Syracuse football coach Fran Brown is a New Jersey native who played his college football at Western Carolina. But the second-year head coach has one small connection to Tennessee football— the program his Cuse face in its 2025 season opener.
Brown’s cousin, Rashad Baker, was a defensive back at Tennessee from 2000-03.
“I remember when Coach Phillip Fulmer was coaching there,” Brown said Monday. “I got a cousin named Rashad Baker who got a chance to play there. He was a four-year starter. Being able to see Tennessee for a long time and I think Coach Heupel has stepped in and (has) done an amazing job.”
Baker is the same age as Brown and the two both grew up in Camden, New Jersey. Phillip Fulmer and his staff went to the northeast and landed Baker out of Woodrow Wilson High School. He came to Tennessee as a receiver but quickly moved to free safety.
The 5-foot-10 defensive back started for most of his career at Tennessee, combining to total 235 tackles and 11 interceptions. Baker put up impressive numbers in both his sophomore and junior seasons in Knoxville, totaling four interceptions and 14 pass breakups in 2001 and five interceptions and 12 pass breakups in 2002. He also forced two fumbles in 2002.
More From RTI: What Syracuse Coach Fran Brown About Playing Tennessee Football This Week
Despite a successful playing career in Knoxville, Baker went unselected in the 2004 NFL Draft. Still, Baker made a career for himself in the NFL and played for four teams in six seasons.
As Baker made a professional career playing football, Brown made his career coaching football. Brown worked his way up the coaching tree with stops at Temple, Baylor, Rutgers and then two seasons as the defensive backs coach at Georgia before landing the Syracuse job.
Baker twice coached against Josh Heupel and Tennessee while at Georgia with the Bulldogs earning victories during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
“Last year (he) was in the college playoffs already,” Brown said of Heupel. “Got a chance to compete against him when I was at Georgia two times. Actually, the hardest week was being able to prepare for them. He’s got a lot of good players. He’s an intelligent coach.”
Syracuse had a breakout 2024 season in Brown’s first as head coach, boasting a 10-3 (5-3 ACC) record with a marquee win over Miami to end the season. But pundits expect the Orange to take a step back this season and DraftKings Sportsbook set their regular season over/under win total at 5.5
Kickoff between Tennessee and Syracuse is at noon ET Saturday. Bob Wischusen, Louis Riddick and Kris Budden are on the call for ABC.
