Michigan hires Boston College’s Don Brown as new defensive coordinator
Boston College defensive coordinator Don Brown is leaving the Eagles to take the same position with the Michigan Wolverines.
The 2015 season was a rough one to say the least for the Boston College Eagles and the offseason has been rocky to this point. With a slew of players transferring from the program and things not appearing to get any better, the last thing the Eagles needed was another departure.
Unfortunately for Boston College, one came on Sunday in the form of defensive coordinator Don Brown who accepted the defensive coordinator job at Michigan. Thayer Evans of Sports Illustrated was the first to report the news.
Brown and the Boston College defense were one of the only bright spots for an Eagles program that went 3-9 and winless in the ACC. His exotic blitz packages often confused offenses and the frequency with which they occurred earned him the moniker “Dr. Blitz.”
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This is a huge blow for the Eagles. Under Brown, the program had the No. 1 ranked team defense in the country, a unit that allowed an FBS-best 254 yards per contest and 15.3 points per game. Both impressive numbers to be sure, but when you consider the Boston College offense was so bad and the defense was on the field so much, the numbers look even better.
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At Michigan, he will join head coach Jim Harbaugh and a defense that ranked No. 4 in the country last season and features more high-end talent than he had at Boston College. He will replace D.J. Durkin who left this offseason to be the head coach at Maryland.
Now, Boston College will have to find a new defensive coordinator that can continue the positive upward swing of last year and hope there isn’t too much of a drop without Brown running the show.
With a poor offense and a new defensive coordinator imminent, things are looking bleak in Chestnut Hill at the moment. The key words are “at the moment” and there is still enough time in the offseason for Boston College to find a worthy successor and get some much-needed momentum heading into the new year.