The Rams have hired Thomas Brown as their new running backs coach.
Brown arrives in the NFL after nine seasons coaching at the collegiate level, most recently with the University of South Carolina in the same position. The Gamecocks rushed for 1,796 yards collectively while averaging 149.67 per game in Brown's lone season with the group.
While he spent the majority of the last decade coaching players, Brown is used to being around NFL talent, having coached three future first-round picks in Melvin Gordon, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel along the way. Before breaking into coaching, he was a standout college running back himself, finishing his University of Georgia career as the fifth-leading rusher in program history with 2,646 career yards.
A sixth-round pick by the Falcons in the 2008 NFL Draft, Brown spent one season in Atlanta and another with the Cleveland Browns before beginning his coaching career.
Experience:
2011: University of Georgia assistant strength and conditioning coach
2012: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga running backs coach
2013: Marshall University running backs coach
2014: University of Wisconsin running backs coach
2015: University of Georgia running backs coach
2016-18: University of Miami (Fla.) offensive coordinator and running backs coach
2019: University of South Carolina running backs coach
What you should know about him:
• He's been around NFL talent: Brown worked with Gordon during his Heisman Trophy runner-up season in 2014 and also coached Michel and Chubb at Georgia. Michel (1,161 yards) and Chubb (747) paced a Bulldogs backfield which rushed for 2,498 collectively in 2015, good for 38th-most nationally.
• He guides productive rushing attacks: In 2018, Miami rushed for 2,489 yards, an average of 5.2 yards per carry and 191.5 per game, while scoring 25 rushing touchdowns. In 2014, Gordon and sophomore Corey Clement rushed for a combined 3,536 yards to break the single-season Football Bowl Subdivision record for rushing yards by teammates that had been set the year before by Gordon and James White (3,053 yards).
