Don Brown joined the Harbaughs on this week's 'Attack Each day' podcast, and dove into how his aggressive defensive nature came about.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh, meanwhile, also shared the steps he took to hire Brown following the 2015 season.
Jim Harbaugh, recalling his Senior Day:
"It was 1986 against Minnesota and we were undefeated, but they beat us by three. I fumbled and turned the ball over, and it was not a good feeling losing your last game in Michigan Stadium.
"Our guys choose to play at a high level each week though, so I'm sure they'll come out focused once again on Saturday."
Matt Dudek, on how big of an impact tight ends coach Sherrone Moore has made:
"There is a certain recruit who shall remain nameless, and Sherrone is the sole reason we got him — he's relentless and knows everything about every kid. You fall in love with his smile after two minutes."
Jim Harbaugh, recalling his search for a new defensive coordinator following the 2015 season:
"When the position opened up, I got on the internet and looked up the top defenses in the country. I always like to start at the top, and saw Don's Boston College defense had been No. 1 that year.
"I also reached out to people in the profession to see who they thought would be a good fit. [Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator and EMU grad] Bob Sutton gave me two names, and Don was one of the two.
"I also talked to [New England Patriots head coach] Bill Belichick at the time and asked him, and all he said was, 'I don't know these guys' in typical Belichick language. Then he added, 'I watched Boston College the other night on TV and whoever is coordinating their defense is doing a good job.'"
"The thing that jumped out at me most was how everything Don touched turns to gold. Every place he's been winds up having the best defense it's ever had.
"He even took the Yale baseball team to the College World Series for the first time ever."
Don Brown, on this year's Michigan defense and how he developed his aggressive background:
"I was with Mark Whipple back in 1998, and we had gone from Brown to UMass and inherited a 2-9 team there. We got it rolling a bit, but lost to UConn, 44-41, in the middle of the year, and I went back and reevaluated things. I looked at our pressures, and emphasized run blitzing on first and second down, and we didn't lose again that year. Ever since, I've been that way.
"You have to be so gap sound when you blitz, otherwise you're going to give up big runs.
"We're blessed here because we have three guys at corner who play at such a high level, while [sophomore] Ambry Thomas is coming out of his shell — he had a big interception to end it on Saturday. We feel good about the way we're playing back there, and those guys have so much responsibility.
"[Junior] Devin Bush, meanwhile, not only has the middle linebacker responsibility, but the overall responsibility for checks in the front seven. I told [sophomore] Josh [Ross] and [redshirt sophomore] Devin [Gil] early in the year that one of them will separate, but it hasn't happened — which has actually been a good thing.
"We just let [junior] Josh Uche go, on the other hand, but he's still working to be a linebacker — he builds his toolbox every day. I call him Gumby sometimes because he's so slippery and can bend — the impact he's had per snap is very high.
"Two weeks ago, he had a really good inside rush against Penn State, but his forte is to be on the edge and make things happen."
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