don brown
2020 football coaching search
I assume this was Brown's reaction to hearing the news [Patrick Barron]

Exit: Don Brown Comment Count

Alex.Drain December 22nd, 2020 at 4:22 PM

Per Bruce Feldman, Michigan has fired defensive coordinator Don Brown:

Brown came to Michigan after a successful tenure as defensive coordinator for Boston College in December 2015 to replace DJ Durkin. His first season went well, as Michigan posted one of the NCAA's top defenses and "Dr. Blitz" made his mark in the maize and blue. Brown's defenses posted elite SP+ numbers up until, well, you know what date in 2018. Suffering from heavy attrition in 2019, the defense regressed but still put up solid stats as a unit. This season, though, the bottom simply fell out and Michigan ranks 56th in yards per play allowed.

For all the great defensive players Brown coached in his time in Ann Arbor, his memory to most Michigan fans will probably be his inability to adjust to Ohio State's mesh concepts and athletic skill position players in 2018-19, as well as recruiting failures that sunk this year's team. That fateful day in November 2018 triggered this slow fall and frankly, it's been a long time coming. After his cornerback room was ruthlessly exposed by MSU on Halloween, the end was clearly near and today it arrived. The situation with Jim Harbaugh's contract is still yet to be resolved, but regardless of who is the head football coach next year, Michigan football will be searching for a new defensive coordinator. There is no content after the jump.

Comments

Fezzik

December 23rd, 2020 at 3:46 PM ^

Is this negged cause people don't like you?

Mike Hart coaching RB's would be the best case scenario outside of Wheatley coming back. Hart has been rising and successful as a coach. He would be a great recruiter for us to. Not to mention his hatred for msu and ohio are a perfect fit. What is there not to like?

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ThisGuyFawkes

December 23rd, 2020 at 9:44 AM ^

Disagree on that. Other than Turner and maybe Charbonnet (I’m more inclined to wait another year because he’s been injured) - every RB Jay has recruited / coached has played at or above their ranking. For the last 5 years it has been the only position group where it looks like UM and OSU are even playing the same sport. 

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lbpeley

December 23rd, 2020 at 11:15 AM ^

Well if the coaches would pull their heads out of their asses and not play all 11 RBs in a game maybe some of these guys would become household names. Hard to get anything going when everyone gets 5 touches each per game. Stupidest fucking thing I've seen since Pepcat.

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Seth

December 22nd, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^

Well folks I was writing this up because I didn't see Alex (thank you Alex!) had responded to my desperate call for someone who was available to post. Here's how far I got:

There was a time not too long ago that we were terrified of another school poaching Dr. Blitz. There was also a time when Michigan wasn’t dead last in the conference in havoc. There was a time when he stopped Army with the sound of his voice, a time when he gave the youngest Michigan team since ever a shot at beating Ohio State, a time when Dudes outnumbered Guys, and a couple of classes with tall slow dudes nobody else wanted and not enough defensive tackles were a concern for the future. There were so many New Englandmen we have a subscription to the one guy who covers high school football in the Commonwealth. There were tiny angry linebackers, anchors, and site tags for days.

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May the next guy be 75% as good of an idea as hiring Don Brown was, and for all of our sakes may Michigan never again be in a position where they have to fire a legend for poor performance.

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jmblue

December 22nd, 2020 at 4:56 PM ^

Up to 2018 OSU he was having a fantastic tenure.  If OSU hadn’t hired a guy who’d practiced against Brown’s D every day at BC, this story could be very different.  But they did, and to move forward we have to do this.  Just a shame that his great 2016 D wasn’t rewarded with a Big Ten title.

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