Syracuse football: Ricky Brumfield to lead Orange’s special teams unit next season

Veteran special teams coach joins Fran Brown’s staff

Syracuse Orange head coach Fran Brown announced on Friday the hiring of Ricky Brumfield as SU’s new Special Teams Coordinator. Brumfield, a veteran coach with over 20 years of experience, joins Syracuse after two seasons at Georgia Tech.

Brumfield expressed his excitement about joining Brown’s staff, telling Syracuse Athletics, “This is a program with rich tradition and is on the rise under Coach Fran Brown. I’m just grateful to be part of this staff and help the program win.”

In Brumfield’s first year in Atlanta, he helped improve the Yellow Jackets’ special teams ranking by over 80 spots nationally. He coached Freshman All-American kicker Aidan Birr, and before that, he led significant turnarounds at Florida International, Virginia, and UTSA, consistently producing top-performing special teams units.

Before joining Georgia Tech’s staff, Brumfield spent four seasons at Virginia (2018-21). In his first year with the Cavaliers, his punt unit led the ACC and ranked seventh nationally in punt return defense — surrendering 3.21 yards per return. It was a 110-spot improvement after he inherited a unit that finished 117th nationally the year prior.

“He’s been in a situation before with a program that was struggling on special teams, like we were, and flipped it around in one year,” Brown said. “He’s also a class A guy, and I just felt as though he’d be the perfect fit for us.”

Syracuse parted ways with former special teams coordinator James Vollono at the end of last season after the Orange finished near the bottom of the ACC in FG%, NET kickoffs, and NET punting.