Fran Brown fitting in nicely to Georgia defensive coaching staff
Georgia Football is about to have its third different defensive backs coach in three seasons after Charlton Warren left Athens to become the defensive coordinator at Indiana in 2020 and was replaced by Jahmile Addae, who spent just one year with the Bulldogs before bolting to Miami. Despite the seemingly constant turnover on the backend of the defense – both with coaches and players (Georgia’s had six defensive backs selected in the last two NFL Drafts and seven players enter the transfer portal over the last two seasons) – Georgia seems to have found the right combination of coaches in the secondary now. Fran Brown is working with the cornerbacks while co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp spends his time with the safeties and STARs.
“It’s outstanding. Fran is a great person to work with,” Muschamp told media members when asked about Brown last week. “From Camden, New Jersey, he’s got an interesting story as he’s grown up through this. Again, another guy that has a great rapport with the players, but a joy to work with as far as football is concerned. Everyone wants to talk about our scheme, our system. Sometimes this scheme is very difficult, for a first year in the scheme coach, with a guy that is very diligent, has a great work ethic, and it is a joy to work with. The guy has been awesome, and he has done a great job for us recruiting and representing us in a first-class manner. I’m really excited about his future here at Georgia.”
Brown was one of four assistant coaches that Kirby Smart and Georgia Football hired during the offseason. He spent the last two seasons on staff under Greg Schiano at Rutgers, coaching defensive backs in his home state of New Jersey. He also spent time at Temple and Baylor prior to coming to Georgia this spring.
“I think he is very charismatic. You have to really spend time with Fran to get to know Fran,” Smart said about Brown during the spring. “Fran has done a tremendous job at establishing relationships. It was very evident that when you talk to people that have worked on a staff with him about his charisma. I was very pleased with how hard he works, his relationships with the players, he is relentless on the road recruiting. I mean the guy communicates so well and pushes so hard, I think he is going to be a really good coach. I think he is a rising star in this profession because of the energy he puts into it. He is very coachable. He does what you ask of him and if he doesn’t know, he asks, that is important. It is just as important to ask when you don’t know as it is to know. He has been really good thus far in that area.”
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“Just from talking to him, the first time I spoke to him I feel like he’s a really down-to-earth guy. He definitely knows what he’s talking about with everything that we’re doing, and I noticed that the first meeting that I had with him,” Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo added about Brown, also this spring. “Just being able to trust him just as I did with Coach Addae last year puts me in a good situation. I feel like Coach Smart and the rest of the coaching staff definitely knew what they were doing by bringing him here. So, I feel like we’ve set off to a good start.”
Brown is tasked with helping Georgia replace NFL draftee Derion Kendrick at cornerback along with multiple transfers that provided depth last season. The Bulldogs brought in several signees in the nation’s No. 3 ranked Class of 2022 to play cornerback including On3 Consensus five-star Jaheim Singletary, a top-five corner in the country Daylen Everette and a third top-10 corner, Julian Humphrey. It’s also important that Brown can help continue to develop second year players Kamari Lassiter and Nyland Green, both of whom are competing for the starting spot opposite of the returning starter Kelee Ringo.
