Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown works at the Princeton, N.J., satellite camp June 7.
When Michigan hired former Boston College defensive coordinator Don Brown last December, he had an on-field resume that made the hire a simple one, managing the nation’s No. 1 defense in a high-scoring ACC with primarily two and three-star recruits.
Harbaugh made the phone calls and got recommendations for Brown from his brother, John, his father, Jack, former San Francisco defensive coordinator Vic Fangio and even Patriots coach Bill Belichick. From an on-the-field perspective, it was a no-brainer. And while on-field success oftentimes does a lot of the recruiting work for assistant coaches, the biggest questions about Brown revolved around what he would do on a day-to-day basis on the trail with more elite prospects.
With about six months under his belt with the Wolverines, those questions have been answered, with some closer to the Michigan program seeing him as an equal or better to former defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, now the head coach at Maryland.
Brown got to Ann Arbor a little bit after Christmas, and as is typical of the coaching carousel, had to acclimate himself quickly to Michigan’s recruiting board. After getting his feet, he identified and offered Miami Columbus three-star Joshua Uche as the type of explosive edge-defender that he wants to build his defense around.
However, Uche had Florida and Auburn among others higher on his board. Most had him as a lock to the Gators, where he had visited in November. After Brown extended the offer, they were able to work their way into the conversation with an official visit. Uche visited the weekend of Jan. 22, and amazingly never even made his official visit to Florida, as he would commit to Brown and the Wolverines less than 36 hours after stepping foot on U-M’s campus.
While Uche was the first real test case for Brown, he’s been able to not only sustain his abilities on the recruiting trail, but refine them even further.
Take Orchard Lake St. Mary’s linebacker Josh Ross, the younger brother of former Wolverine James Ross. He pledged to the Wolverines in mid-March and while he admitted to us that U-M is where he felt he would end up all along, it was Brown who made him feel comfortable enough to commit earlier than he thought he would.
“The deciding factor in choosing now was truly Coach Brown,” Ross told Wolverine247 shortly after his pledge. “When we came up for the spring practice, we got to sit down and meet Coach Brown and get to know him as a person. He’s a really great coach. I felt comfortable knowing that he would be the guy who would coach me for the next four years. It made the choice to decide earlier than I planned easier.”
The 2017 defensive class would grow quickly after Ross’s commitment, with additions from Berrien Springs lineman Phillip Paea and Alabama safety J’Marick Woods. The Wolverines are also in striking distance with a lot of their top targets defensively, with Brown naturally playing a bigger role in these recruitments.
Woods is another player who was favoring the Wolverines wire-to-wire, but made a decision earlier than anticipated partly because of the efforts of Brown.
“He talks to you like a regular guy,” he said. “When we watched film, he made it easy to understand why he can coach you into success. He was straight-forward and honest. He showed me players he had coached in the past at my position and told me that if he could do it with some of those guys that he could easily do it with players like myself and some of the other guys I’ve recruited. He really seems to care about his players off the field as hard as he coaches them on the field. That’s the kind of coach you want to play for.”
Harbaugh immediately labeled Brown his “No. 1 choice” at defensive coordinator when he announced his hire in December. There’s been a lot of talk about “dudes” and “guys” on Michigan’s defense as Brown likes to label them and so far, the Wolverines’ new defensive coordinator has found himself in the “dude” category on the recruiting trail.
Steve Lorenz is the editor and publisher of Wolverine247 of the 247Sports Network. You can follow him on Twitter @TremendousUM and give Wolverine247 a try with a free trial until September 3rd.