Don Brown fired

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I've truly been shattered like Humpty Dumpty. Brown doesn't have a $1.7 million His base salary was 1.1 million, and he got a 600k retention bonus that isn't part of his base salary. Well let's see how did Brown do against Sitkowski and Rutgers in 2019. 52-0.

Actually why don't I list the teams and their average PPG and how Brown's D stacked up.

O-Rank/ Avg PPG/ Brown's D.
#85 Middle Tn. 26.3/ 21
#67 Army 28.5/ 21
#23 Wisconsin 34.1/ 35
#129 Rutgers 13.5 / 0
#87 Iowa 25.8 / 3
#13 Notre Dame 36.8 / 14
#94 Maryland 25.3 / 7
#104 Mich St 20.8 / 10
#42 Indiana 24.7 / 14
#3 Ohio State 46.9 / 56
#2 Bama 47.2 / 35

So in all but two games (Ohio State and Wisconsin), his defense held teams to below their season average. And in one of those two games, he basically held Wisconsin to their average. So then there is the rivalry game blow out to tOSU, where his defense allowed a whopping 9.1 points more than Ohio St's season average. And Michigan only scored 27 points, so yeah, let's blame Brown for that loss. If his D had held Ohio St to 19 pts below their season average, Michigan STILL would have lost.

And weirdly, you forgot to add that his defense held a better offense, Bama, to 12.2 points under their season average in a NY6 bowl game. Funny how you forgot to include that. And these are his numbers in one of his "bad seasons." Why, if I didn't know better I'd think you don't actually understand college football but you are easily swayed by twitter headlines.

A lot to unpack here so bear with me.

You think Don Brown should get credit to holding Alabama to 35 points when Mac Jones was starting his 3rd game in place of the injured Tua? Not mention the bowl opts they had. Ok cool.

Looking at the stats you put up they had a decent year against all the weaklings on their schedule in 2019. I will give you Notre Dame even though I think they are overrated.

But not against Wisconsin, Ohio St, or Bama? Can you imagine if he ran Miami’s D and gave up those numbers to UF, FSU, and say Clemson but killed everyone else? Would you or @RVACane be advocating for him then.

So his base salary is 1.1mill but he gets a yearly 600k retention bonus? so that makes his total compensation $1.7 million. Did someone other than University of Michigan pay that?

Yea they whopped on Rutgers 52-0 last year and then Rutgers hired a new HC and a new OC. Then they proceeded to score 42 points on them.

If any Miami DC ever gave up 42 points to ******* Rutgers would you still defend him? How about you @RVACane ?

I can keep going but at the end of the day his defense gave 42 points to Rutgers.

Forget how badly Ohio St bends him defenses over.

Please how explain gave up 42 points to Rutgers.
 
Gene Wilder Reaction GIF
 
A lot to unpack here so bear with me.

You think Don Brown should get credit to holding Alabama to 35 points when Mac Jones was starting his 3rd game in place of the injured Tua? Not mention the bowl opts they had. Ok cool.

Looking at the stats you put up they had a decent year against all the weaklings on their schedule in 2019. I will give you Notre Dame even though I think they are overrated.

But not against Wisconsin, Ohio St, or Bama? Can you imagine if he ran Miami’s D and gave up those numbers to UF, FSU, and say Clemson but killed everyone else? Would you or @RVACane be advocating for him then.

So his base salary is 1.1mill but he gets a yearly 600k retention bonus? so that makes his total compensation $1.7 million. Did someone other than University of Michigan pay that?

Yea they whopped on Rutgers 52-0 last year and then Rutgers hired a new HC and a new OC. Then they proceeded to score 42 points on them.

If any Miami DC ever gave up 42 points to ******* Rutgers would you still defend him? How about you @RVACane ?

I can keep going but at the end of the day his defense gave 42 points to Rutgers.

Forget how badly Ohio St bends him defenses over.

Please how explain gave up 42 points to Rutgers.
Eh... he’s better than what we have and would get better assistants and I believe we’d recruit better. I think we’d be more sound and he’d stabilize us. We’d recruit and develop CB’s again.

@DTP had the best synopsis I’ve seen. Essentially - If he does the same thing he’s been doing, he’ll lose to Clemson and UNC as well. If he evolves in his static game planning, then he can get to the level we need.

I’ll take him over what we have. I don’t know that we’re cherry picking the Marcus Freeman’s off of other schools so I’ll take an established guy.
 
Eh... he’s better than what we have and would get better assistants and I believe we’d recruit better. I think we’d be more sound and he’d stabilize us. We’d recruit and develop CB’s again.

@DTP had the best synopsis I’ve seen. Essentially - If he does the same thing he’s been doing, he’ll lose to Clemson and UNC as well. If he evolves in his static game planning, then he can get to the level we need.

I’ll take him over what we have. I don’t know that we’re cherry picking the Marcus Freeman’s off of other schools so I’ll take an established guy.

I agree, Don Brown is better than Blake Baker will ever be.

But that is not a very high bar.

Miami should go for a top notch guy who can coach, recruit and develop.

Sadly this is all doesn’t matter bc Manny ain’t going to fire his boy.
 
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Eh... he’s better than what we have and would get better assistants and I believe we’d recruit better. I think we’d be more sound and he’d stabilize us. We’d recruit and develop CB’s again.

@DTP had the best synopsis I’ve seen. Essentially - If he does the same thing he’s been doing, he’ll lose to Clemson and UNC as well. If he evolves in his static game planning, then he can get to the level we need.

I’ll take him over what we have. I don’t know that we’re cherry picking the Marcus Freeman’s off of other schools so I’ll take an established guy.

He’s old; what’s the likelihood he’ll change his ways? What’s the old saying; can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

I doubt he changes anything here; but I think our defense improves under his watch, & I’m wondering how he will fit w/ our culture here.
 
Yeah a DC accused of making racist remarks would do great down here in Miami 😅

He apologized, his players accepted and embraced him.

Lets not confuse him with Donald Sterling now either. The text was in 2013 and the University investigated (which doesnt mean ****) but in the course of Investigation, former players supported him and not one current or former player reported another incident.
 
He’s old; what’s the likelihood he’ll change his ways? What’s the old saying; can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

I doubt he changes anything here; but I think our defense improves under his watch, & I’m wondering how he will fit w/ our culture here.
I think he stays mostly the same and makes us more fundamentally sound and recruits better at CB and LB.
 
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I agree, Don Brown is better than Blake Baker will ever be.

But that is not a very high bar.

Miami should go for a top notch guy who can coach, recruit and develop.

Sadly this is all doesn’t matter HC Manny ain’t going to fire his boy.
I can’t bank on us cherry picking some top up and comer and getting it right. I feel like we need a sense of established stability on that side of the ball. If we’re getting Marcus Freeman then great but I’m not sure that we’re going to get someone like that and less established up and comers are too risky
 
A lot to unpack here so bear with me.

You think Don Brown should get credit to holding Alabama to 35 points when Mac Jones was starting his 3rd game in place of the injured Tua? Not mention the bowl opts they had. Ok cool.

Looking at the stats you put up they had a decent year against all the weaklings on their schedule in 2019. I will give you Notre Dame even though I think they are overrated.

But not against Wisconsin, Ohio St, or Bama? Can you imagine if he ran Miami’s D and gave up those numbers to UF, FSU, and say Clemson but killed everyone else? Would you or @RVACane be advocating for him then.

So his base salary is 1.1mill but he gets a yearly 600k retention bonus? so that makes his total compensation $1.7 million. Did someone other than University of Michigan pay that?

Yea they whopped on Rutgers 52-0 last year and then Rutgers hired a new HC and a new OC. Then they proceeded to score 42 points on them.

If any Miami DC ever gave up 42 points to ******* Rutgers would you still defend him? How about you @RVACane ?

I can keep going but at the end of the day his defense gave 42 points to Rutgers.

Forget how badly Ohio St bends him defenses over.

Please how explain gave up 42 points to Rutgers.

You make good points but allow me to retort. Re: Bama, yes I think he should get credit for keeping them almost 2 TDs below their season average. You know how everyone says Miami doesn't have the talent of Clemson or Bama? Miami is ranked 18th according to the 247 composite. Michigan is ranked 17th. Bama is #2. I think most of us would be think our DC did a **** good job if he held Clemson (much closer in talent to Miami than Michigan is to Bama) to 13 points below their season average. If a DC did, that would mean giving only 31 points to Clemson. You may disagree, but if Miami held Trevor Lawrence and Clemson to 31 points and we still lost, I don't think we'd be blaming the D for the L.

As for 2020, no doubt it's been a **** show for Michigan. I think Brown lost 5 starters from the D to the 2020 draft, including both his starting CBs. The Big 10 didn't start practicing until October due to Covid and it was questionable if they would even have a season. So maybe it's not out the realm of possibility that just he didn't get a good feel for all the new players on defense or understand the limitations of certain players since there were basically no camps before their season started.

Brown turned around the defenses of two different programs, Maryland and BC. He's declined at Michigan, but he's working for Harbaugh who is maybe the biggest a-hole in CFB. I like seeing a track record of success at P5 programs and Brown has shown success at multiple stops. Sometimes a guy needs a new start, much like Venables. His D dropped off big time between 2009 and 2010 (7th to 33rd). His time there ran its course and he went on to tremendous success.

Admittedly there is a big question with Brown. Has the game passed him by? CFB is all about spread offenses. It requires a new approach to the defense. Personally, I think Miami's biggest issue is that there aren't enough experienced adults in the room. There might be more innovative defensive minds, but what Miami needs more than genius DC is a professional who will hire a professional staff. Recruits know which DCs are all about business and respect those guys, whereas there will always be a Blake Baker-type G5 DC who gets labeled the "next big thing" because his team led the Mountain-**** Conference in sacks, despite never playing a P5. For now I'll trade genius for professional.
 
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I'm not convinced by the Oklahoma Venables comparison. Brown is much older and the downward trend is a big concern because after what happened with Richt I'd worry that the Michigan decline is just evidence of burn out. College football has been changing fast and that requires adaptive minds with high energy and the ability to consistently motivate players. Does Brown fit all that?
 
I posted the 2019 stats, would you say the #2 and #13 offenses in CFB would be considered some of the "better" offenses? Because if you do, Brown's defense held those two offenses to 12.2 and 22.8 points below their season averages, respectively. Much ado is made about Michigan's loss to Ohio State. 56 points sounds like a lot (and it is), but it's actually less than 10 points above tOSU's season average. By comparison, UNC this year is averaging 43 ppg. Baker's defense gave up 19 points above UNC's season average and it's not even worth researching how many points more he allowed to UVA and NC State above their season averages because I know it's going to be terrible.

In 2018, Brown's defense held every team but two (Ohio St and Florida) below their season average Florida was averaging 35 ppg and Michigan lost to UF 41-15. So his defense gave up less than a TD more than UF's average. Personally, I think the bigger reason they lost is that Michigan was also averaging 35+ ppg and only scored 15 points, but it seems to be de rigueur to pin Michigan's failures on Don Brown so let's not say it's Harbaugh's fault.

I believe it was Alabama's DB coach who said:

“It used to be that good defense beats good offense. Good defense doesn’t beat good offense anymore... It’s just like last week. Georgia has as good a defense as we do an offense, and we scored 41 points on them [in a 41-24 Alabama win]. That’s not the way it used to be. It used to be if you had a good defense, other people weren’t going to score. You were always going to be in the game. I’m telling you. It ain’t that way anymore.”

What a loser. Saban should throw that beta male out the door.


Not sure if you were being sarcastic but it was actually Saban who said that, lol.
 
what happened with Richt I'd worry that the Michigan decline is just evidence of burn out.

Fair enough. On the other side you have Mack Brown, with a bottle full of viagra in his hand and a twinkle in his eye when he sees Miami on the schedule. Richt planned on retiring or at least taking a year off before being lured to Miami.

I think working for Harbaugh would suck the life out of anyone, and it doesn't look like Don Brown has retirement in mind. I think he would be rejuvenated in Miami. One thing that shouldn't be doubted is whether he will be a Diaz flunky or not. Brown will run his defense and hire professional position coaches.
 
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No retreads, please. Find me the defensive version of Joe Brady, not the old version of Pelini/Muschamp/Brown/Smith/Diaco.
Yes, sign me up for that, too. Just go out and get the defensive version of Joe Brady. This isn’t rocket science. How hard could it be to find one of those?

Anybody got any idea who the defensive version of Joe Brady might be?
 
I agree; i just like to look at a complete picture & see trends. His rep speak for itself, for sure...but I hate seeing downward trends, especially after it bottoms.
What are the actual statistics? They would tell the real story.
 
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