Secondary coach ShaDon Brown is back in his comfort zone.
The veteran assistant has spent the past three years overseeing the cornerback room for West Virginia, but after safeties coach Dontae Wright left for the co-defensive coordinator role at Troy this off-season he inherited a familiar position atop the entire secondary.
And while that might seem outside the box to some coaches, it’s something that Brown has done at multiple stops over the course of his career. You could say it’s a bit old hat for him.
“If you look at my career and where I’ve been I’ve coached entire secondaries at multiple stops at the Power Five level,” he said. “I love having one voice in that room.”
Wright was already in place when Brown initially joined the staff which shifted him primarily over to cornerbacks. But after the staff shakeup head coach Neal Brown decided it was in the best interest of the secondary for Brown to take over the entire group instead of splitting the responsibilities.
It didn’t take long to convince Brown.
“I was all for it. That’s what I’ve done at other stops. When I was at Colorado, the last time I did it and had the whole secondary, five of the nine guys I coached in two years are still playing in the National Football League,” he said. “We had a good run of doing it there.”
The biggest difference for Brown is the amount of pre-planning that is required, and it helps matters that he also is able to utilize and rely on his graduate and student assistants to aid him. There is an established trust there that’s been built over the past two years, so they know exactly what he wants and expects which makes the transition seamless from a coaching perspective.
The benefits to the players is obvious as it provides one voice for them to follow and learn from. In the past, Brown still had his hands in every part of the secondary but from a day-to-day management standpoint and with on-the-field coaching had to give way to the position coach at safety.
Now, any questions will be handled directly by Brown for consistency across the board.
“Now whether it’s safety, corner, nickel or spear the information is funneled from one place,” he said.
With experience coaching both of the positions over his career individually as well as together, Brown is excited to have all of his players learning under the same umbrella at all times. And the feeling is mutual.
“We’re all hearing the same language,” safety Anthony Wilson said.
It’s a different approach in Morgantown but one that the coaches believe is going to produce some productive results. And if the past is any indication, that certainly is well within the realm of possibilities.
“It’s going well right now and I like how it flows,” Brown said.
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