Fran Brown reveals why he won’t let Calvin Russell sit out Syracuse practice
The Syracuse head coach wants his five-star freshman involved no matter what.
Calvin Russell tore his Achilles during spring practice on April 1 and had surgery the next day. Most coaches would tell a freshman to go rest, rehab, and come back when the body is ready. Fran Brown is not wired that way.
Russell was spotted at Tuesday’s practice wearing a helmet and shoulder pads, catching passes while standing still. Syracuse television reporter Ashley Wenskoski asked Brown whether it was his idea to get Russell back out there.
“It was a mixture of both of ours, it was really my idea,” Brown told Wenskoski. “I’m not about to let him sit in a room, by himself…I’m responsible for his mental. He’s a student-athlete. Why would I have him just sit on the sideline? There’s nothing wrong with his hands.”
Brown kept going. “Only if his foot starts to hurt, then he’ll go sit down. Outside of that, get over here with everybody else. My job is to develop him.”
Brown could stay busy and keep his mind on the season ahead
There’s something worth noting about how Brown frames it. He did not talk about keeping Russell’s football skills sharp. He talked about responsibility. Mental well-being. Not leaving a kid alone in a room after the worst moment of his young career. That matters more than route trees right now.
And it probably helps that quarterback Steve Angeli went through the exact same injury last September. Angeli has been giving Russell his resources, his advice, and his time. Russell acknowledged as much when he spoke to reporters on Friday, saying he could not thank Angeli enough.
Russell was the highest-rated football recruit in Syracuse’s modern history and had been tearing through spring practice before the injury. Dr. Martin O’Malley performed the surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the same surgeon who repaired Achilles injuries for Jayson Tatum and Kevin Durant. Brown has said Russell could return by late October or early November, which would be an aggressive timeline but not impossible given Russell’s age and the doctors’ early feedback.
Whether that timeline holds or not, the fact that Russell is already back around the team, helmet on, catching footballs nine days after surgery, tells you something about how Brown runs things. Not every coach would think of it that way.
