Notre Dame, IN (UHND.com) – A week after reports surfaced that Corwin Brown would be the next defensive coordinator for Notre Dame, Charlie Weis made it official at yesterday’s press conference. Weis didn’t mention a reason for not renewing the contract of Rick Minter. Rather, Weis simply said he wanted someone in charge of the defense that he was familiar with while he concentrated on the offensive side of the ball this spring.
Brown fit the bill as far as being familiar to Weis because of the systems Brown has played and coached in. During his NFL career, he played for Al Groh, Eric Mangini, Bill Belichick, and Bill Parcells – all coaches Weis has spent a good deal of his career coaching with.
Brown didn’t discuss many x’s and o’s and he didn’t mention on whether he would run a 3-4 or 4-3 defense at Notre Dame (although he was asked). Instead, Brown was straight forward and to the point. “I think you have to have a foundation in place. You have to give your players the best opportunity to win, whatever that is. And if the offense calls for you to put more pressure on them, then maybe you should put more pressure on them. If it calls for you to play more coverage and then you gotta play more coverage,” was part of Brown’s response to the 3-4 vs. 4-3 question.
“I believe in being aggressive,” Brown said very matter-of-factly. “You have to hit. You have to run. And you’ve got to play hard. And that’s what I believe in,” he would go on to add.
Brown also let people know that his defenses are going to be a reflection of what he believes in. “You have to hit and run and you gotta play hard and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to be tough.”
The strong words from Brown should be music to Notre Dame fan’s hears after watching their defenses get picked apart by elite offense after elite offense the past two seasons.
Whether or not future coaching staffs to the defensive staff are part of Brown’s plan was not directly answered. Brown would only offer up, “We have a staff in place,” when asked if he planned to make any adjustments to the current defensive staff.
We’ll have more on the hiring of Brown including what kind of impact he may be able to have this late in the recruiting game this weekend.
