I won’t try to deny the fact that last season I was high on the hiring of defensive line coach Terry Bradden and outside backers coach Phil Simpson. Bradden was an assistant with Kansas City for eight years and had worked with guys like Chris Jones. As for Simpson, he was coming off a successful career as a high school head coach in Florida. Elevating high school coaches to the college level was something Rhule had been successful at in the past. Bottom line, I trusted Rhule.
I can say the same thing about John Butler. I liked the hire, and seeing Buffalo’s success I was good when Rhule named Butler the new defensive coordinator. But part of the problem there was that Rhule stuck Butler with his assistants and then forced him to run a defense he wasn’t familiar with.
The results were Butler and Bradden getting fired. Butler because there was no other course of action to be had after how the defense performed in their last three outings. Bradden because of being unable to recruit and the poor performance of his defensive line throughout the season. Many fans consider the Bradden hire an utter failure.
As for Simpson, he’s still on the staff but seems to have lost his role as outside linebackers or edge coach. In all truthfulness, Rhule brought Simpson in due to his recruiting chops. I think the plan was to let him recruit and develop him as a coach. It seems that will still happen, but now it’ll be in a background role.
With the hiring of Rob Aurich as defensive coordinator Rhule has taken a different approach this time. He has stepped back and let Aurich bring in the guys he needs to implement his defense, which will be a 4-2-5. In other words, Rhule told Aurich, “go get the guys you want,” and that is what he has done. First, he brought in edge coach Roy Manning who he worked with at San Deigo State. Aurich knew what he was getting in Manning.
Aurich has now added another familiar face who he can trust. Miami (Ohio) defensive line coach Corey Brown. Unlike Bradden, Brown played as a defensive lineman. He was at Iowa from 1995 to 1999. His last two seasons were under Kirk Frentz.
Brown started his coaching career as defensive line and strength & conditioning coach at Northern Iowa in 2006. He then held the same position at Iowa Western CC from 2009 to 2011. Between Iowa, Northern Iowa, and Iowa Western CC, he’s familiar with recruiting the Midwest.
From Iowa Western he went to Notre Dame as a graduate assistant under Brain Kelly for two seasons. Over two seasons, 2012-2013, the Irish went 12-5.
From 2014 to 2018 he made his first stint with Miami (Ohio) as the defensive line coach. The last three seasons were spent with DC John Hauser who is now the head coach of Ohio.
He then spent two seasons, 2018-2019, as Rutgers defensive line coach where he gained important Big Ten experience. Both seasons were spent under DC Joe Rossi. After Rutgers he went to South Dakota.
It was while at South Dakota that he first worked with Rob Aurich who was the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at that time. Spending two seasons together 2021-2022, the pair worked under DC Travis Johnsen, who is now South Dakota’s head coach. The Coyotes recorded 52 sacks in the two seasons Aurich and Brown were defensive assistants. Aurich then left and went to Idaho to be defensive coordinator under Jason Eck. Brown returned to Miami (Ohio) in 2023 for a second time where he remained until he was hired by Aurich for the job in Lincoln.
In his three seasons at Miami the defense registered 106 total sacks. 61 1/2 of those were by the defensive line. While at Miami, the defenses he was part of finished in the top twenty in sack percentage every year.
Brown checks all the boxes, he played defensive tackle in the Big Ten, coached in the Big Ten, coached multiple seasons in the poor man’s Big Ten (MAC), knows the recruiting environment of the Midwest, has familiarity with Rib Aurich and his scheme and has twenty years of experience coaching defensive line. He knows the mindset it takes according to Aurich …. simple, fast, and violent.
GO BIG RED!!
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