Don Brown head coach at U Mass, deal being finalized
Apparently he has some sort of health issue, which keeps him from traveling as much as he did with Michigan. I looked around for a video showing this after reading someone talking about it at Touch the Banner. He doesn't talk about any health issue in the video. But it does look like he's lost weight, and is not as robust as he was here. But decide for yourself:
November 21st, 2021 at 9:21 PM ^
If he can't travel, wouldn't that be a problem for recruiting?
Good luck to Don at any rate.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^
Not if he just gets all his guys from New England, baybeee!
hope he is ok and gets in some more good years. Guy loves the game and is a heck of a football mind, even if he couldn’t compete the way we wanted at this level.
November 21st, 2021 at 9:23 PM ^
Good for him. Hope he succeeds.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:13 PM ^
Totally agree.
I don't understand the snipes that some people (probably a small but obnoxious minority) like to take at him. His system was great when we had NFL caliber CBs. It worked until it didn't, we all saw it and know it. But it's clear he loved it here, cared about he players, poured his heart into the team and wanted to win as much as anyone on the staff.
For that, to me, he'll always be a Known Friend and Trusted Agent.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:52 PM ^
People didn't shit on Brown, they shit on his defenses, and rightly so.
Edit: I like Brown as one of the good guys, just not as our DC.
His defenses should work at UMass, except for when they play someone actually good, which isn't that often.
November 21st, 2021 at 11:26 PM ^
Brent Venables defense did worse against Ohio St in January than any Don Brown defense ever did.
November 22nd, 2021 at 12:20 AM ^
It wasn't OSU shredding our defense 2 years in a row that got Don Brown relieved of duties. It was when lesser teams began to exploit his defensive weaknesses with impunity that got him canned. Rutgers, MSU, and Indiana averaged about 350 passing yards against Don Brown's defense last year. I remember a quote of his from a few years back. He said that he was going to run his system and he'd take his walking papers before changing. Well, that's what happened.
November 22nd, 2021 at 12:36 AM ^
Don Brown didn't hire Brian Jean-Mary and Sean Nua. LBs completely disappeared in 2020, whereas they had been the exciting feature of the defense before that. Don Brown didn't hire last years LB coach. And the continued blowing open of the middle of the defensive line for 2 years now, which was horrible last year, can't be blamed on Don Brown either.
There were circumstances out of his control last year.
November 22nd, 2021 at 6:45 AM ^
You really think he didn't have any input on those hires? Or defensive recruiting? You're blaming poor personnel and coaching for the defenses poor performance, without assigning any blame whatsoever to the Defensive Coordinator.
Defensive performance can be fairly blamed on Brown because he's the one that approved all of the recruits. He's the one that set the bar on which players were recruited, how the coaches performed, and who played.
November 22nd, 2021 at 6:39 AM ^
I don't want to hear shit about last year - it was an aberration and not open to discussion. It was a weird Covid year, so it doesn't count. It was stupid, so we can't talk about it.
These are what people say when talking about last year's record, about last year's coaching effort, about last years player efforts... You can't cherry pick certain elements whenever its good for you.
November 22nd, 2021 at 7:10 AM ^
I also hate when people cherry pick an entire season to describe a football team
November 21st, 2021 at 9:26 PM ^
Great news. Wish him and Umass Football well.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:39 PM ^
u mass, bro?
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:07 AM ^
It's a Latin word for a group of people who collectively and independently turn to prayer while a dramatic event unfolds, such as a field goal up in the air just as the game clock expires.
November 21st, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
Wish him luck.
November 21st, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
Good Luck to Coach Brown.
Hope he is able to find a ton of "Dudes" to help him rebuild that program.
November 21st, 2021 at 9:27 PM ^
Good hire for UMass. Hope Don Brown does well
November 21st, 2021 at 9:28 PM ^
Good for Don. He has the recruiting pipeline locked down for sure. Go recruit some studs from that 20 mile radius that you owned in AA!
November 21st, 2021 at 9:29 PM ^
I like Don Brown... hope he does well
November 21st, 2021 at 9:34 PM ^
Definitely think it will be a great fit for him. Hope he does well.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:00 PM ^
That's good for him. He had his system, it worked mostly but is best for mid to lower level teams. He should do ok there. Good luck dude.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:00 PM ^
Seems like Coach Brown is going home. Good luck to him.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:20 PM ^
Be good for his health.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:32 PM ^
He is a great dude! Hope he does well.
I’m confused though how you could do this job and not travel.
He is the anti Greg piece of shit Mattison.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:33 PM ^
Good landing spot, and great way to close the career. Hope this was a top item of his to cross off the bucket list. Wish him good luck on his endeavors.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
Wish him the best
November 21st, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
Hope he does well. Good luck, Coach.
November 21st, 2021 at 10:46 PM ^
This makes a ton of sense and I think Brown will be a good HC back at UMass.
November 21st, 2021 at 11:18 PM ^
Don Brown is 66. While I certainly wish him all the best, if he’s truly got health issues, this isn’t likely to be a long tenure at UMass.
November 22nd, 2021 at 12:02 AM ^
Hopefully nothing serious. But it might be one of those deals where they hope to get 3-4 years from Don Brown and then he can sort of groom a successor on his staff.
November 21st, 2021 at 11:57 PM ^
Wish him the best. Miss his interviews.
November 22nd, 2021 at 12:01 AM ^
Gotta believe Don Brown will sign that contract with aggression.
November 22nd, 2021 at 5:23 AM ^
Good luck coach!!!
November 22nd, 2021 at 6:45 AM ^
Good luck to Don! I'm sure he'll have UMass competitive in no time...
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:01 AM ^
Great that he is getting this opportunity and I wish him and his team the best going forward.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:07 AM ^
Go get 'em coach.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:24 AM ^
U Mass us 1-10 this season and just loss to Navy. While I'm sure there will be a transition year, looking at their 2022 schedule apart from Texas A&M, maybe Army and Toledo, he should be able to turn them around on the fly. That's a winnable schedule regardless of talent and good coaching might make all the difference.
In hindsight the COVID year exponentially hurt his resume. I recall him commenting (or maybe someone from mgoblog saying) that he really didn't have the prep time to install his system and that was on him. He didn't adapt, so it was his fault, but he should be able to put together a top 30 defense again in no time (as long as he has time to develop his dudes).