ND to replace Minter as defensive coordinator with Corwin
Brown
Multiple media sources are reporting New York Jets defensive backs
coach Corwin Brown will be Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, replacing
Rick Minter.
Brown graduated from Julian High School in Chicago and played in the
NFL for the New England Patriots, Detroit Lions and the Jets.
He also spent the past three seasons with the Jets as the defensive
backs coach after coaching special teams at the University of Virginia
under Al Groh.
Messages left at Brown’s office in Hempstead, N.Y., on his e-mail with
the Jets and on his cell phone were not returned. The Jets, through a
spokesperson, had no comment.
Neither did Notre Dame.
“There has been no announcement made and we don’t have a timeline as to
when one would be made,” Notre Dame football media relations director
Brian Hardin said Friday.
The 36-year-old will inherit a defense ranked 65th in 2006, allowing
340.23 yards a game. Notre Dame ranked 60th or lower in rush defense,
pass defense, pass efficiency defense and total defense in 2006. It is
also a unit that will replace three starters on the defensive line and two
starters in its secondary due to graduation.
Brown was an All-Big Ten safety at Michigan before playing eight years
in the NFL as a cornerback and a safety. While a member of the Patriots
and the Jets, Brown played on teams coached by his new boss, Notre Dame
head coach Charlie Weis. The Patriots initially drafted Brown out of
Michigan with the 110th pick in the 1993 draft – a fourth-round
selection.
Before coaching at Virginia, he spent a season as a volunteer assistant
at Boston University and worked with New York Jets coaches at the 1997
and 1998 NFL scouting combines, according to his biography when he was
at the University of Virginia.
Brown’s biography on the Jets Web site has been deleted and the voice
mailbox for his extension in the Jets offices does not have his name,
just an extension number.
An e-mail sent to Minter’s Notre Dame account went unreturned Friday.
The shakeup could be just the beginning. The South Bend Tribune is
reporting both Minter and quarterbacks coach Peter Vaas had been let go
Thursday.
Reached at his home Friday, Vaas had no comment.
“I don’t think it is the appropriate time to comment on anything,” Vaas
said. “At this point in time, I don’t have any comment whatsoever.”
Notre Dame finished the season 10-3, with a 41-14 loss to LSU in the
Sugar Bowl on Jan. 3.
Note: Notre Dame senior wide receiver Jeff Samardzija was named to the
NCAA consensus All-America team for the second straight season. He
joined Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson and Tennessee wide
receiver Robert Meachem on the squad.
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