UMass makes it official: Don Brown is a college football head coach

The University of Massachusetts announced the hiring of Arizona defensive coordinator Don Brown on Monday. UMass fired third-year head coach Walt Bell two weeks ago and already has their replacement.

Brown emerged as the lead candidate late last week. He is a native of Spencer, Massachusetts.

“I am honored to return to Amherst and lead the football program at the University of Massachusetts again,” Brown said. “I promise to work tirelessly to make this program into something that our players, alumni and fans can be proud of. My focus will also be to develop our student-athletes so they can play at an elite level and achieve success, which requires building great relationships and having a tremendous work ethic. I can’t wait to get back to the Commonwealth and get to work.”

Don Brown is in his first year as Arizona’s defensive coordinator. The Wildcats rank 11th in the Pac-12 in scoring defense, giving up 29.5 points per game. Before Arizona, Brown coached the Michigan Wolverine defense for five years.

Under Brown, the Michigan defense finished among the top 12 units in the nation in total defense four straight years from 2016-19, including a trio of top-three performances and a No. 1 ranking in 2016. He was a Broyles award nominee in each of his five seasons at Michigan and a finalist in 2016.

Before Michigan, Brown spent time as the defensive coordinator at Boston College from 2013-15. Prior to BC, he coached at UConn (2011-12), and Maryland (2009-10) and Massachusetts (2004-08).

During his tenure as head coach from 2004 to 2008, UMass posted the best five-year record in school history, 43–19.

UMass Minutemen move on from Bell

The Massachusetts Minutemen fired head football coach Walt Bell after Week 10 of the 2021 football season. Bell amassed a 2-23 record in three seasons as the head coach at UMass. The only win of the season came versus 0-7 UConn, 27-13, on Oct. 9.

Don Brown will have a lot of work to do with the Minutemen. The squad faced Army on Saturday, resulting in loss No. 10 of the year.

Florida, LSU, USC, TCU, Akron, FIU, Virginia Tech, Washington and Washington State are all looking for new coaches with a week left in the regular season. Texas Tech and UConn already filled their open jobs.