Kornacki: Dr. Blitz Making Presence Felt with Defense
3/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 2, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Don Brown sat in the Citrus Bowl press box, watching the University of Michigan football team dismantle Florida on New Year's Day. He'd been named defensive coordinator a week and a half prior to the game and greeted his new charges for the first time at a bowl practice.
Brown jumped right into recruiting the Wolverines' highly touted class with coach Jim Harbaugh and the rest of the staff and spent the last four weeks getting to know his players. This week, during practices in Bradenton, Florida, Brown is coaching them on the field for the first time.
Harbaugh told reporters that Brown "was peeling the paint off" the walls of a meeting room at the practice site and called him "a ball of fire" during drills. The coach nicknamed "Dr. Blitz" goes after his players as surely as his players will go after opponents.
"I'm a big pressure guy," Brown said in an interview with MGoBlue.com. "That's my shtick. We'll play about four different coverages. We'll do a good job of trying to disguise what those are. But whatever we play in our base (defenses), we'll play in our pressures. That lends to the learning for the guys.
"Once they learn the coverages, they're going to fit into the blitzes."
When his nickname was mentioned, Brown laughed and said it began when he was the defensive coordinator for the University of Massachusetts during its 1998 Division I-AA national championship season.
"That's when the nickname Dr. Blitz became prominent," said Brown, 60. "When you play defense, you've got a choice. You will either feel pressure or you apply it. I'd rather apply it -- period, exclamation point."
When asked about the focus of the four days of practice in Florida and the rest of spring drills, which culminate with the April 1 night scrimmage at Michigan Stadium, Brown said, "What we're trying to do, and it's been a painstaking approach, is to along with the whole coaching staff, sequence this out so we don't knock the guys through a loop mentally. You want them to basically learn the defense, maintain a functional ability and not overwhelm them so much that you paralyze them.
"So, that's a big challenge. For me, it looks easy, but there's a learning curve there. We've got to get them comfortable with that, but at the same time I've got a lot of confidence in what we're doing. We've really worked it out and try to blend where we can. But regardless of all of that, it still comes down to defeating blocks and tackling, getting lined up and playing fast."
He added that "it will be kind of fun" to determine what positions are best for players.
"We'll work all that out in the next month or so," said Brown.
And while his intensity and defensive approach won't be much different from that of outgoing coordinator D.J. Durkin, now the head coach at Maryland, he will put his own stamp on the unit.
"We'll probably be a little more 4-3, but we have elements for the 3-4 and the 3-3," said Brown, who has been a college defensive coordinator for 21 seasons and a small college head coach for 12 years.
Durkin also utilized both the 4-3 and 3-4 fronts, but Brown noted that his alignments will be somewhat "different" from what the Wolverines employed last year.
Brown spent the last three seasons as the coordinator at Boston College and was the American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015.
His Eagles defense led all major college teams in four defensive categories: total (254.3 yards per game), tackles-for-losses (9.6 per game), third-down opponent success percentage (.241) and first downs allowed (166). The Eagles also ranked fourth in scoring defense (15.3), second in rushing defense (82.8 yards) and fifth in pass efficiency defense (104.66).
"I thought our improvement on the back end (secondary) was really significant," Brown said. "And when you are good on the back end, it allows you to do exactly what you want in the front seven. That was the biggest piece, and it was the third year the guys were in that system. There was a tremendous comfort level.
"We did a good job of identifying what those guys could do well and then utilizing it."
Michigan also ranked in the top 10 in many national team categories and finished No. 1 in pass-efficiency defense (94.60). Defensive back play improved greatly with All-Americans Jourdan Lewis (cornerback, first team) and Jabrill Peppers (safety, second team), who also plays cornerback and contributes on offense and special teams.
"We're counting on those two guys having tremendous years," said Brown, who will coach on the field during games in order to change personnel quickly. "And we're trying to do a good job with Jabrill and identify the roles that he's going to play and get him going."
Peppers (6-1, 208 pounds) is playing some linebacker in Florida and also took snaps there last year.
"We've got to give this guy a bunch of jobs," Brown said after Tuesday afternoon's (March 1) practice. "He's a dynamic athlete. He's got juice, and you like players like that."
Having Peppers playing potentially anywhere other than the line will create some deception for Brown in the chess game with opposing offensive coordinators.
And there's already plenty of talent on the defensive front.
Defensive end Chris Wormley was a third-team All-Big Ten selection in 2015, and the consensus No. 1 incoming recruit in the nation, defensive tackle Rashan Gary, will join the Wolverines for fall practices. Defensive tackles Ryan Glasgow and Bryan Mone, a pair of impact players, also return from injuries.
-- Jim Harbaugh on Don Brown
"Our defensive front has a chance to be really, really good," said Brown, "The secondary has those same qualities, and our linebacker crew, though unproven because most of the guys who played are gone. I'm excited about the challenge and their approach. Their approach has been very solid. They are great guys and hard workers."
The top three tacklers -- linebackers Joe Bolden and Desmond Morgan and free safety Jarrod Wilson -- must be replaced. Brown mentioned positive impressions being made by returning linebackers Ben Gedeon (34 tackles in 2015), Noah Furbush and Mike McCray after Tuesday's practice.
"McCray, for the first time in his career, he's healthy," said Brown. "I like what I'm seeing."
Devin Bush Jr. and Carlo Kemp, two early-arriving freshmen linebackers who are practicing in Bradenton, are heady players who should get shots at significant playing time.
Many of the incoming recruits in the Class of 2016 praised Brown while picking the Wolverines.
"I thought Chris Partridge did a good job of just getting me in front of them," said Brown, referring to Michigan's former director of player personnel in recruiting who is now the linebackers and special teams coach. "I met virtually all of the defensive recruits in January, and with social media I was able to connect pretty quickly.
"They were able to put a name with a face and we were able to go through things philosophically and try to get the guys to understand exactly where they fit in."
While Brown allows his players to be aggressive, his units also end up being very accountable.
"You don't want guys to be robots," said Brown. "What you're teaching them to do is think on their feet. I have a little saying: 'See a little to see a lot.' You stay with your keys, and your keys will tell you everything you need to know.
"Sometimes guys go too big with the vision, and they see too much, and they get frozen by it. Where, if you just isolate on your keys, trust your tool box, you see a little to see a lot."
Brown also was the defensive coordinator at Maryland (2009-10) and Connecticut (2011-12), where incoming Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel ran the Huskies' athletic department.
What will Manuel, a former Michigan defensive lineman and track and field performer, bring to his alma mater?
"He'll bring great energy," said Brown. "He'll get to know the players. He's really an energetic guy. He has an infectious attitude and is a special administrator. I really enjoyed my time with him at UConn."
Brown was the head coach at Plymouth State, Northeastern and Massachusetts from 1993-2008, and he compiled a 95-45 record with five conference championships and six playoff appearances.
"You get an appreciation for what the guy in the head chair goes through," said Brown. "What that meant to me is to be low maintenance. If the head coach has to worry about you, that's a problem. Whatever your responsibilities are, take care of them the right way.
"It gives you a different perspective, and I left each of those head coaching jobs better than when I found them."
He also coordinated defenses at Mansfield, Dartmouth, Yale and Brown. At Yale, he came under the influence of Carm Cozza, a College Football Hall of Fame coach who played football and baseball at Miami (Ohio) with Wolverine coaching legend Bo Schembechler.
"I worked for Carm Cozza for six years," said Brown. "He really taught me a lot about relationships, the importance of family and how to treat people. I thought he was really important in those respects and was just a tremendous person. Carm was a great man."
This is the first time in his life that Brown, a native of Spencer, Massachusetts, and a running back at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, has lived outside of the East.
"It's absolutely been a big change," said Brown, who along with his wife, Deborah, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren. "It takes you out of your comfort zone a little bit. I had to evaluate that but felt this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."
Harbaugh's "thrilled" to have Brown leading his defense.
"Love him, love him, love him," Harbaugh told reporters after Monday's first practice in Bradenton. "Had a meeting last night and had a nice partition in between the offense and the defense, and the paint peeled off the walls. He is an intense man, a ball of fire. We're going to have to get the meeting room repainted because he was peeling the paint off.
"Very excited watching him coach, learning a lot of football (from him) after just one day, I did personally. I know our players did even more. More than excited, beyond excited, thrilled."
