Kippy Brown

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Kippy Brown
Date of birth	March 6, 1955
Place of birth	Sweetwater, Tennessee
Position(s)	Quarterback Head Coach Running Backs Coach Wide Receivers Coach Offensive Coordinator Assistant Head Coach
College	Memphis State
Team(s) as a coach/administrator
1978-1980 1982 1983-1989 1990-1992 1993-1994 1995 1996-1999 2000 2001 2002-2005 2006-Present	Memphis State (RB, WR Coach) Louisville (WR Coach) Tenessee (WR Coach) New York Jets (RB Coach) Tenessee (WR, Asst. Coach) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (RB Coach) Miami Dolphins (RB Coach, OC) Green Bay Packers (RB Coach) Memphis Maniax (Head Coach) Houston Texans (WR Coach) Detroit Lions (WR Coach)

Kippy Brown (born March 6, 1955 in Sweetwater, Tennessee) was born in Sweetwater, Tenn.^[1] was a collegiate level starting quarterback forMemphis State and has coached in various capacities on both the collegiate and professional levels. He graduated from Memphis State in 1977 with a degree in communications, and currently serves as the Wide Receivers Coach for the Detroit Lions.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coaching Career 1978-1999 3 2000 Interview 4 Coaching Career 2000-Present 5 Family Life 6 Footnotes

[edit] Playing career

Kippy Brown began his outstanding football career at Sweetwater (Tenn.) High School winning the 1973 state championship. He also helped his prep team lead the state in scoring in 1972 and 1973.

Following a stellar high school career, Brown attended Memphis State University where he was quarterback for the Tigers from 1975-77. The Sweetwater, Tenn., native was an outstanding field general, and his leadership ability combined with his unique scrambling talents and strong arm paid dividends when the Tigers upset sixth-ranked Auburn 31-20 in 1975. In what was probably the Tigers’ best win during his tenure, Brown engineered the victory over the Tigers from the Alabama Plains by completing seven of 11 passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns.

[edit] Coaching Career 1978-1999

After graduating from MSU in 1977 with a B.A. in communications, Brown switched gears from playing to coaching at his alma mater and served as running backs coach in 1978 under head coach Richard Williamson and receivers coach from 1979-80.

After coaching two years with the Tigers, he moved to Louisville to coach Cardinals receivers for the 1982 campaign. One of his pupils was Mark Clayton who played for the Miami Dolphins from 1983-92.

Following the ’82 season at U of L, Brown returned to his roots in the state of Tennessee helping coach a Johnny Majors-run Volunteer club. During his first stint with the Vols from 1983-89, Brown helped Tennessee acquire the nickname “Wide Receiver U.,” coaching numerous pass catchers to greatness. Receivers Anthony Miller, Tim McGee, Alvin Harper and Carl Pickens all benefited from Brown’s tutelage prior to their joining the professional ranks.

Brown, 45, caught the attention of the New York Jets while with Tennessee and coached the Jets from 1990-92. While with the Jets in 1991, he coached running backs for NY head coach Bruce Coslet and saw his backs rank fifth in the NFL in rushing. That 1991 squad also returned to the playoffs for the first time since 1986.

Brown later returned to Rocky Top when Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer convinced him to return to the collegiate ranks as assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for two seasons (1993-94). He brought an offensive flair from the professional ranks to the UT offensive package as the Vols compiled an 18-6 record and outscored their opponents 847-383 over the course of those two years. A young Peyton Manning also benefited from Brown’s guidance during his freshman campaign as the Vols’ signal caller.

Following a highly successful 1994 Tennessee season, Brown was again called to the pro ranks, joining Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995. Then Tampa Bay head coach Sam Wyche named Brown running backs coach stating, “Getting Kippy is a major coup for us.” While in Tampa, he also worked closely with current Bucs head coach Tony Dungy.

From 1996-99, he was on Jimmy Johnson’s Miami Dolphins coaching staff, where he was the offensive coordinator from 1998-99 and the running backs coach from 1996-97. In 1996, Brown helped RB Karim Abdul-Jabbar become the first Dolphins running back to reach 1,000 yards in 18 years, and in 1997 Abdul-Jabbar tied a league-high 15 rushing touchdowns. ^[2]

[edit] 2000 Interview

In December of 2000, Kippy Brown gave the Memphis Flyer an interview on the cusp of the start of the XFL:

Q&A With Maniax Head Coach Kippy Brown By Chris Przybyszewski, December 16, 2000

"Kippy Brown, coach-elect of the XFL Memphis Maniax visited Memphis on a break from his current team, the Green Bay Packers, where he is serving out the season as running-backs coach. The Memphis Flyer had a chance to sit down for a Q&A at a press-meeting at Don Pablos on Rivendale.

Flyer: How is the camp this week going to be different from an NFL Camp?
Brown: I don’t think it’s going to be different. It will be run almost exactly like an NFL camp. Our schedules have come from schedules we had in Miami and Green Bay and we’re going to get done what we need to get done. One difference is that we are in the evaluation stages. Usually when you go into an NFL camp, you have the bases of your team already in place and you only have rookies and a few free-agents to evaluate. Here, we’re evaluating everybody. We’re starting from scratch. That’s the big difference. We think we had a tremendous draft and we are very happy with it. Now it’s a matter of seeing how they fit with what we want to get done ... not only player wise -- but personality wise. That’s very important. This football team, I want it to be a positive influence on the Memphis community. I’ve talked to the players about this, I want us to be a positive force in the community, that’s important to me. How we are perceived in the community is important to me. If we are going to win this community over, we are going to have to do things right, both on and off the football field. When you get in the situation when things go on off the football field, you have distractions and distractions hurt any football team and we just can’t have that, so we’re evaluating how the guys fit athletically, but personality-wise also.

Flyer: What will you be looking for, specifically this week? Are you looking for conditioning, or worried about the condition the athletes are in?
Brown: That will be evaluated. You can’t wait for [the Las Vegas] camp to be in shape. For the most part I think we’ll be in shape. I think we will be close to where we need to be. We have a heck of a quarterback crew to evaluate, in my opinion. [Marcus Crandell, Jim Druckenmiller, Beau Morgan, and Craig Whelihan will compete for two spots on the active roster.] There’s a lot of variety there. There’s some guys with mobility, some big strong-arm guys who can hang in the pocket and get the ball thrown. How productive are they? How accurate are they? Those things are being evaluated. How well do [the lineman] learn? Can they pick up on our system? Can they pass-rush? When you get in a one-on-one pass-rush situation, what kind of beat do they have? Can [the wide-receivers] make plays when they are given the opportunity? Are [the runningbacks] just runners or can they be receivers out of the back-field. Can they do things that Marshal Faulk does?

Flyer: I would guess that for any new team or new league, the offensive line would be the most difficult place to build spots. Is that true?
Brown: I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. I think there are a lot of good linemen out there in all sizes. You think you have to be this huge guy to play on the offensive line, that’s not necessarily the case. Look at what Denver does with their running game, they have small athletic guys who can get after your tail.

Flyer: How will you implement the things you picked up along the way in all your years of being an assistant coach?
Brown: I have been very fortunate. I’ve worked with some excellent head coaches and assistant coaches and you take a little bit from each guy you’ve been associated with, something good. I feel very comfortable with my position. I am just going to go out and create an atmosphere that is conducive for players to be successful. I’m going to limit distractions. It’s hard to win at professional football and distractions hurt you so we need to limit those as much as we can. We need to give coaches the opportunity to teach as much as they can and we need to put players in the frame of mind to want to learn and get better. That’s my job as head coach, to make sure we have the right players and to make sure that I create an atmosphere to get better.

Flyer: As a coach from afar, maybe the first e-mail coach ever, you’ve been really dependent on your assistant coaches. Has that been paying off for you?
Brown: Oh yeah. These are guys that I know well. [laughs] One’s my brother. I’ve worked with Rick McGeorge [assistant. head coach/ offensive coordinator] for four years in Miami. He was my offensive line coach. We’ve been through the wars together. He knows what I expect and I couldn’t be more pleased in what he has done to prepare this team for the mini-camp. Some of the local guys I hired, Stanley Morgan [wide receivers coach] and Fred Barnett [tight ends coach] have been there every day busting their tails and they’re ready to go. I appreciate what Kim Helton [team administrator] has done with our personnel. He’s actually going to help with our quarterbacks during this camp, until I get here. Everybody has pitched in. Steve Ortmayer [VP of football operations] has done a heck of a job with personnel and got us players who we think are going to help us whis this XFL championship. We’re ready to go. I have the utmost confidence in our coaching staff.

Flyer: Las Vegas is coming up, it’s a pre-season of sorts. Are you going in to get the job done? Are you going in to make a statement? Are you going into avoid injuries? What’s the mindset?
Brown: We’re going in to prepare for Birmingham. I want our players, our coaches, and our fans to know that the only game that matters right now is our first game in Birmingham. We’ve got to win that thing. Though this camp is for evaluation, when we get to Las Vegas, we’ll find out who really wants to play because we’ll have our pads on and that’s when it’s going to really start. The thing I am going to be focused on and getting the players and coaches focused on is our first ball-game because that’s the only game that matters.

Flyer: How can you focus on Birmingham? They have 70 players trying-out like you do, you don’t know if they are going to be on the team or not. What kind of scouting are you doing?
Brown: Well, you know the coaching staff. And if you know the coaching staff, you have a little diary. You’ve known what coaches have done and what their systems have been in the past and you go on that.

Flyer: This thing is from the being built from the ground up. Is this a coaching dream job or a coaching nightmare?
Brown: This situation? This is a dream. I’ve coached in college for a long time, I’ve had my stint there. I’ve had my stint in the NFL. You never know what’s going to happen down the road. When this opportunity came about, I thought it was right for me, at this point in my career. This was the right thing for Kippy Brown to do. I’m excited about it, my family is excited about it. I just can’t wait to get back down here to get started."^[3]

[edit] Coaching Career 2000-Present

After the XFL became defunct, Kippy Brown spent four seasons as the Houston Texans wide receivers coach. Among his pupils in Texas was WR Andre Johnson, who was taken by Houston with the third overall pick in the 2003 draft. He became the first Texans offensive player to earn a trip to the Pro Bowl. Johnson was selected to the Pro Bowl for his outstanding 2004 season that included club records of 79 receptions for 1,129 yards.

Brown arrived in Detroit for the 2006 season, reunited with Larry Beightol, whom Brown worked with on the same coaching staffs while both were with the New York Jets from 1990-92, Miami from 1996-98 and Green Bay in 2000.^[4]

[edit] Family Life

Brown and his wife, Deon (Wilson), were married in Memphis in 1974. Deon is a native Memphian who taught locally at Craigmont High School from 1978-81. The couple has two grown children, Jerome, born January 8, 1975, and Jennifer, born July 28, 1980.

Jerome earned a basketball scholarship at the University of Tennessee under former Vol head coach Wade Houston, and is now competing on the Buy.com golf tour. Jennifer is currently a junior Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga.^[5]

[edit] Footnotes