Former Mountie Coach Don Brown Named Defensive Coordinator at Michigan

MANSFIELD – There's a Mountie in the Big House.

The University of Michigan announced today the hiring of former Mansfield University football assistant coach Don Brown as the Wolverines new defensive coordinator.

Brown was a member of the first staff Tom Elsasser, Mansfield's all-time winningest football coach, put together in 1983. Other members of that staff included Frank Butsko for whom the Butsko Award is named in honor of and Bill Walker who served as the Mountaineer's long-time offensive coordinator and later with the sprint football program at Cornell.

Brown, who came to Mansfield after serving as an assistant at Dartmouth, was Elsasser's defensive coordinator that season. The Mountaineers won four of their first five games that year before finishing 4-6. Three of those losses were by four or less points. Three of his defensive players, Karl Alston, Don Chubb and Scott Holtzapple were named to All-PSAC East honors.

Brown, who was just named the 2015 AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year after coaching the nation's top defense at Boston College, left Mansfield to take over as defensive coordinator at Dartmouth in 1984. He also served stints as defensive coordinator at Yale, Brown, Massachusetts, Maryland and Connecticut and was head coach at Plymouth State, Northeastern and Massachusetts.

Brown wasn't the only former Mountaineer assistant coach under Elsasser who had great success this season in the collegiate ranks. Former Mountaineer player and assistant defensive coordinator Mike Silecchia is a member of the coaching staff at Shepherd (WV) which played in the NCAA Division II National Championship game on Saturday.

Mike Drass, a four-year starter on the offensive line and two-time All-PSAC East selection in the early 1980s, served under Elsasser as an assistant coach in the late 1980s before becoming the head coach at Wesley College (DE). This season Wesley earned a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals for the fourth straight year, losing to eventual NCAA Division III Champion Mount Union earlier this month. Starting quarterback Joe Callahan was the 2015 Gagliardi Trophy recipient recognized as the top football student-athlete in NCAA Division III.