Mark Snyder

Detroit Free Press

BRADENTON, Fla. – Don Brown has been coaching for 34 years.

So when he arrived as Michigan’s defensive coordinator this offseason, he quickly knew what he wanted to do.

Most of it involved pressure and having a dynamic player like redshirt sophomore Jabrill Peppers makes that even more intriguing.

While Peppers was primarily lined up at safety last season, or at least listed as one, now there’s no confusion that the redshirt sophomore is a strong-side (SAM) linebacker, even at 208 pounds.

“We’ve got to give this guy a bunch of jobs,” Brown said Tuesday after Michigan’s second spring practice at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., both which had him playing with the backers not in the secondary. “He’s a dynamic athlete and we’ll keep him around the line of scrimmage and let him do a bunch of stuff. Whether it’s cover, whether in certain personnel groups, play linebacker, tight stuff. Our SAM’s kind of a hybrid.”

He noted that last year at Boston College, the player in that role, Matt Milano, had 61/2 sacks and 171/2 tackles for loss “and he’s (also) out there covering slots.” Brown’s Boston College defense ranked No. 1 nationally in total defense and No. 1 in tackles for loss.

Which makes that position essential in the new defense and Peppers a critical piece.

“Between (Noah) Furbush and him, I think we can put those guys together and create some dynamic ability at that position,” Brown said. “Which you’re searching for.”

Trying to defend spread offense’s versatility is important, not tipping off a tendency with a personnel package and instead using the players already on the field in different roles.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Brown said. “We had a package today where he’s in technically as a linebacker so you may think you’re going to get one alignment but we can do completely different stuff. Who says he has to be in there playing that position?”

Like every coach who has dealt with Peppers in high school or college, his competitiveness is as appealing as his extraordinary skill.

“He’s sharp, he’s a great dude,” Brown said. “He’s fun to work with. He’s got juice and I like guys like that. It gets you excited going to work.”

Brown, 60, chose to come to work at Michigan because he considers it the “very, very highest level” of college football.

While not denigrating his previous job, he had the nation’s best defense and yet the Eagles still only won three games. So the opportunity to pair with an ascending offense at U-M, and an elite coach like Jim Harbaugh was appealing as he replaced D.J. Durkin, who became Maryland’s head coach.

“I’ve been in New England most of my career and I just felt like this was an opportunity I did not want to pass up,” Brown said.

His attacking defense and intense style appealed to Harbaugh quickly — in his first meeting with Harbaugh he said he ran 65% pressure and Harbaugh corrected him to say he understood it was 85% — and is apparent on the practice field, where his voice carries as much as any of the assistants.

It’s a style that built a reputation that player after player in the past raved about: always charging into the backfield, regardless the situation.

“It’s like I told them the first night, there’s two ways to play this game and it involves pressure: one, you apply it and two you feel it,” Brown said. “I’m not big on the feeling and we’re going to apply it. That’s not a hard formula to sell to players. They want to play on the balls of their feet, attack and get after it. You’ve got to find specific ways of how you’re going to do that and we’re kind of sorting our way through it. But early indications and the mental capacity to this point has been encouraging.”

He’s also extremely hands-on working with the defensive players, including the all new linebacker group.

He claimed the system is “friendly to the linebackers,” which will be important, even beyond Peppers.

Ben Gedeon returns with the most experience, nearly all of it as a backup, and Brown singled him out as an impressive player so far and said he was “really happy with (Mike) McCray. Probably for the first time in his career, he’s healthy and I’m liking what I’m seeing.”

Quickly Brown learned that Harbaugh built a culture that is “very serious about the game of football but at the same time the guys have fun.”

For most of them, in Brown’s system, fun means hard-charging, from anywhere and, as Peppers is learning, by anyone.

Contact Mark Snyder at msnyder@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @mark__snyder. Download our new Wolverines Xtra app on iTunes and Android!

Notes: Grant Newsome a key piece of Wolverines' revamped O-line