[NU Sports] Jerry Brown as DC

[Roy Lamberton]

Jerry Brown was one of two guys who replaced Vanderlinden as DC, the other was
Vince Okruh. Barnett took Okruh with him when he left NU and not Brown.

According to the media guide, he was out of coaching from 93-96 when he was
brought back to try to replace Van, but had to work with Okruh - I'm not sure
who did what, but I seem to remember Brown upstairs and Vince down.

In any case, by the time JB came back, the team had lost most of the Rose Bowl
players, and the defense was in disarray. Walker's defensive crew from Miami
[specifically Hoeppner] stayed behind and Brown was in a difficult position
having to work with a new group of assistants as the newly minted DC.

If you think about it, JB was promoted to Assistant HC because he is very good
at working with players, and recruiting inner city kids. 

He's worked both sides of the coordinator job - OC at Cal State Fullerton and DC
at NU.

He's a good guy, who I personally think will be able to carry the torch for NU
through 2006, and then we'll see what happens. I personally saw a few things in
2004 that convinced me that JB was more than a figurehead as Assistant HC. While
RW was in the hospital he took charge, and did so throughout the next few weeks
while RW took it a little easier.

BTW - don't sell any of the assistants short - McGee knows the spread offense
inside out, he was hired essentially by Dunbar because he respected McGee's
abilities with receivers, and because he was a spread style QB at Oklahoma.
Ingalls is like Patton when he took over the OL - except he has better players
now and more of them than Patton did. Johns coached WRs at Richmond before he
came back last year.

Anyway, I don't want to beat this horse over and over - NU has been playing
defense for the past 5 years with 5 or 6 top players and kids who are having to
play above their heads most of the time and have been doing so since 1997. 

To try to blame one assistant for 10 years of defensive problems isn't fair, and
its wrong.

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate
Computer Applications & Support Associates
and Publisher of Purple Reign, 
The Scout.com Northwestern University Site
(http://www.purplewildcats.com)
AIM Handle: CoachRoy74
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