Michigan Football: Jim Harbaugh, Don Brown Joined At The Hip
On a day in which last year's defensive coordinator, D.J. Durkin, was meeting with reporters as Maryland's head coach, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh was singing the praises of the guy he hired to replace him.
Harbaugh called Don Brown his first choice to replace Durkin, and he hasn't been disappointed. He grew to love his coaching ability in the spring, and the relationship has grown since.
"I just get a big smile about Don Brown every time I hear his name. I feel like we’re becoming best friends," Harbaugh said. "I just met Don in December and January, we've worked together since then and he’s a legend in my mind right now. Everything he has done, everything he has been associated with has been successful.
"Even as a baseball coach at Yale … they said, 'take the baseball team. We need you to coach them.' He coaches them into the playoffs. Everywhere I go, and I’ve been a lot of places since spring ball, since summer, the amount of people that come up to me to say, 'I played for Don Brown at UMass or Boston College. Tell Donny I said hi. He coached me...'
"To hear the ways he’s affected lives, developed individuals is on the same par as how people talk to me about my dad, the many lives he’s influenced. Its running about neck and neck right now."
Most of them say he's the best coach they ever had, he added.
"It's past scheme, past coaching acumen with what he's done. It's off the charts the way through his career he’s developed people and individuals as players. It's running at the highest level of people I know. I'm truly, truly excited and dream higher for the Michigan program to have Don Brown coordinating our defense. He’s an individual that puts his heart and soul into what he’s doing. I'm very excited for our players to have him as D.C.
"I saw it in spring practice, they are an attacking defense. They are attacking and they are covering, and they're coming from everywhere. The blitz percentage is high. I think it's going to be scheme that's going to be tough to beat."