Why UMass football should bring back Don Brown as head coach
It's time for the Minutemen to 'solve their problems with aggression'.
In a move that was an inevitability as the embarrassing lopsided losses piled up again in 2021, UMass announced Sunday afternoon a parting of ways with head football coach Walt Bell.
We’re coming up on a decade of FBS membership for the Minutemen and it’s mostly been a disaster, with no sign of progress or direction on the horizon. Whoever takes this job is going to need to have serious passion for the UMass brand, and be willing to work with the resources available to put out a winning product — not sandbag for three years about “just wait ‘til we get a few more recruits.”
Let’s change the context of this program’s crossroads for a second. Pretend UMass football is a tech startup looking for funding. They promised you growth and prosperity during its seed round, and so you invested early. Ten years later, they’ve still shown no signs of growth, no solution for how to scale, and they’ve burned through all your money. Would you still invest? Do you like lighting money on fire?
UMass fans have been about as patient as anyone could expect. It’s time to start showing signs of life now, not buying extra years of time later with the promise of some panacea recruiting class.
That’s why Don Brown, the current Arizona defensive coordinator who previously coached UMass in two separate stints, makes the most sense here.
Brown guided UMass through its two most successful eras of FCS membership, calling plays as the defensive coordinator on the 1998 national championship squad, then returning as head coach and leading them to the national title game in 2006. He left to join the staff at Maryland a year later, and the Minutemen haven’t been remotely the same since.
Nicknamed “Dr. Blitz” for his creativity with dialing up pressures, he’s the only defensive coordinator to lead the nation in total defense with two different teams in back-to-back seasons (Boston College in 2015, Michigan in 2016).
But more than the credentials, it’s his philosophy and process that makes him the most ideal fit.
If you’ve ever watched a Don Brown press conference, or one of his profanity-sprinkled pep talks in All or Nothing, you’re probably thinking, “He seems like a fun guy to play for.”
Hell, he’s just a fun guy to listen to.
Get him going, and he may have to calm himself for getting too animated about the art of designing a blitz path. Or he may start quoting from Sun Tzu and The Art of War.
At all of his stops since he left UMass, he’s remained committed to recruiting New England players, especially his native Massachusetts. That led him to a couple of under-the-radar gems that worked out marvelously for Michigan, including Kwity Paye, Mike Sainristil and Sean McKeon.
Massachusetts high school coaches, in turn, mostly swear by Brown. When he says jump, most of Central Mass asks “How high?” Don’t believe me? Look at how quickly it took Massachusetts kids with Michigan offers to start checking out Tucson upon Brown’s arrival. One of them even flipped his commitment from Michigan to Arizona. He respects high school coaches around here tremendously, with relationships that often go back decades.
But it’s his process of evaluation with those under-the-radar locals that I think makes him such an ideal fit. Skip to the 20:20 mark of the above video of his Hudl Blitz ‘21 presentation from last March, where he talks about what he saw in Kwity Paye, the Indianapolis Colts’ first-round pick of this past NFL Draft.
Paye was a two-way star at Rhode Island powerhouse Bishop Hendricken, but just the nation’s 949th ranked high school player and 45th-ranked defensive end. But he was a smart player, and in Brown’s eyes had off-the-charts change of direction. So he took a chance on Paye, and three years later he was “the best spread run defender off the edge I’ve ever coached.”
Recruiting is the most inexact science in sports. Even the very best miss on guys. For instance, former Boston College All-American Chris Lindstrom was the best offensive lineman I watched in 20 years of covering Massachusetts high school football. And I can’t begin to tell you how many college coaches (including UMass) were too concerned about him being able to fill out his 230-pound frame to pull the trigger on an offer. Four years, 70 pounds of added muscle and 50 starts later, he was the 14th overall pick of the Atlanta Falcons.
Brown’s philosophy is simple: Focus on what your players can do well, and put them in a position to do that. And then you’ll notice as they build confidence, they start getting better at their weaknesses too.
This is the exact type of coach UMass desperately needs at this moment. They need someone who is going to look at the current roster, understand the strengths and weaknesses, and figure out a way to win in spite of those weaknesses.
Because, as I’ve said time and again on this blog and elsewhere, that’s the true mark of creativity. Not intelligence or contrarian jolts of wisdom. It’s about finding a way to achieve your goals no matter what obstacles are in the way, and the unintended liberations that come with that determination.
Whatever the problems are with this program, Don Brown has always struck me as a guy willing to change the context of his problem to find the answers he’s looking for — and that’s so important for a program that right now is just looking for any ol’ context.
The Athletic’s Jeff Howe, who years ago covered Don Brown as sports editor of the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, has some interesting perspective into the hiring situation and the feasibility of hiring Brown:
Walt Bell was assumed to be one of the lowest-paid head coaches in FBS this season at $635,000, according to USA Today’s numbers. $800,000 for a guy of Brown’s stature seems pretty reasonable to me, especially when you compare that to some of the Conference USA and Sun Belt coach salaries on that same list.
If a Don Brown reunion isn’t meant to be, than by all means, put in a call with Bob Chesney at Holy Cross. Kick the tires on Liam Coen, who I’m sure will be on his way back to the NFL soon with all that McVay pixy dust. Maybe even roll the dice on a flexbone guy.
But the first move should be to, as Brown might say, solve the problem with aggression. Any other first step would be a false start.