Ole Miss Rebels Have A New 'Eye in the Sky' This Season With DC Bryan Brown

OXFORD | Bryan Brown got a taste of being Ole Miss’ defensive coordinator last winter, when he was elevated from his role as the defensive backs coach just ahead of the College Football Playoff.

Brown didn’t call defensive plays, as those responsibilities were left — and remain — with head coach Pete Golding. But the experiences of making the transition with Golding in those three postseason games have helped Brown going into the upcoming season.

“It’s definitely helped a lot because every time that I’ve been a position coach, I’ve always tried to prepare myself like a defensive coordinator. Just preparing that way so that when my opportunity does come I’ll be ready,” Brown told reporters following Tuesday’s practice. “Of course Coach Golding is calling the plays, but all the things that I do was what he was doing preparing for practice. It’s helped out a lot. Of course being a coordinator for a number of years myself, I think that’s helped to be able to help run a room. It was great to have that time in the spring to get adjusted to Pete’s calls.”

Like many players and coaches have already noted, Brown relayed a similar message when it came to the changes made around the building with Golding leading the charge.

“Being able to see him for two years manage the defense and do the things that he did from a defensive coordinator standpoint, now he’s just doing it with the whole team,” Brown explained. “And doing the same thing he was doing with the defensive staff, now he’s doing it with the full defensive staff. Now, everybody’s able to see out in the open, who Pete Golding really is. It’s great to have him as our head coach. It’s awesome to see not a whole lot of things have changed.”

Eye in the Sky

Ole Miss Rebels defensive assistant coach Bryan Brown speaks to the press during the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl media day at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn in Scottsdale, on Jan. 6, 2025. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

However, one change from Ole Miss’ run through the College Football Playoffs last season will be that Brown won’t be on the sidelines during the season. During the postseason, he remained on the sidelines to keep some ‘familiarity’ intact for the defense at the time. Now, he’ll be moving upstairs to the booth to be Golding’s ‘eye in the sky’, Brown confirmed on Tuesday.

Over the weekend, Brown got a chance to practice that role and give the defense a look of what that will look like come September as the Rebels held their first scrimmage of the month at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Brown offered some insight into how the scrimmage went defensively.

“I think the first scrimmage that we just had, had some ups and downs,” Brown said. “We played a lot of guys and were able to see the guys we really needed to see that haven’t really been in that environment of the stadium. No coaches on the field and things of that nature. We were able to see what we needed to see. Who can communicate without coaching on the field, who can play and make plays on the field in the stadium because that’s a little different.”

“I think the guys played well for the most part. We gave up some plays here and there — we got a really good offense. I think we competed our tails off, we made some mistakes, but we were able to make sure that we corrected them on the sideline. Moving forward, when we get to game time, it’ll just flow normally and we won’t have any of those bumps in the road moving forward from a communication standpoint from the box to the field. Other than that it was okay.”

Just as the Rebels’ offense feels like it gets a good push from the defense throughout the practice week, Brown feels the same way about going up against John David Baker’s offense.

“I think you get so many different things,” Brown said about Baker’s offense. “It’s fast tempo, fast tempo, fast tempo — which last year’s offense was as well. He’s given us so many different looks and so many different things that we gotta work on each day. It’s always something new, so it’s great to have an offense that’s going to make the defense think and use all their rules and tools.”

Ole Miss returned key pieces of its defense that played an instrumental role in the team’s national success last season. Suntarine Perkins, Will Echoles and Kam Franklin are among the returning headliners. The Rebels also brought in a plethora of experienced transfers at every level of the defense and believe they’ve improved on that side of the ball.

All three mentioned returners were also a part of the Rebels’ historic 2024 defense, which racked up 52 sacks and allowed just 14.4 points per game.

Brown believes that the current makeup of the Ole Miss defense has the ‘potential’ to be even better than that group. Although he says this defense has more depth overall, he’s not ready to say they’ve arrived just yet.

“I think when you compare those two — that group in ‘24 was really talented and I think this group has a lot of talent. I think we got a little bit more depth, especially up front. Secondary wise I think we got a little bit of depth as well. I wouldn’t say, right now, they’re going to be better than that group, but we have a chance to be if we do things right and do our job and execute at a high level,” Brown added. “But we do have a chance to be better than that group and we have a little bit more depth than that ‘24 group.”

“I think it’s really comparable from the standpoint of we got a lot of guys that, on that team as well, that (have) played in the SEC. You got a lot of guys that we got this year from the portal that played in the SEC and played some winning football and come from really good programs. I think that’s really the same. I think we got guys that have played in big stadiums with a lot of people in the stands, where it won’t bother them (this year). I think that’s what those two groups definitely have in common and hopefully we can continue to put some wins on the field whenever the time comes.”

Generally speaking, Ole Miss’ defensive coordinator has an idea of what he wants the identity of his and Golding’s defense to look like in 2026.

“I think the number one thing is we want to be physical. We want to be a really, really physical defense. We want to play fast and we want to make sure that we limit explosive plays and play really smart,” Brown added. “If we can do those things and keep the ball inside and in front of us, and play physical inside the box (and) outside the box, I think it’ll give us a chance to be able to win football games in this league. If we can do that, I think we’ll be happy on this side. We want to be physical, want to play fast and we want to be really, really smart.”

September 6 will also mark Brown’s first game against Louisville, the program he was previously a part of as a defensive coordinator from 2019-2022.

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