Kornacki: Brown Developing Dudes and Dominant Defense
11/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 2, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- On one hand, he's demanding, barking his mantra: "Solve your problems with aggression."
On the other hand, he's funny and personable, giving players a "Dude of the Week" award and stressing the need to laugh and discuss life.
So, he can go from being Jeffrey Lebowski one moment to reminding you of Bo or Woody the next, and then your favorite uncle after that.
Don Brown just happens to come from a branch of the Hayes-Schembechler coaching tree that extends from the Carmen Cozza limb, and he's a dynamic defensive coordinator who's a big reason why the No. 2-ranked University of Michigan football team is undefeated (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) headed into Saturday's (Nov. 5) home game with Maryland.
Brown has taken a very good defense and made it great. The Wolverines pass both the eye test and the stat check, leading the nation in scoring defense (11.6 points per game), total defense (231.3 yards), passing defense (120.1 yards) and opponent third-down success (15.5 percent).
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh made the perfect hire, picking Boston College's defensive coordinator to replace the superlative coach he had in that role, current Maryland head coach D.J. Durkin, whose 2015 Wolverines ranked fourth nationally with 280.7 yards allowed per game. Brown's Eagles led the nation in total defense with 254.6 yards as well as seven other defensive categories last year.
Brown, aka "Dr. Blitz," has brought intensity, smarts and innovation to create a most feared defense in his first season here. He took safety Jabrill Peppers, made him a roaming linebacker, and got a Heisman Trophy candidate.
However, he's also molded his players with love, humor and friendship. When Brown is mentioned to his players, even the offensive players, they smile instantly.
"He's been a great guy," said Michigan safety Dymonte Thomas. "From the first day he came in, him and I sat down and we talked. He told me, 'You guys (including fellow safety starter Delano Hill) have got to be the guys who make all the checks and all the calls.'
"And besides football, he's just been a great role model for us, someone we can look up to, someone who does everything right. He's a do-right guy. He's a great coach. And at times he knows that you've got to laugh and have a little bit of fun, and (still) stay focused at times. So, he's always cracking jokes and saying funny things that will make us laugh.
"He's just a great coach overall. If you make a mistake, he'll yell at you. But at the same time, he's going to yell at you because he loves you. I got yelled at a few times earlier in the season, and he said, 'You know I love you, but as a senior, you can't make plays like that. We need you to be better, and so let's go harder in practice today.' So, that motivates you to want to do better for him."
Brown said he learned the importance of coaching his players in more than X's and O's from Cozza, the College Hall of Fame coach who led Yale to 10 Ivy League championships and had Brown coordinate his defense, 1987-92.
"Back when I coached for Carm Cozza at Yale," said Brown, 61, "one of the things he told me was, 'Hey, those players aren't chess pieces. They're human beings, and they want to have a relationship with you. So, if you want them to play hard for you, develop relationships. Those are the things that are important.'
"And I took that to heart. The most important thing you do is getting those guys to understand we're all in it together, and we're all human beings, we all care about one another in good times and bad. It's easy to do when you're (8-0), tough to do when you're on the opposite side of the coin. But it's really important."
He paused before adding: "This is an unbelievable group of guys. In order to get their attention and get them to buy in, it was easier than anticipated. Obviously, I have great respect for the guys who coached here before me in previous years."
His mentor, Cozza, was a quarterback-halfback-safety on the Miami University teams Bo Schembechler played on as a lineman. Schembechler and Cozza remained friends for life, and they were coached at Miami by Woody Hayes. So, on the big coaching tree that sprouted from Hayes, Cozza's connection brings a branch to Brown, who has much in common with those coaching legends.
Brown's humor is all his own, though. He's as fond of the title of "Dude" as anyone since Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges in a 1998 cult classic movie, "The Big Lebowski."
Thomas said, "A lot of the guys got 'The Dude of the Week' during spring ball. I always thought I'd get it one day, but I never got it. But right before practice, he'll say, 'You're the dude,' just to remind you that you are special and mean something to him. Maybe at the end of the season, we can all be 'The Dude' hopefully."
Brown explained the origins of "The Dude":
"About 20 years ago, I would say, 'Just be a guy!' As times have gotten more modern, it went from guy to dude. Now, if you're a guy, you're here (he held his hand below his neck). Being a guy is good, but if you're a dude, you're up here (hand above head)."
He noted that Thomas definitely has been "a dude" and credited him and Hill with making those checks he challenged them to make and "getting us lined up and functional" as plays develop.
The Wolverines have allowed between zero and 14 points to all but two opponents, and holding No. 8 Wisconsin to only seven points and shutting out Rutgers while limiting it to 39 yards total offense have been the highlights.
Thomas said: "It also comes down to our seniors like (co-captain) Chris Wormley saying, 'This year, we want to win it all.' Coach Brown is going to give us our great opportunity, and so all we have to do is listen to his play calls, understand his playbook, and play for each other and we will be fine. And the freshmen are doing a great job, too, with the playbooks so if somebody goes down, we don't skip a beat, and we just keep going. Coach Brown did a great job of getting them prepared in the offseason, and making sure they knew the playbook and are playing comfortable.
"Like he says, 'Solve your problems with aggression,' and that's the only way we like to handle things."
What does that Brown mantra mean to his players?
Defensive end Chase Winovich said: "Solving problems with aggression means to me that no matter what goes wrong or whatever problems you face, we don't want to shy away from them. We don't want to run from adversity. This is part of the game. This is life, and the problems that come with it, like death or anything else. So, you might as well embrace it and attack it and get better."
Wormley, a defensive lineman, said Brown has impacted him by broadening his understanding of the defense.
"The last couple of years," said Wormley, "I was just focusing on my position. But now I'm learning about the coverages and what (cornerback) Jourdan (Lewis) does and where the linebackers are filling. So, it makes you a better football player and makes you more aware of what's going on behind you, next to you. He just makes you a better football player all around."
He instructs and communicates like your favorite high school teacher, and he probably was that for many of those he taught and coached at Hartford High in White River Junction, Vermont, 1977-82, immediately after graduating from Norwich University, where he was a star running back and earned two varsity letters in basketball.
His first college coaching position also came in Vermont with Dartmouth, the first of three Ivy League schools he's coached at along with Brown and Yale.
"Don Brown is the smartest man I've ever seen," said tight end Tyrone Wheatley Jr. "I'll watch this guy on the sideline and he'll yell out and tell people exactly where to go on a play, and I'll think, 'Wow!' I'm glad we don't have to play against our defense. I don't know how they do what they do, but I appreciate them doing what they do."
Quarterback Wilton Speight notes that the Michigan offense played the Michigan defense plenty in demanding preseason practices and scrimmages.
"It's awesome," Speight said of the Wolverine defense. "If a drive doesn't work out how we want, we know we are probably going to get the ball back in three plays, and if not, in a few more. So, Don's coaching them up the best of anyone, and he's got some special players. It was probably the worst month of my life going against that defense every day during camp. I feel bad for quarterbacks every Saturday.
"I think after the season I might grow a moustache in honor of Don Brown."
Brown smiled and said, "Wilton kind of poked his head in and said he's going to grow a moustache. I'm not sure it'll ever be better than mine, though."
That's the kind of give and take Brown loves.
"You better be able to laugh a little bit," he said, "talk about life a little bit, talk with one another and share one another's company. That's important. Like I said, relationships are all there is in this game."
Clockwise from left: Brown with Wormley, mentor Carm Cozza, Brown at Yale
Daring also is a big part of Brown's game, and he said he'll always blitz heavily because he believes in it. Being unconventional works for him and appeals to him. This season, with every starter a fourth- or fifth-year senior and one junior in Peppers, he began splitting the reps in practice between the current starters and the freshman-heavy second string entering Big Ten play.
"Our second group is all young guys," said Brown. "I mean really young guys. But those guys played half the game (at Rutgers) and a bunch of them played (against Illinois). Our young guys are off the charts, and one of the things we decided to do is give the second team half the reps.
"We're trying to keep our first unit fresh and conceptually sharp, but we're trying to bring that second unit along because you're going to blink your eyes and the second unit is going to be the first unit."
Brown is a pragmatic leader who's seen it all.
This is his 40th year as a football coach, and he's been a head coach at Plymouth State, Northeastern and Massachusetts, where he reached the FCS championship game in 2006 after winning that (when it was Division I-AA) as defensive coordinator for the Minutemen in 1998. He won big at Plymouth, turned around Northeastern, and had the winningest five-year stretch any coach UMass has had with a 43-19 record.
However, he moved on to becoming a major college defensive coordinator, beginning with Maryland in 2009 and then Connecticut in 2011 and Boston College in 2013. The New England born-and-bred coach had great success at every stop, and that has continued with the Wolverines.
Harbaugh describes Brown with what might be the maximum allowable positives: "A tremendous coach, teacher, enthusiasm, really high, really good in all areas. One of the finest coaches that I've ever known or had an opportunity to work with. Excellent in all phases, high character. He does things where you look up to him, you want to do it like he does it. Great example to tell other coaches and players. Tremendous leader, real football, high IQ, football-wise, schematically. All the things you want a coach to be. Really creative with the X's and O's. Technically sound in every aspect of coaching.
"Highest character possible, human character, excellent motivator, leader. You want to do things like him. Such a great example. It's translated on the field, which is no surprise, because everything he's ever been associated with has had success."
Brown was asked about how much he's enjoyed coaching at Michigan and how much longer he sees himself here.
"That's a good question," said Brown. "I work for a great boss who has given me a great opportunity, and I work with a great defensive staff, great players, and in a beautiful area, a great town. I really love Ann Arbor.
"How long ... Do I look old?"
He and his wife, Deborah, have 10 grandchildren from their four children, but he's not looking to pull on the slippers, ease back in the recliner, and settle into retirement just yet.
Does he think of becoming a head coach again then?
"I don't think beyond what I'm doing," said Brown. "Let's just say this: If this ended up being it for me, I'd be more than happy.
"But how long? I don't know. I'll tell you this: I'm having a blast, and my health is good, so life is good."
