Don Brown, once the frontrunner to land the then-vacant Yale football gig, resigned as the head coach at UMass to become the defensive coordinator at Maryland.

Brown, a former defensive coordinator at Yale under Hall of Famer Carm Cozza, advanced all the way to the contract stage and appeared ready to become the 33rd coach in the history of Yale football when negotiations broke down. We were never able to identify what led to Brown pulling his name out of the running for the Yale job but perhaps the Maryland job was on the table at that point.

Whatever the reason, UMass is now looking for new head coach.

In other coaching news, the www.footballscoop.com site is reporting that former Hand High offensive lineman John Hevesy is headed to Mississippi State as the offensive line coach. Hevesy has spent the last four seasons on the staff of Florida coach Urban Meyer and he would be leaving on top after being a part of the coaching staff which helped the Gators with their second national title in the last three years.

Also, former Yale defensive lineman Patrick Graham was recently named the defensive line coach at Toledo. He had coaching stints at Wagner, Richmond and Notre Dame.