Nine months after leaving his position as head football coach at Northeastern, Don Brown will once again descend on Parsons Field – but this time, he will be working for the other team.
Brown made a defining decision last February to leave behind a program he led for four years and head west to Amherst to take full reign at the University of Massachusetts.
The matchup between Northeastern and UMass (Saturday, noon, Parsons Field) will not just be an ordinary Atlantic-10 matchup for the Huskies, as the shock of Brown’s departure just under a month after an extension for his services was approved by the Board of Trustees still lingers.
“There’s a lot of emotion right now,” said junior safety E.J. Jackson, who played under Brown during the 2002 and 2003 campaigns. “There’s a lot of players on this team that he recruited. It was more than a coach-player relationship with him, the bond that he created meant a lot to us.”
Brown announced his resignation on Feb. 9, leading O’Brien to suspect illegal talks between the former head coach and UMass took place after the contract extension was made official on Jan. 14.
O’Brien said he was contacted by a UMass official shortly after Jan. 23, when UMass’ former head coach, Mark Whipple, was named the new quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The official asked for permission to speak with Brown, but O’Brien said it was never granted.
A statement released from O’Brien’s office on Feb. 10 read in part:
“On Jan. 14, the Board of Trustees formally approved a new contract for coach Brown. This action was in response to an inquiry for his services from another institution and included a contract extension, a pay raise for him and his staff, as well as other substantial program enhancements. The board took this action based on coach Brown’s agreement on the terms of the contract and his commitment to forego an interview opportunity and stay at Northeastern.” A court ruling in Northeastern’s favor on March 11 barred Brown from coaching at UMass. A second ruling on April 8 overturned the first decision, and negotiation took place between Northeastern and Brown’s attorney, A. Bernard Guekguezian.
Brown was eventually forced to sit out the first three games of UMass’ season.
The way in which Brown left, including allegedly never calling his team to a meeting and only posting the news via the Internet, angered many players at the time.
“I would think [Brown] would have the common decency to tell us, instead of it just being on the Internet,” said sophomore defensive end Matt Campopiano in February.
When Brown returns to Parsons, he will be standing across the sidelines from many of his own recruits and a core group of players he guided in four seasons of Husky football (2000-03).
“For me to say it’s not bothering the players still, I’d be lying,” said junior cornerback Bismark Osei of Brown’s departure. “People will use this feeling on the field though, and play harder.” Brown’s return comes at a pressing time for the program, having lost three straight, starting on Oct. 16 against Harvard University. The Crimson took advantage of various Husky offensive mistakes to pile it on in a 41-14 thrashing.
Tough losses to the University of Maine (35-26) and the University of New Hampshire (27-23) followed, as the Huskies dropped to 3-5 overall (2-3 A-10), moving out of playoff contention and watching the season reach its low point.
That spark that has been missing for weeks may return on Saturday.
“All practice this week, it’s been in the back of our minds,” Osei said of Saturday’s matchup. “We approach game by game for the most part, but this game definitely has more meaning to it and we’re extra pumped.”
Emotions will be high on the field, said Northeastern coach Rocky Hager, and it is the job of he and his staff to help the team treat the game just like any other.
“You need to understand that there will be side emotions,” he said. “My stance is to put that energy and those emotions to use on the field instead of making them into a distraction. It’s the job of myself and the coaching staff to make sure those emotions don’t turn into distractions.”
UMass has had an up-and-down season, starting off with two straight wins over Delaware State University (51-0) and Colgate University (30-20) before dropping four straight to the University of Richmond, the University of Delaware, Boston College and James Madison University.
At 4-5, UMass, like Northeastern, has a disappointing record to make up for in the stretch run of its season.
“Hopefully, we’ll finish strong; we’re not having our best year,” Jackson said. “We lost some games we should have won, we’re going to go out there and play and hopefully end up with a 6-5 record.”
