Don Brown
Don Brown went 6–28 as a head coach, 2022–2024, at Massachusetts. Share
- Record
- 6–28 career
- Seasons
- 3
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Jul 31, 1955
- Alma mater
- Plymouth State
- Best season
- 2023 3–9
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Massachusetts | 1–11 | ||
| 2023 | Massachusetts | 3–9 | ||
| 2024 | Massachusetts coached 10 of 12 games | 2–8 |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 2 | 0–2 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 3 | 0–3 | 0% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 9 | 2–7 | 22% |
| At home | 17 | 4–13 | 24% |
| On the road | 19 | 2–17 | 11% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 6 | 4–2 | 67% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 30 | 2–28 | 7% |
His own 36 games on file, 2022–2024, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Creighton 2022–2024 | 0–3 | Eastern Michigan | 3 | |
| Jason Candle 2022–2024 | 0–3 | Toledo | 3 | |
| Jim Mora 2022–2024 | 0–3 | UConn | 3 |
Don Brown’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| UConnseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Eastern Michiganseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Libertyseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| Toledoseries | 3 | 0–3 |
| New Mexico Stateseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Armyseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Miami (OH)series | 2 | 0–2 |
| Arkansas Stateseries | 2 | 0–2 |
Also a player: Don Brown’s playing career.
Coaching tree
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jim ReidMassachusetts, Richmond, VMI
- Shane MontgomeryMiami (OH), Massachusetts
Coached under him, later head coaches (2)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Reid | Massachusetts, 2023–24: analyst | Massachusetts, Richmond, VMI | |
| Shane Montgomery | Massachusetts, 2024: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Miami (OH), Massachusetts |
Other assistants under him (3)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Albert | Massachusetts, 2022–24: assistant head coach, special teams coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| Keith Dudzinski | Massachusetts, 2022–24: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Steve Casula | Massachusetts, 2022–23: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Brown’s teams went for it on 20% of fourth downs and on 36% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 45% of plays and took 28.0 seconds a play, 2022–2024.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 11 g | 24 of 116 21% | 34% | 39% | 28.3 | −0.21 | |
| 2023 12 g | 13 of 87 15% | 33% | 50% | 28.0 | +0.02 | |
| 2024 12 g | 23 of 100 23% | 39% | 44% | 27.8 | +0.03 | |
| All 35 g | 60 of 303 20% | 36% | 45% | 28.0 | −0.05 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.