Dave Reardon: LB coach Brown brings heart of lion to Hawaii
Aug. 6—Brown is smart, and knows that the best move is often the one you don't make. So, when UH's new coach Timmy Chang called in December 2021, Brown considered his options.
Chris Brown bought into that Ninth Island stuff, and it was good for a long time for the man from Kahalu'u, Damien and the University of Hawaii. As it does for many Hawaii ex-pats, Las Vegas provided him with the next-best thing to home, but with more opportunity and a better cost of living.
"I had a really good situation at Bishop Gorman (High School ), " said Brown, who was at the private school with the nationally prominent football program for 16 years, including national championships in 2015 and'16.
He was assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, and strength and conditioning coordinator for all of the school's sports.
That's a lot, but if you know Brown from his playing days at the University of Hawaii from 1998 to 2002, you know he thrives in many roles. Plus, he said, he was compensated well.
"Financially I was good. Bought a house there. I'd established myself and everything was good, " Brown said. "But, I always knew in the the back of the head and my heart, especially, there was one school that could make me leave."
Brown is smart, and knows that the best move is often the one you don't make. So, when UH's new coach Timmy Chang called in December 2021, Brown considered his options. But it did not take long to accept Chang's offer to join his staff as linebackers coach.
"(Chang ) said, 'Hey man, I think it's time to go do this.' For a second, I thought, 'I'm good where I'm at.' Then I said to myself, 'This is my teammate. I'm gonna go help him however I can.'"
Yes, it's true he wanted to return home, for his own reasons, too. But the doing-it-for-others thing isn't fake. Chris Brown doesn't do fake. Chris Brown means every word of it when he says something like this :
"If there's a pulling guard and I'm that linebacker, I'm going to go and take him out, even if it means breaking my collarbone. I'm going to go take him out so my next guy can make the tackle. Then the next guy steps up. It's just how it is."
Today's Warriors know it is real. If they doubt it, all they need to do is ask any of Brown's teammates who hang out at practice, and were among the foundation of the program's resurgence around the turn of the millennium. UH was 0-12 when Brown redshirted as a freshman, and—with the arrival of June Jones as head coach—the team then went up, down and up again the years Brown played.
They can look at the program weight-lifting records Brown still holds : 500 pounds in the bench press and 605 in the squat.
Or, ask the head coach who was the starting quarterback when Brown captained the defense.
"Chris loves this state, loves this program, " Chang said. "He always says this is the best time of his life. His lions den holds the standard of what we expect our program to be.
I'm grateful to have him and call him a brother."
Ah, the lions den ... the nickname for the linebackers room that is the envy of teammates. Logan Taylor—who went from fourth string to the team's leading tackler and preseason all-conference honors—said he owes much of it to Brown.
"I was easily discouraged. He came in here and said he believed in me. He said I don't care if you're fourth string. I'm going to put in the extra work with you to get you right, because I see something in you, " Taylor said. "And it's not just me. He does that with each and every player on this team. That's why everyone wants to be a lion, saying, 'I wish I could get in that group because y'all are havin' a blast.' But everyday it's not about us. It's about, 'What we can do today for this team ? What can we do to be the standard ?'
"It's hard to put into words what Coach CB brings to this team, " Taylor added.
There's that recruiting pipeline from Bishop Gorman. There's his first-hand knowledge of what is needed from two defensive position groups. There's the lead-by-example weight-room ethos.
But, mostly, there's his emotional, spiritual and intelligent leadership.
Hawaii won three games last year, the same as Brown's third season as a player, 2000—the year after the 0-12 to 9-4 turnaround.
Then, he switched from defensive end to middle linebacker, and the Warriors won 19 games while losing seven in 2001 and 2002. Nick Rolovich, who quarterbacked UH in 2001, credits a halftime conversation with Brown prior to a comeback to beat SMU for turning around that season. The 124 team-leading tackles he made helped, too.
Brown knows teams can bounce back drastically from a poor season. It happened twice when he was a Rainbow Warriors player.
"I know I'm not going to teach X's and O's, I'm going to teach that culture, that fire. The heart and the soul, " Brown said. "We have great coaches on the staff with years of experience. And I trust them. But no one really knows the culture unless you were part of it, playing for the guy next to you. Da Braddahhood is real. These boys have to understand that."
