UMass fires its head coach before facing Georgia Football

ATHENS – Georgia will take on UMass in a non-conference game this week.

And the Minutemen will face Georgia without their head coach, as UMass fired head coach Don Brown on Monday.

The school has issued an official press release about the decision.

“I am extremely grateful to Coach Brown for returning to UMass three years ago to help us build a program he once coached to a national title game,” said UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford. “Don should be extremely proud of the outstanding contributions he made to advancing Massachusetts Football during his three stops in Amherst. Upon his return in 2021, we shared a common goal of helping UMass Football achieve conference membership, something that was accomplished last spring. Thanks in large part to his renowned reputation as a coach, Don has legitimized our FBS program and has seen Massachusetts football take positive steps forward since his return. We are structurally positioned to achieve our competitive goals as we enter a new league and university athletics landscape in 2025.”

UMass offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery will serve as interim head coach prior to Saturday’s game. Brown led UMass to a 2-6 record this season, with losses to Missouri and Mississippi State.

“We still have two games left with strong teams,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Saturday. “Georgia Tech has been a great team and UMass has already played three or four SEC teams.”

Brown was 6-26 during this time as the UMass head coach. This was his second time serving as the school’s head coach, as he previously worked at UMass from 2004 to 2008. Before becoming head coach at UMass, Brown was the defensive coordinator at Michigan.

Georgia last played UMass in 2018 and won that game 66-27.

Saturday’s game is scheduled to kick off at 12:45 PM ET on the SEC Network.