The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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the next area code while he was on the field," Boston Herald writer Rich Thompson said. "If you like aggres- sive football and innovative use of linebackers, you're going to see a real transformation out there. "He's very intense. You'd think the kids would hate him, but they'd run through a wall for him. He's very an- imated, very loud and gets his point across. You'll see it on game day." Brown's defense is always in attack mode, according to Thompson, Sim- mons and Cronan, and the results bear out: in 2015, the Eagles led the country in tackles for loss per game (9.5), recording 114 for 463 yards in 12 contests. BC averaged 6.9 tack- les for loss in 2013. The unit also av- eraged 2.8 sacks and 2.5 sacks per game in 2015 and 2014, respectively. Boston College produced the impressive numbers using a blitz scheme that might be the envy of college football, attacking the line of scrimmage with a ferocity few de- fensive coordinators have the confi- dence to stick with consistently. "If you're asking me, I think we blitzed every play," Simmons said with a laugh. "Realistically, if we ran 70 snaps in a game, we probably blitzed on 40 of them or [ran] a com- bination of a blitz in some way. So close to 50 percent of our defensive snaps, we brought pressure. "And if we got burned, and they had a big play because they got the ball away before we could get to them, he would dial up a blitz on the next play and then the next. He was not going to be deterred. "He would always tell us, 'I believe in this philosophy and I believe in you,' and we were just full throttle." With defenders in the backfield constantly, opponents struggled to connect on those big plays — Bos- ton College ranked fifth nationally by surrendering just 40 plays of 20 yards or more in 2015. The Eagles did allow 15 completions of 30 yards or more — five more than Michigan did this past year — but by recording a negative-yardage total of 38.6 yards per game (on the tackles for loss), the statistics balanced out. While there are seemingly no long- term concerns that Brown will be a huge success in Ann Arbor, there might be some short-term issues be- cause of the defense's complexity. "The scheme is intellectually based," Brown's attacking style of defense pro- duced an average of 9.5 tackles for loss — the most in the country — and 2.8 sacks per contest last fall. PHOTO COURTESY BOSTON COLLEGE