from Syracuse, I’m Lindsay Arons – NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — The past few weeks have been utter chaos for Syracuse Football. The team fired Head Coach Dino Babers on Nov. 19 following the loss to Georgia Tech. Despite rumors that a change might be made, the timing of Babers’ dismissal surprised some as bowl eligibility was still within reach of the Orange.

For many players, Dino’s absence certainly has been felt. This especially held true for seniors whose emotions were subdued somewhat in their “senior night” finale Nov. 25 against Wake Forest – their first game without Babers.

“It’s difficult, obviously,” said senior tight end Elijah Wright. “Being underneath one coach for all your college career, you know unfortunately the past week he wasn’t with us. So it was weird without him, but you know we all came together, worked hard and we were able to get that last win for him.”

Tight Ends Coach Nunzio Campanile was named Interim Head Coach prior to the Wake Forest game, an exciting 35-31 victory that secured bowl eligibility. The turn of events was something Campanile never expected, especially since this was his first season working in the program after five seasons on the staff at Rutgers.

”I definitely didn’t anticipate that at all,” Campanile said. “I mean to be honest it’s not a situation you ever wanna be in. It was an honor to have the opportunity to do it and represent this program and help our guys get to a bowl game, but in reality that was never something that entered into my mind.”

Interestingly enough, this was not the first time Campanile has been in an interim situation. In 2019, he also served as interim head coach for Rutgers after the mid-season firing of Chris Ash. He seems to be the go-to-guy when chaos arises.

“I think that I’m a dependable guy,” Campanile said. “I think I’m the type of guy that you can trust in a crisis. You kind of throw everybody into a situation where it’s total upheaval. Everybody’s life changed instantly. Generally, I’m the type of guy I don’t really flinch when something bad happens. I stay the course, find the positives in every situation and make sure everybody around me can see there’s adversity but there’s also opportunity.”

Syracuse now faces South Florida in the RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl Dec. 21. The opportunity to compete in a bowl game is an incentive that Campanile said motivated his players.

“We were lucky that we were playing for something,” Campanile said, referring back to the Wake Forest game. “The players had a lot of motivation, they had a good reason to continue to fight for each other.”

On Dec. 5 Syracuse hired Georgia assistant Fran Brown as its new head coach. However, not only did Brown retain Campanile as Tight Ends coach, the Orange assistant will again serve as Interim Head Coach for the Boca Raton Bowl as Brown needs time to familiarize himself with his roster.

“Super excited for Fran, we’re good friends,” Campanile said. “I had the opportunity to work with him for two years (when both served as Rutgers assistants). We spent a ton of time together, he’s gonna be a tremendous addition to this program.”

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