Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
"Take away their best asset” - Q&A with Defensive Coordinator Brian Stewart
1/27/2024 4:08:00 PM | Football
Derek Mason’s former teammate comes to MTSU with over 30 years of coaching experience
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — It might be easier to list the levels of football Brian Stewart hasn't coached at in his career than to dive into all of his stops since 1993, when the former Northern Arizona cornerback got his first position coaching job as Cal Poly's wide receivers coach.
There's the college coaching, of course, with stops as a tight ends coach at NAU before making a mark as a defensive backs coach at San Jose State, Missouri and Syracuse. That led Stewart to the NFL, where he worked for the Houston Texans, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, eventually coordinating the Cowboys and Texans' defenses. Then it was back to college as a coordinator (Houston, then Maryland) and eventually a defensive back coach (Nebraska and Baylor), with a stop back in the NFL as a position coach again (Detroit Lions).
Most recently, though, Brian Stewart was the defensive coordinator for the XFL's Houston Roughnecks, which might've been his favorite stop of all. The single site league made the football part of the job simple, Stewart said, with coaches often able to spend hours with their players at the team hotel to break down film or just chat about the upcoming week. The hunger of everyone involved to get better, Stewart said, gave the team a special dynamic.
"It was the most awesome experience because you had guys that felt like this was their last opportunity," Stewart said. "Our team ended up being pretty close."
Now at MTSU, Stewart finally has the chance to coach with his former NAU teammate Derek Mason, who carved a similarly diverse path to Murfreesboro in his career. As defensive coordinator, he'll be tasked with forming the best possible system around MTSU's personnel, while also getting to work one-on-one with the safety room, a responsibility he fully understands, given the success Blue Raider safeties are having in the NFL.
"I think those guys feel that tradition," Stewart said of his position group. "It's not hard to look on TV, especially with the playoffs going on and hearing Middle Tennessee when those guys announce they're from MTSU. There's a certain pride in that and I think those guys feel that and feel that responsibility. As a coach, I feel that responsibility."
To learn more about MTSU's new defensive coordinator, GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton sat down with Stewart to discuss the DC's bond with Coach Mason, Stewart's defensive philosophy and what a player needs to do to be successful in his system.
The conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for length and clarity.
---
This is the first time you and Coach Mason have been able to coach together since you were teammates at NAU. What is it like to finally have your coaching careers sync up after both of y'all had success on different paths up to this point?
It's the best of both worlds because our families know each other. When I say the best of both worlds, we both admire, love and respect football. And then both of us have gone on our paths but have always talked football and our thoughts and beliefs together. And then to have the opportunity to do it is a blessing, so we're excited about it.
How did y'all maintain that connection over the decades when you weren't crossing paths day-to-day?
It's genuine. We like each other, we're close. You have the opportunity to talk to each other. "Hey, what are you guys doing over at Stanford?" When he was at Stanford, he was with Vic Fangio. When I was at Houston Texans, I was with Vic Fangio. Vic is kind of stickler on this, that and the other, and I could tell him ahead of time.
Coaching is such a small circle; you end up running into the same people. Before he went to the Minnesota Vikings, the head coach was a person who coached both of us, Brad Childress. He asked me, "Have you ever seen Derek coach?" As I matter of fact, I had! At New Mexico State, I thought he did a great job. We were always talking; we were never not talking.
Was that connection immediate even when y'all were playing together?
He's like a little brother to me. He's the same person. He was a person that was inquisitive. A person that was intelligent, you never had to worry about his effort as far as working out and practicing. One of my life sayings is "Admiration, Love and Respect." If I have those things for you, I'm always going to be in contact with you and from an early age, I always had a lot of admiration, love and respect for Coach Mason.
Coach Mason has highlighted your ability as a coach to be multiple, particularly going between a base 3-4 defense to a 4-2-5. What's the key to being able to run the 3-4 base defense and being able to transition into more of a 4-2-5 look?
You ever make gumbo? If you're making gumbo, there's two kinds of gumbo. There's seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo. If you're where there's water, seafood gumbo is going to be pretty good. If you're where there's no water, but you want gumbo, you want that roux, you're going to go to the chicken and sausage gumbo.
What I've got to look at is what elements do we have to be a 3-4. If we don't have all the elements, we don't have that outside backer, we don't have that big nose (tackle), if we don't have those things, we're going to be 4-3 or 4-2-5 and have some elements of 3-4 so I can start weaning to it.
But we're going to play what we do best. And that's just being smart by looking at what we do, who we have on campus, what they can do and what puts us in the best situation.
Big picture, how would you describe your overall defensive philosophy?
I feel the same way Coach Mason feels about P.T.I. Physical, Tough and Intelligent. I believe in that first. Defensive style, I believe in were going to have to 1) attack them, so it's attacking style. But I hate to say that it's attacking style defense, because everybody wants to do that. What we want to do is attack them and take away their best asset, if possible.
You're saying, "What does that mean?" That means we're an attacking style defense, we're a multiple defense. We're going to show them a lot of things, we're going to mix things up so they don't know "On first down, they're this. On second down, they're this." And then we're going to try to take away their best players as best as we can. And we all know you can double a player; he still can run by you. But we're going to try to make an effort that their better players do not beat us.
What does a player have to do to be successful in Brian Stewart defense?
If I was going to ask someone to be a coach with me, and all our coaches are the same. I believe the coaches we have all follow the seven Cs of leadership. I think the players have to follow those same seven Cs.
The first one is Competence. I think you have to know your craft as a coach. I think as a player, you've got know your plays and know what you're supposed to do. The next thing is Commitment. You've got to be able to want to do what you're supposed to do and do it the best you possibly can, full effort. The next thing is Communicate. The more you communicate, what you know, what you don't know, we'll all get on the same page.
The other thing is Courage. You have courage that your yes is a yes and your no is no. And it also takes a certain amount of courage to say "I don't know." Then after that, you've got Coaching. You'll say, "Why does a player have to coach?" The player, it's not that he's coaching, it's he's helping another player. Coaching is motivating, it's also transitioning. I'm helping you transition from here to that. And the players need to be able to coach each other. Once a player can coach another player, he's going to be pretty good.
Character. As a coach, we have to show character. Because if they see their coach drunk, if they see their coach with a whole bunch of different women and now I come and tell you what's right or wrong, I think you're going to look at me some kind of way. But I also think players should show character. Then the last is Care. Nobody cares how much you know, they want to know how much you care.
There's the college coaching, of course, with stops as a tight ends coach at NAU before making a mark as a defensive backs coach at San Jose State, Missouri and Syracuse. That led Stewart to the NFL, where he worked for the Houston Texans, San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, eventually coordinating the Cowboys and Texans' defenses. Then it was back to college as a coordinator (Houston, then Maryland) and eventually a defensive back coach (Nebraska and Baylor), with a stop back in the NFL as a position coach again (Detroit Lions).
Most recently, though, Brian Stewart was the defensive coordinator for the XFL's Houston Roughnecks, which might've been his favorite stop of all. The single site league made the football part of the job simple, Stewart said, with coaches often able to spend hours with their players at the team hotel to break down film or just chat about the upcoming week. The hunger of everyone involved to get better, Stewart said, gave the team a special dynamic.
"It was the most awesome experience because you had guys that felt like this was their last opportunity," Stewart said. "Our team ended up being pretty close."
Now at MTSU, Stewart finally has the chance to coach with his former NAU teammate Derek Mason, who carved a similarly diverse path to Murfreesboro in his career. As defensive coordinator, he'll be tasked with forming the best possible system around MTSU's personnel, while also getting to work one-on-one with the safety room, a responsibility he fully understands, given the success Blue Raider safeties are having in the NFL.
"I think those guys feel that tradition," Stewart said of his position group. "It's not hard to look on TV, especially with the playoffs going on and hearing Middle Tennessee when those guys announce they're from MTSU. There's a certain pride in that and I think those guys feel that and feel that responsibility. As a coach, I feel that responsibility."
To learn more about MTSU's new defensive coordinator, GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer Sam Doughton sat down with Stewart to discuss the DC's bond with Coach Mason, Stewart's defensive philosophy and what a player needs to do to be successful in his system.
The conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for length and clarity.
---
This is the first time you and Coach Mason have been able to coach together since you were teammates at NAU. What is it like to finally have your coaching careers sync up after both of y'all had success on different paths up to this point?
It's the best of both worlds because our families know each other. When I say the best of both worlds, we both admire, love and respect football. And then both of us have gone on our paths but have always talked football and our thoughts and beliefs together. And then to have the opportunity to do it is a blessing, so we're excited about it.
How did y'all maintain that connection over the decades when you weren't crossing paths day-to-day?
It's genuine. We like each other, we're close. You have the opportunity to talk to each other. "Hey, what are you guys doing over at Stanford?" When he was at Stanford, he was with Vic Fangio. When I was at Houston Texans, I was with Vic Fangio. Vic is kind of stickler on this, that and the other, and I could tell him ahead of time.
Coaching is such a small circle; you end up running into the same people. Before he went to the Minnesota Vikings, the head coach was a person who coached both of us, Brad Childress. He asked me, "Have you ever seen Derek coach?" As I matter of fact, I had! At New Mexico State, I thought he did a great job. We were always talking; we were never not talking.
Was that connection immediate even when y'all were playing together?
He's like a little brother to me. He's the same person. He was a person that was inquisitive. A person that was intelligent, you never had to worry about his effort as far as working out and practicing. One of my life sayings is "Admiration, Love and Respect." If I have those things for you, I'm always going to be in contact with you and from an early age, I always had a lot of admiration, love and respect for Coach Mason.
Coach Mason has highlighted your ability as a coach to be multiple, particularly going between a base 3-4 defense to a 4-2-5. What's the key to being able to run the 3-4 base defense and being able to transition into more of a 4-2-5 look?
You ever make gumbo? If you're making gumbo, there's two kinds of gumbo. There's seafood gumbo, chicken and sausage gumbo. If you're where there's water, seafood gumbo is going to be pretty good. If you're where there's no water, but you want gumbo, you want that roux, you're going to go to the chicken and sausage gumbo.
What I've got to look at is what elements do we have to be a 3-4. If we don't have all the elements, we don't have that outside backer, we don't have that big nose (tackle), if we don't have those things, we're going to be 4-3 or 4-2-5 and have some elements of 3-4 so I can start weaning to it.
But we're going to play what we do best. And that's just being smart by looking at what we do, who we have on campus, what they can do and what puts us in the best situation.
Big picture, how would you describe your overall defensive philosophy?
I feel the same way Coach Mason feels about P.T.I. Physical, Tough and Intelligent. I believe in that first. Defensive style, I believe in were going to have to 1) attack them, so it's attacking style. But I hate to say that it's attacking style defense, because everybody wants to do that. What we want to do is attack them and take away their best asset, if possible.
You're saying, "What does that mean?" That means we're an attacking style defense, we're a multiple defense. We're going to show them a lot of things, we're going to mix things up so they don't know "On first down, they're this. On second down, they're this." And then we're going to try to take away their best players as best as we can. And we all know you can double a player; he still can run by you. But we're going to try to make an effort that their better players do not beat us.
What does a player have to do to be successful in Brian Stewart defense?
If I was going to ask someone to be a coach with me, and all our coaches are the same. I believe the coaches we have all follow the seven Cs of leadership. I think the players have to follow those same seven Cs.
The first one is Competence. I think you have to know your craft as a coach. I think as a player, you've got know your plays and know what you're supposed to do. The next thing is Commitment. You've got to be able to want to do what you're supposed to do and do it the best you possibly can, full effort. The next thing is Communicate. The more you communicate, what you know, what you don't know, we'll all get on the same page.
The other thing is Courage. You have courage that your yes is a yes and your no is no. And it also takes a certain amount of courage to say "I don't know." Then after that, you've got Coaching. You'll say, "Why does a player have to coach?" The player, it's not that he's coaching, it's he's helping another player. Coaching is motivating, it's also transitioning. I'm helping you transition from here to that. And the players need to be able to coach each other. Once a player can coach another player, he's going to be pretty good.
Character. As a coach, we have to show character. Because if they see their coach drunk, if they see their coach with a whole bunch of different women and now I come and tell you what's right or wrong, I think you're going to look at me some kind of way. But I also think players should show character. Then the last is Care. Nobody cares how much you know, they want to know how much you care.
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