Fran Brown didn’t say it but the door has closed on the Rickie Collins era | Carlson

Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse football coach Fran Brown left the door open that Rickie Collins might start for the Orange against North Carolina on Friday night.

He did not say that Collins has played his last meaningful snap at Syracuse.

But that was the unstated message he delivered this week when discussing the team’s quarterback position.

Brown considers his quarterback the No. 2 leader in his operation, a position that requires a deep reservoir of trust between coach and player.

Few positions in football are more mental than quarterback, where confidence is needed to pull the trigger while the play on the field is still developing.

Brown filled Kyle McCord with confidence as soon as he arrived on SU’s campus, professed loyalty to Steve Angeli during this season’s early rough patches and then backed Collins for four unsuccessful weeks with all the bravado that he could muster.

“I can’t do that no more,” Brown said earlier this week on ESPN Radio Syracuse about keeping Collins as the unquestioned starter. “I love Rickie, man. He’s a little brother to me. But he had a month straight of me sticking by him and doing everything the right way and being more supportive of him. I’m very, very supportive of every one of my players.

“Everything that happens bad is on Coach Fran. I told some of the coaches that we should have catered to (Collins) more. But he had a month of running the program. We were 3-1 under Steve’s time and under Rickie we were 0-4. You’ve got to open that competition up and give us an opportunity to win.”

Brown has shown he understands the confidence required to be a franchise quarterback.

He has declared his starter early during both his seasons at Syracuse, opting for clarity over mind games.

But if Collins had an ounce of belief in himself remaining after losing his starting job during training camp and playing four poor games after Angeli’s injury, Brown put whatever was left through the shredder in an effort to rally his team and fanbase for the final four weeks of the season.

On the unlikely chance that Collins plays on Friday against North Carolina, the public discussion over his status and capabilities will make it more difficult to perform. They also make it impossible for him to return to the program.

During an interview on ESPN Radio Syracuse on Wednesday, Brown said that Collins might not start on Friday for the Orange. If he does play against UNC, he won’t be the only quarterback.

Earlier in the week, the coach said he joked with Angeli that the quarterback’s injury “ruined” the team’s season.

He questioned whether Collins could ever reach the level of McCord or Angeli.

“It’s a lot that has to go on to be where Kyle was at and the things that Steve did,” Brown said. “We won, probably one of the biggest games in Syracuse history down at Clemson. It went from highest of the highs to all of a sudden. I think (Collins) has a long way to go to get to that point. You hope it could happen this week. Or ever.”

Collins had already endured a tumultuous time at Syracuse. He was named the team’s starter in the spring, stripped of the designation after the arrival of Angeli and lost a competition in training camp.

Can you imagine him taking the field against North Carolina and facing a Bill Belichick-led defense with the doubts of both a fan base and his head coach running through his head?

I can’t.

Instead, the quarterback’s fate became a message to a team, recruits and a fan base.

The message said that Brown is decisive. While some fans have been clamoring for a quarterback change for weeks, four weeks is fairly quick for a head coach to go against its previous evaluation and move off a high-profile free agent acquisition.

It said that Brown is still working for answers and isn’t willing to accept playing out the string on an unsuccessful season. He wants his players to take the same mindset.

It said that, despite a faulty defense and mediocre offensive line, the season would have worked out just fine if Angeli had remained healthy and that Brown thinks his players are good enough to win with the right quarterback calling the shots.

And it said that Collins won’t be that quarterback. Not this season. Not ever. At least not at Syracuse.

Angeli is the future for the Orange. Collins isn’t even secure as his backup. There’s no reason for a young man from Louisiana to compete for that job in Central New York rather than pursue a fresh start.

It was a dramatic shift in tone from previous weeks when Brown answered questions about Collins’ starting role as if they were unneeded and discussed the quarterback’s struggles by saying that his learning curve was similar to a freshman.

Brown and his staff view themselves as player’s coaches and rarely offer public criticism.

When a Syracuse player received a big-money contract to leave the program last offseason, Brown said he was supportive. When asked why the team struggled to score from the goal line last week at Georgia Tech, he didn’t name a single player.

But the generous tone toward Collins changed this week.

The coach has built a reputation for being blunt.

Unlike the other players who have been on the receiving end of his public criticism Collins is, at least for the moment, still part of the Syracuse family.

Although probably not for long.

The head coach said he wasn’t worried about Marcellus Barnes leaving the program and insinuated he was a snake for telling others about his intentions before entering the transfer portal.

Brown provided his explanation for the departure of Trebor Pena, with the message that the coach told Pena to leave after he asked for big money to stay and questioned the abilities of Collins.

The reason he was so open about those players, Brown has explained, is that he couldn’t allow the perception to exist that Syracuse isn’t a desirable place to play or lacks an attractive culture.

The coach wasn’t the first to show signs of losing patience with Collins.

Offensive tackle Trevion Mack has had moments of obvious agitation on the field. Johntay Cook’s uncle has vented on local talk radio.

Tight end Dan Villari was asked after the most recent loss to Georgia Tech what he tells Collins when they talk on the sideline. His answer was simple: to look for him in the middle of the field.

Collins has not given the Orange much of a chance to win in his four starts, but there is no guarantee things get better against North Carolina with a new quarterback.

They rarely do when a college football program is forced to drop to its third option.

But whether Collins is the best quarterback or not, whether the change is successful or not, Brown’s move delivered a message.

All it cost him was publicly shutting the door on Collins, a quarterback who had no future at Syracuse.

“I’m always going to do what I feel is best for us to get the best opportunity to win,” Brown said. “We have to do everything we can to win this football game Friday. I don’t want anyone to think they’re just chalking it up and trying to wait until next year. We want to win every game on the schedule. … We’ve got to do what’s best for (Syracuse).”