Spring Football Notebook 2024: Chestnut at safety, changing defensive scheme

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Fran Brown, sporting his shorts on a cloudy day, took a unique approach to coaching his cornerbacks. Not only was he in their faces, but he also took on the role of a player, throwing passes to them while shouting instructions.

He threw the ball to corners Jayden Bellamy and Marcellus Barnes Jr. while giving them both praise for the catches they made. Brown, along with his fellow position coaches like tight ends coach Michael Johnson and offensive coordinator and running backs coach Jeff Nixon, became active participants in their drills, throwing passes themselves instead of an assistant.

The head coach felt omnipresent outdoors, occasionally sporting his microphone to get the entire team’s attention even as he moved around during the stretch lines. Brown still had to focus on the whole team and not just defensive backs. On a play where Duce Chestnut forced an incompletion against tight end Dan Villari, Brown hyped up Chestnut but in a split second, got into Villari’s face and told him how to be better.

“He’s challenging everybody,” linebacker Marlowe Wax said of Brown. “He’s attacking every single person on the team, even the guys that people don’t know about.”

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s fifth spring football practice available to the media:

Chestnut’s return

Chestnut, who played in only four games at Louisiana State, announced his return to Syracuse at midnight on New Year’s Day. He returns to a defensive backfield that features veterans like Justin Barron and Alijah Clark.

Chestnut, who was at corner for SU and LSU, will now try his hand at playing safety, though. Brown said the decision came down to having the most talent on the field at all times. He added that if Chestnut was a corner, the redshirt junior would probably be better than some of the current corners.

But Brown said Chestnut has the natural instincts, catching ability and willingness to cover tight ends to attract professional teams. After forcing an incompletion against Villari during the goal line drill, Chestnut ended it with an interception right in front of the end zone as the position groups branched off into their respective drills.

“Why not put him in a position where he can succeed?” Brown said. “And he’ll have an opportunity and the chance to play after college football.”

Detailed defensive backs

If you talk to any current Syracuse player or coach, you will hear the acronym “DART” – detail, accountable, relentless and tough – which stemmed from Brown’s opening press conference. It will be mentioned at least once when any of them talk to the media. But the Orange’s defensive backs already received some detailed mentorship from Brown and new defensive backs coach Joe Schaefer.

Brown discussed working on cornerbacks’ “eye discipline” when asked about changing the position group. Schaefer expanded on this by saying that players’ eyes would be in different places whether the Orange are playing in a man or zone defense. It also depended on if the team was playing middle of the field defense or split safety defense, Schaefer said.

“They gotta have great detail in every single thing they do,” Schaefer said. “And it starts usually every snap with their eye discipline.”

Linebackers’ change in the scheme

With Elijah Robinson shifting the Syracuse defense to a 4-2-5 instead of the previous 3-3-5, veteran linebacker Derek McDonald has had to make a change in how they are positioned on the field.

McDonald, who took the fourth-most pass rushing snaps on the Orange according to Pro Football Focus, has adjusted especially. Instead of focusing on pass rushing, McDonald has become an off-ball linebacker, putting more focus into footwork and tackling. McDonald did not do this in the 2023 season. And while it’s been a change, he said he thinks it will benefit SU moving forward. McDonald was even at the front of his stretch line, signifying his place at the top of the depth chart.

“I’m just being able to do both, I think will help our team,” McDonald said. “Obviously, our coaches are good at kind of putting us in position to succeed, so they’ll give me some opportunities to do both.”