FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Gerald Brown may be making his first appearance as an NFL coach with the Atlanta Falcons, but he's no stranger to football.
Head Coach Mike Smith hired Brown to be the Falcons' running backs coach on Jan. 26, 2008. Brown previously worked at Indiana University. He also worked with Smith at Tennessee Tech for the better part of 10 seasons.
A decorated college coach, Brown said his focus on fundamentals and player-coach relationships will be key in his work with the Falcons tailbacks and fullbacks.
"We want to be a disciplined group, a hard-working group and a group that really wants to be here," Brown said in a recent interview. "We're going to work on the basic fundamentals of the game and just go from there.
"Coming from college to pro is a great opportunity. It's something I always wanted to do. From a coach's point of view I have to do what I've done. I'm going to do what Coach Smith and Coach (Mike) Mularkey ask me to do. I'm going to coach the running backs hard so they can get on the field and execute their assignments the best that they can."
Brown served as assistant head coach/running backs and a co-special teams coordinator during his time with the Hoosiers. During his tenure, Indiana running backs averaged more than 1,500 yards per season and rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a team last season. Three running backs averaged more than four yards per carry in 2007, led by Kellan Lewis' 1,004 rushing yards (five-yard per carry average, nine touchdowns).
In 2003, BenJarvus Green-Ellis became the seventh true freshman in Indiana history to rush for 100 yards in a game and just the third freshman to top the 200-yard plateau in a single game. In 2006, Brown’s special teams unit totaled five touchdowns while Marcus Thigpen led the nation with a 30.1 kickoff return average with three touchdowns.
Brown did have a brief brush with professional football in 2001 as a member of his brother Kippy's staff with the Memphis Maniax. The Maniax finished third in the XFL's western division in the league's only year of existence. Even most casual football fans remember the XFL for it's pro wrestling style promotion and set of hard-nosed, yet gimmicky rules.
"We had fun for the year that it lasted," Brown said. "We had fun coaching. We thought we put together a pretty good team... I felt like I had a pretty good group. The experience was good for me. Kippy was the head coach so we did things as he knew them in the NFL. I know there were some gimmicks and things but we tried to stay away from it. It was just football to us. That's really why I enjoyed it. We kept it to football."
That XFL group included running backs like Heisman Trophy winner Rashaan Salaam.
Brown gets a group of runners in Atlanta that are just a season removed from leading the NFL in rushing. But first will be to install the system created directly from the head coach's philosophy.
"Right now we're just looking for guys that we feel like will be good in our system with what we want to do," Brown said. "Coach Smith said in his initial interview that we're going to run the ball and we're going to stop the run. Those are the types of guys and bodies we're looking for... I know Coach Smith wants to put an emphasis on running the football."
Along his coaching path Brown developed a style rooted deeply in compassion and relationships. Without prompting he can name running backs he coached -- popular and obscure -- like school children recite the alphabet.
"I try to get to know my players not only from an X's and O's point of view but from a personal point of view," he said. "I think when you can talk to them about not just football but whatever they need to talk about you build a relationship. I think building relationships and keeping the communication lines open is just healthy."
After more than 20 years in the college game, Brown admits he will be part teacher, part student in the NFL. But he's got that varied coaching background and fundamental approach that fits nicely with the Falcons plans.
"When you get into coaching, as you grow, eventually there's some things you want to accomplish in your career," he said. "I have wanted to coach in the NFL. I was fortunate enough to get this opportunity -- one I'm tremendously excited about -- and I think that's a part of the process. A lot of it is timing. In this business a lot of things that happen are with timing. It was the right time and that's the way I look at it."
