Arizona's rivalry matchup against Arizona State will be the last game with defensive coordinator Don Brown on the sidelines. Monday, Brown was named the next head coach at UMass marking a return to Amherst for the 66-year-old UA assistant.
"I am honored to return to Amherst and lead the football program at the University of Massachusetts again," Brown said in a statement provided by the program. "I promise to work tirelessly to make this program into something that our players, alumni and fans can be proud of. My focus will also be to develop our student-athletes so they can play at an elite level and achieve success, which requires building great relationships and having a tremendous work ethic. I can't wait to get back to the Commonwealth and get to work."
Brown is in his first season leading the Arizona defense, but the Wildcats have made clear improvement under his watch including moving up from the 116th-ranked defense to 61st-rated group overall this season.
The Arizona defensive coordinator is a Massachusetts native, and this move would mark his third stint with the program after he previously held the head coach title from 2004-08 in addition to serving as the team's defensive coordinator in the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch made it a priority to find a top defensive coordinator upon landing his job with the Wildcats. The two coaches previously were on staff together at Michigan where Brown guided the Wolverines to several impressive finishes as the defensive coordinator of that program.
Michigan finished the 2016 with the No. 1 overall defense among FBS teams.
"I think it's a great opportunity to head back home," Fisch said Monday. "Just to be clear, our athletic department was incredible, in terms of both financially supporting an opportunity for coach Brown to stay here as well as every other facet of having him stay here, but sometimes family and longevity in the Massachusetts area wins out.
"I think for him, the chance to be a head coach again and to be by his family was hands down the most important two things. So, we're happy for him."
Fisch says the program will conduct a "national search" for a replacement for Brown.
Brown has guided an impressive effort on the recruiting trail as two of the Wildcats' three four-star commits in the class are defensive players, linebacker Tyler Martin and defensive end Sterling Lane.
Yahoo! Sports first reported that Brown emerged as the top candidate before reporting that a deal was being finalized Sunday evening.
As of now the expectation is that Brown will finish out the regular season with the Wildcats as they wrap up the schedule Saturday against Arizona State.
Brown has become well respected among the UA players with his throwback approach to coaching resonating with the team.
"Defensively, we see improvement every week after pretty much every game," senior linebacker Anthony Pandy recently said. "Coach Brown lets us know our improvement. He shows us the numbers. He coaches us really hard, defensively, so we just always want to rise to his expectations."
When the Wildcats were able to win their first game since 2019 recently with a 10-3 victory over Cal, that was heavily dependent on the play of his defense, Brown became emotional discussing what it meant for the program to break out of a 20-game losing streak.
"This whole thing has not been about how I feel, that's for sure," Brown said the week after the win. "It's been about finding a way to get these guys to have a smile on Saturday night. I'm just glad we were able to do it."
UA dropped its game against Washington State on Friday night with the Wildcats having surrendered the most points they have all season in a 44-18 loss to the Cougars. The attention will now turn to this week's Territorial Cup rivalry matchup against Arizona State set for a 2 p.m. MST kickoff in Tempe.
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