6 Pack Defensive Musings w Defensive Coordinator Ryan Brown

all right welcome everyone to am aming Bru sixpack this is a special edition this is the defense Edition we have defensive coordinator for the state champion Central Catholic Fighting Irish Ryan Brown with us here to talk a few question questions a five-time state champion once as a player four times on staff Ryan but old school buddy of mine we go way back thanks for taking the time my friend yeah yeah am uh really excited to get this get through this um listen to podcast a few times I really like I'm a fan so outstanding I love that you're you're soft spoken very sweet but on the field a maniac an absolute lunatic who is just trying to destroy the team across from him so we are excited to talk some defense with you man before we get into the six-pack how many D1 D2 players have you had the opportunity to coach play alongside over at Central katholic um so I was trying to think back uh I've been on Varsity since 2010 so overall I don't have overall number we're over 20 overall division one players um but on defense we're at like nine so okay little over one one per year or a little under one per year excuse me got you and you had you were there coaching for Hudson who Michigan fans right now might know James Hudson who who came over as a tackle did he play both ways at Central Catholic yes he yeah he played offensive tackle and he played defensive end and he was uh very good to say the least I saw him dude he was one of the first ones that I walked up and I was like well that guy's on a different level that guy probably belongs in a college football field so that leads me to to one of my first questions when can you tell as a coach that one of your players has what it takes to make it to the next level is it just the size speed thing is it a like ability to be coached is it a combination what is it um first thing is that you're you'll notice or anybody will notice really is going to be the size of the player depending on the position obviously line and you're looking for taller wider bodies but in general you're looking for taller kids at stand out um it's kind of funny College college recruiters division one they they go a little different route than what we think who's really good and what they think's really good um they're all about body size and um size of size of arms length of arms things like that uh we're obviously we think a little different we I think we've had many players that could have been division one over the past 15 odd years um but they tend to go a little different route which I understand I get why they do that but um don't necessarily agree with it so um Ryan when you were starting out and like I mean maybe you developed this as a player or maybe it was early on in your coaching career but who were your influences When developing your own defensive philosophy and how has that changed over the years as offenses just kind of continued to evolve so when I first started coaching Varsity I was like 21 so I was very fortunate to um work with a few guys first being uh Nick to he had previously coached at Ohio University for 10 years and he was defense coordinator for the last five of those years um so I really got to see the work and the process that you go through uh day in and day out the grind you have to go through um I was very fortunate to get that experience with him to see how hard this job really is right this is this isn't easy it's a grind it's a Daily Grind um and I don't I don't know if most people realize that even some High School coaches I think they they tend to think it's a they're going to put two or three hours in a day and that's it and this is during a season this is seven days a week we're rolling man and um I got I get that was such a great experience just because I got to see you're not you can't cut Corners you have to watch all the film right you you have to break down the opponent you have to do these things daily um to make sure you're going to be successful can you cut Corners sometimes yeah but but will you be successful year in a year out no you won't so I like that so how would you describe the defense that you run at Central Catholic maybe to someone that has like a cursory knowledge of football to to maybe people that aren't like fully fully initiated like yourself so we start we we call it just a basic 42 we have four four down linemen two linebackers and then five DBS um used to be changed a little bit if you want to get back at the philosophy used to be very very aggressive um in the teens 2015 to 2020 super aggressive if we can I guess we could liken it to Don Brown a little bit um very aggressive played mostly man we brought pressure like crazy so I've reversed actually done I don't want to say complete 180 but I reverse course a lot now instead of bringing six or seven guys a lot we bring I try to bring four or five just from all over the place though different positions so um it was actually I saw just Dave Ronda who's the head coach of Baylor now yeah when he was the DC at LSU when they had that great run at 19 uh he had a quote that just actually just completely changed the way I thought about um defense and playing defense and he likened it to a military term where he talked about bringing six or seven is like you're you're dropping a carpet bomb right you were just trying to bring as many people as possible to cause chaos whereas he does a lot of like creepers and simulated pressures where he's only bringing four guys but he he Likens been to like a Precision guided missile right because you're looking for that weakness within the offense whether it's on the line with the running back and whatnot so he's attacking and he can be just as disruptive as you're bringing six or seven but you're only bringing four and when I heard that I thought about that for a long time and I've completely changed how we run a defense now we're we're I want I want I don't want to say we're conservative but we bring a lot less pressure overall we're still bring four guys five guys a lot but we're not bringing six or seven where we're either playing man or two under three deep and getting hung out the dry if we can't if we can't make the tackle in the back field so it honestly tracks a lot with what Michigan has done you talked about the Don brown parallel in your career I mean Evin Bush was not really a linebacker at Michigan at times he was just kind of like an extra rusher on the line of scrimmage it felt like as much as he blitzed but last season it was all Michigan running twists and stunts and simulated pressure and although you feel like you're being rushed by seven you're only being rushed by four it's just coming from weird spots and weird angles now when you're working with kids does your philosophy change or alter based on the Personnel or are you looking for kids that can fit in into your system and play a role um I would love to to get the kids just to play play our system but we have to adapt with what we got I mean we're still working with high school kids we can't choose who we get they show up so I usually have to adapt to to whatever we have fortunately over the past few years we've been pretty consistent with what we've been able to run so hopefully it continues so from your perspective and I like if let's stay on this Don Brown to the the Baltimore Ravens defense over a number of coordinators that we've had what have you seen from your perspective going from the down Brown era to the Michigan era that kind of makes that difference like I I know you you probably are busy enough watching your own guys but have you seen anything in particular where you're like okay I see why this is making a difference in Michigan's win total uh yeah I think when uh McDonald came in and then with with Mentor carrying on the the the same defense it's just they're you're just being a lot safer with your creeper blitzes with your simulator pressures um they vary they vary coverages all over the place right they're not just just mainly playing cover one like they did with uh down Brown um I mean there there's a lot of stuff you have to unpack as an offense trying to attack a defense like that that is very multiple has multiple ways to attack you um from offense just looking from offense perspective it becom comes a lot harder right uh sure with with with Don Brown and the way you play you have to like so it's kind of funny man is very easy to teach defense coverage wise very easy to teach very easy to learn for kids very hard to play right it's very technique driven it's it's very difficult that's why we've gotten away from it just because it's not the easiest thing to play and if you got if you're going against a team that's better than you at fleetwise you're going to lose yeah I mean and we we you saw that multiple times with and that's it's not a knock on him because I think Don Brown is an incredible coach and I'm not trying to put him down at all but it's just if you don't have the dudes and it's the best you are not gonna win so it was the the lack of adaptability like there just wasn't a lot of change and it's like if you do the same thing over and over again eventually guys are going to figure you out and scheme you up a certain way and it's like if you fail to adjust after that there's going to continue to do that um but keeping with Michigan like you talked about the evolution from McDonald to Mentor how do you think the defense is going to stay the same or differ this year under wink marale so under wink he tends to be a little bit more aggressive than the other two guys but I think it's goingon to be pretty consistent it's kind of funny so McDonald took everything that wink uh built with Baltimore and just just put it to best put the let me put the Playbook together I guess you could say so if you think about it so he literally went back just I did a lot of reading about this and I've talked to people about it what what McDonald did with the Ravens he basically went back all the way to when Rex Ryan was the DC all their calls all their different fronts all their different packages and seam lined them so he he um took all these different things and made it to where he can run the same Blitz in every single different package they bring it on the field whether they're bringing whether they're bringing six DBS on the field whether they got four linebackers on the field whether they have five defensive Lin on the field that he can call the same exact Blitz for every package and be able to run it so that's where he streamlined the Baltimore Ravens defense so Wink's walking in to you can say he already has all his calls or most of them but in general right so he will I don't think there's going to be that much of a difference like I said he is a tad more aggressive than the other two but I mean it's literally his defense that they were running he had a really cool quote this um this week and Jared and I were just talking about it actually where he was telling uh the telling the media that he like they learn man defense first at Michigan because you have to understand that first before you can fall back into Zone and he talks about you also have to teach these kids how to Blitz and Rush effectively before you talk about dropping back because eventually you're going to need to play man or you're going to need to bring a pressure and if you don't have those down patent understood like the back of your hand things can really fall apart for a defense quickly well here's the thing like most people don't realize like Zone eventually becomes man at some point during the play right so so you you're gonna that's brilliant I mean you're gonna have to you're gonna be playing man at some point whether you're in zone or you're in man it's it's going to happen so yes I I completely agree with that uh teaching so looking at this Michigan roster I'm not sure exactly how you're familiar how familiar you are with what Michigan is bringing back but this could arguably be one of the most talented Michigan defenses ever to suit up just looking at what we've got on the field so you were mentioning wink marale being more aggressive when you've got the strength that we have which is a lock down cornerback uh potentially top five pick at defensive tackle who can both penetrate and stuff the Run um and then a second defensive tackle that you also think is like an elite run stuffer as well like with with what Michigan has how could that aggression play out next season like we don't necessarily have an Aiden Hutchinson we don't have a Devin Bush as like a a linebacker that's gonna come blazing in like a missile like but there is like there's some really solid pieces there how could that aggression play out on the field if you had to predict it um well I mean think about it's the big 10 what are we going to see most of the time you're going to see 21 Personnel you're going to see 12 person 11 personnel Smashmouth football still um justd it'll be interesting to see what how USC and UCLA comes into play with that but I mean you have I think by Nature you have to be somewhat aggressive in the Big 10 just because the ball is going right at you and whether you're gonna stand there and take it or you're gonna you're gonna give it back right so I think um with the with the players the talent they have back with the transfers they have coming in theb wise I think you will see some more man played this year than you've seen the previous few years and I think it they're going to be pretty good really do now Ryan you know a lot about different schemes and you pay I don't know how you pay this much attention to like Michigan and college football with everything you got going on seven days a week but they always new baby in the house too hey congratulations my man that's awesome that's awesome they always say the best coaches steal is there one play or one concept or or one Blitz you've seen another coach run it could be at high school it could be at College it could be at NFL that you were like oh I gotta put that in the Playbook um I don't think I have one original thought I take everything I mean answer yeah I mean if if I see it it works multiple places I'm like yes I'm taking that so during the offseason I have I literally have any film I have every sing s Le team in the country so I'm able to watch and study and learn a lot so during the season Buccaneers with like a notebook or you say do you have like a favorite DC or a favorite defense whether it be NFL or college you just love to watch uh McDonald's I like M I like McDonald um I like Ronda even though he he doesn't call the defens more just because he's the head coach um so I like uh Schuman at Georgia I think he does a great job so I know doesn't call the defense of Oregon but I think he does a great job as well so and then obviously when sa was just the master but he's he's gone to better times now so yeah yeah he's in that retirement now so he doesn't need to worry about these things anymore constantly coming up with new Blitz schemes um to to turn the page a little bit to Ohio State who we just got done covering in our last podcast last year they were one of the best cfp ERA teams on defense with 11.2 points per game just right behind Michigan at 10.4 that would put them as like the top three or in the top five for the college football playoff era what have you seen from this Jim NS defense you can go Personnel you can go uh roster you can go Jim N scheme itself but like what have you seen from this Ohio State Defense that has made them really take a leap as far as defensive production um so talk about like aggression and and and uh playing man defense playing zero a lot of times two years ago they gave up a ton of Expos I remember reading a stat few few months ago about the difference between explosive plays they gave up this year compared to last year and it was a significant significant reduction in in explosive plays um I think the the the best example of is two years ago when you had um Edwards scored twice on two long runs against Ohio State they were in BAS basically zero Blitz man coverage Corners were pressed up and once he broke through the first line he was gone right you so they they played that a lot that year and again when you have the dudes to do it against most people you're going to be successful with it well when you run into somebody who's either close in Talent OR is better you're going to struggle so what did he do this year he he changed up he's not as aggressive they weren't zero as much as they were previously Corners weren't always pressed they were playing off now in man um so that really limited the explosive plays this year so and they got a they got a lot of guys returning obviously they're motivated they want to beat Michigan this year um I think they had a big factor with all those dudes coming back on their defense so I think they're going to be pretty good I wouldn't expect um much to change from their defense from last year I I don't know why they would change anything dang near everybody's back and then you brought brought arguably the best safety in college football into your program so I think they're going to be very similar and they're they're going to be pretty dominant again yeah the Michigan Ohio State game as of right now in Late July it honestly just feels like uh first one to 20 is gonna win this game because there's so many offensive questions on with both teams but defensively there's just studs on each side of the ball which brings me to a question I'd love to hear your Insight on if you're building out your ideal defense what would be the first position you would want would it be the lock down Corner would it be the Run stuffer would it be a premier Edge like how do you envision building a defense in an ideal situation so I would what I would say is it depends on what level I'm at so if I'm in high school I want a dominant D tackle um I teams in high school football really struggle with with really good defensive line and defensive tackles um in college or in the pros give me the edge rusher all day in the story it's not even close I love I love Corners we got a lock down corner right now it's G to be a junior but they can't cover forever no matter how good you are give me the give me the edge pressure in college and in NFL all day long I I think that's like um where you see the biggest difference especially from like group of five schools like Max schools compared to like the big 10 it's like you see the difference on the line like you can see that at high school with your division one athletes like it just changes everything for a team need the complete comp ction of the game is shifted in the trenches that way yeah big time I mean there's well there's I mean there's a different difference between the the top five schools in in the country the top 10 schools compared to everybody else with the lines it's it's not even close and then the next thing is you may have a good first group but then the second group falls off whereas you have Ohio State Michigan Georgia Oregon they're able to bring in two three deep of guys I mean how many guys is Michigan rotating last year like seven defensive tackles it was an eight man rotation think about that I mean how many schools in the country could do that yeah very few right I mean that's that's incredible depth that most schools aren't lucky to have so yeah that I love that answer and I I I I have to agree now especially since someone that knows football more than I I've forgotten about football uh or has forgotten more than I know there it is um but yeah so you would rather have a miles Garrett over a sauce Gardener I I I think that I understand that so let let me talk just a little bit about your philosophy here like so when you're out there on the field and you're in the heat of battle do you ever start to like kind of feel yourself and you're like all right fourth and five balls on our side of the field you're like you know what like we're we're in the zone like go for it on this one like do you ever feel yourself as a coordinator like you're in your Zone kind of like a player can get into their Zone can a coordinator get into the zone and be like this team can't do anything against me oh yeah definitely there's times you feel like you you well you feel like you're you're able to read what the offensive coordinator is going to call you're able to predict and when you when you're able to do that feels so good when you know what's coming so when you're you're basic you're calling their play before they're able to call their play that's a really good feeling and that just that just speaks to the amount of work you and your staff has put in for that week and just picking up all the tendencies that they're that they're showing so yeah it's fun there there was an analyst last year that worked for Michigan his name was Doug mallerie and he was just a master at defensive Concepts in the secondary and it's been talked about a lot I think he went over to the Seahawks I think he joined McDonald but like even just with a week to prepare for Washington Mikey serers still just by alignment is like okay they're running this concept they're running this like Jaylen McMillan the Washington receiver talked about it that he just Michigan knew what they were running ahead of time and like having that preparation and just that kind of confidence I can imagine like as a player and as a coach just feeling so dialed into everything a team is serving up to you yeah so I forget who said famous quot coach said this quote but every play has a story you just gotta you just got to read it so I mean people hardine offenses they they give away what they're doing all the time whether by the formation alignment or or whatnot I mean they they make it pretty obvious um and if they're going to show it we're going to take advantage of it which I'm sure we we do on defense too but you just got you got to put the work in to to find what the the Tells are so believe me we've we've gone there's been game plans just based on how people align where the kids on the field are making the call just based on the formation the alignment how reduced the receivers are things like that where're I'll completely put it in the kids hands and and they'll make the call just based off that and we've been very successful doing that I'm you're telling just like linebackers and stuff the smallest details of you stand over the a gap and not the B Gap because you're giving away this coverage out here or you're mixing things up in a certain way it's like where those small details all kind of add up like I think last year it was anytime Marvin Harrison Junior had a just a short and split on the outside you knew a run was coming to the opposite side or the way he drops his hands or had his hands up you knew whether he was going to get the ball and stay engaged and I always find those little details fascinating from a coaching perspective just pick up on those in film yep so that is putting in the time yeah you can always find I've seen to where uh we played a team where the quarterback when he had his feet balanced he was handing the ball off when he had one foot up and when they were in gun he was passing literally the whole we it was 100% throughout the throughout the games we broke down and then we played him it was 100% run or Pass based on his feet I mean it's amazing what people give away without even realizing it so and then that's our like our that's our job to pick up on those things so I think that's what I really find fascinating about Michigan last year against Penn State when it's like you know what they're giving us problems on the edge we can't get our snap count right they have a quick step let's run the ball 32 straight times let's just line up show our hand and then just Pummel them into submission with two extra offensive linemen like I love how football can be so complex and yet so simp at the same time yeah well I don't just in general trying to defend Michigan's offense over the past few years has to just be terrible I can't imagine going through it because you're going from 11 personnel to 12 Personnel to what you would call like zero or or excuse me one they run 13 yeah well mean yeah they run 13 Personnel but then they heck in that Penn State game and they brought in three lineman sometimes yeah and then they then they'll motion people all over the place they'll shift people the place and it's not easy to cover all those gaps I I I think people really struggle to understand like how could you not stop that run against Michigan well they're adding so you got to imagine when you bring in an extra person that adds two gaps on the field right so when you bring three extra linemen there's six possible extra gaps you have to defend now right that just becomes that becomes just so much harder and I would it would have been a nightmare try to defend that and it's hard to match the Personnel in a Split Second because you're bringing like 240lb linebackers there when Michigan's bringing in exactly a 340 lb extra tackle and it's like well I think they're gonna have a leverage Advantage here yeah I mean and look what they did to Alabama and um Washington they're literally shifting or motioning on every single play right that's like the hardest thing as a def as a defensive coordinator you got to prep prepared for motions and shifts right it's hard for me to to to because we go to we got to U Break all the stuff down now for me it doesn't matter what I know it's what we can teach our kids right so they got to be the ones that be able to react to all the emotions and shifts correct yeah so that can be very tedious right because if you're out if you're off by a few yards of one way the other You're Gonna Give You Can potentially give up a big play and to face that every single play is not easy I don't care how many coaches you have I don't care how many how many um analytical guys you have like I know you know Sabin abama they had 50 extra dudes yeah but I mean it doesn't matter it's what the kids know it's what the kids have to be able to react to and all that's happening with within one or two seconds before a snap it is a lot to prepare for I know we're this is a defensive chat but just getting into on offensive side it's I'm so glad I don't have to defend something like that that's all I got to say man this uh this conversation I think I'm going to come away from this realizing like it's so much about the kid and their capacity to like pick up on things like obviously you need an athlete they need to have X amount of speed they need be able to do whatever you need them to be able to do physically on the field but just after this conversation like what are you able to pick up in four years because both at your level and at the college level you only get four years with a kid yes like it just yeah this conversation is making me realize like what can you pick up in four years yeah so I was this last season um we were you guys know who Jerry Glenville is yeah I do okay so he was uh old head coach Atlanta Falcons in the 90s ten and the not Tennessee Oilers the Texas or no Houston Oilers wow yeah we're going back the Houston Oilers in the 80s um and he was he dced at both of them as well so he's from perisburg which is a suburb close to too and brown I yeah and so he lives he lives back here now or he did he's actually in took a new job so he was he was around last year so he came to our games he came to like six or seven our games and I got to meet with them frequently throughout the year just talking football um and this is the guy that's been the NFL he he literally had one of the best if not the best defenses of all time for the Atlanta Falcons in the late 70s where they gave up 9.2 points per game so his biggest thing is keeping everything simple and you're talking Elite of the elite pro NFL players where they this is the literally their job and he teaches it as simple as it can be right I I don't want to give Ohio State Credit for anything in this world but um that was one of the things that Jim nolles talked about was they have I believe it's one word calls on defense now it's just one word simple so you don't have to worry about the verbiage remembering this and that you hear tomato and you know what defense you're running now so with the one we're they they'll pack in they got it's a lot of memorization so they'll they'll pack in six or seven words into those one word calls yeah so that can that can get we try to do that to a limit we we can't do too many now but um because obviously you want to keep everything as simple as possible because you want to get lined up as quick as possible to be able to play um actually this this this past this past summer probably I think at the beginning of June we were able to sit down as a staff and meet with Dean P's oh so he was yeah he coordinated the Ravens he's actually from the area as well so um got all these all these NFL guys live shout out so he um he coordinated for the Ravens for I think six years so his biggest message as well is keep it as simple as possible so yeah I mean it makes sense they they both coached High School football for a bit and then they went up through to the college ranks and they went to the NFL so they know that we got the younger kids that the high school kids you have to keep it simple so they they obviously they kept that philosophy all all the way up through all three different levels so yeah man again again if if it doesn't matter what we know how much we know if the kids can't line up and play I mean what are you going to do so yeah 100% man um Ryan this has been awesome man thank you so much for for geeks like Andy and I to be able to talk to somebody that actually like knows ball plays ball and is is in there in the trenches I mean maybe not physically anymore but as close as you can be out there he can still line him up I think he can still do it yeah yeah oh I saw him the other day he's looking good he could still line it up uh so so talk to us a little bit Central Catholic are you guys off backto back how many state championships have you won in a row and and what's the outlook for this year uh we won two in a row so that's I somebody told me I think two weeks ago that we have the top 10 longest streak in the nation we're at 31 straight games right now so yeah that's pretty cool um that's legit we're gonna be so we're we're younger this year um it's gonna first five or six games are pretty tough so it's going to be a very good experience to see where we stand as a as a team so ready to get ad I'm excited we start tomorrow two a day start tomorrow so J we're gonna have to catch game oh no we are we're catching the game for sure yeah yeah I mean whitmer's the uh that's kind of the local rivalry I'm interested in that but y'all are playing a lot of like the Michigan teams right now like you've kind of changed leagues to where you're playing a lot of the like Warren De lals of the world and stuff like that am I am I right yeah we're in the the the Catholic School league in Michigan now which is a very uh Rich tradition multiple multiple uh state champions I think the league we're in the all the teams we joined they all have at least five or plus I mean some have 10 plus it's it's it's really good League I mean the competition is really good it's fun League um get you psyched up every week I CH you don't want to say you get down against some bad opponents but it's human nature right whereas this this league it's you better come every single week or you're gonna be paying so it so we had to play it last year was our first year so we ended up winning the league it it was fun though man it's it's just great going against good competition so I love it can't wait I'll be up to catch at least one game Andy and I will both try and catch a game together is there anybody on the roster we need if you're allowed to say it if you're not like just just wave me off is there uh is there anybody coming that Michigan might be looking for as far as a recruit so we have a 2026 corner right now named Victor Singleton he's got quite a few power five offers including Ohio State oh we got to get him then gotta can't get there can't go there oh yeah Gotta Have him so he's he's he's pretty athletic man he's he had a great year last year he started all 16 games as sophomore last year did a great job above and beyond expectations and he's he's doing a great job right now so we hopefully we continue get it rolling so love it that's outstanding good luck to you guys on this upcoming season we will definitely be up there to check it out you are welcome on this podcast whenever my friend really appreciate your time this for for guys like us we love this stuff we love getting deep into it we'd take up three hours of your time if you didn't have a baby and a wife at home yeah so no I appreciate it guys it's a lot of fun and I would love to be back anytime so let me know hopefully I have time during the season B I could probably e out 20 minutes somewhere but it's probably it's probably best if you don't have time during the season because that means y'all are rolling again yeah yeah so yeah all right man wishing you guys the best Ryan defensive coordinator for the Central Catholic Fighting Irish state champions out of Ohio thank you sir for your time that's going to do it for this six-pack make sure you like share subscribe you'll get be getting more of these from us on Ma and brew as the season continues we appreciate you remember Wherever You Go Go Blue