The Syracuse Orange have reportedly hired John Scott Jr. as its assistant head coach, defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Scott had spent the last two seasons as a volunteer defensive assistant at Clemson. His previous coaching job was with the Detroit Lions in 2023 as their defensive line coach. His last college coaching job was with Penn State from 2020 to 2022 as its defensive line coach and running game coordinator in 2022.
Scott replaces Elijah
Robinson, who had held the assistant head coach and defensive line coaching roles at Syracuse previously. Robinson has officially been announced as defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator at Texas A&M, his previous school before joining the Orange.
Scott played his collegiate football at Western Carolina, the same alma mater as Fran Brown. Scott played at Western Carolina from 1995 to 1998. He returned to Western Carolina to become a defensive line coach in 2006, the year after Brown graduated from the program.
His Power Four collegiate coaching experience includes defensive line coaching jobs at Texas Tech, Arkansas, South Carolina and Penn State. In addition to his stop with the Detroit Lions in the NFL, Scott was also an assistant defensive line coach with the New York Jets.
Previous reports revealed that Jeremy Hawkins would also be joining Syracuse as a defensive line coach from Georgia State. Thamel reported that Hawkins would be the Orange’s defensive edge coach. That position was previously held by Nick Williams, who had left Syracuse for the same position at Florida State.
The official additions of Scott and Hawkins would give Syracuse eight assistant coaches. They would join defensive coordinator Vince Kehres and offensive line coach Juan Castillo as new additions to the Orange coach staff. Offensive coordinator/running backs coach Jeff Nixon, co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Michael Johnson, offensive associate head coach/tight ends coach Nunzio Campanile and wide receivers coach Josh Gattis round out the current assistant coaching staff under Fran Brown.
The Orange seemingly are still looking for a defensive backs coach and a special teams coordinator. Joe Schaefer and Ricky Brumfield previously held those positions and were not retained by Syracuse. Brumfield has reportedly been hired as special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Oregon State. Kehres also coached the linebackers at Toledo, so one would assume he would also coach that position group at Syracuse as well.
Syracuse will most likely look to complete its coaching staff before the transfer portal officially opens on January 2.
