Meet 2 Wisconsin assistants. Mike Brown played wide receiver and quarterback. Colin Hitschler learned to love coaching on the knee of his father.
MADISON – A group of reporters met with Wisconsin football assistants Colin Hitschler and Mike Brown on Tuesday.
Both followed head choach Luke Fickell from Cincinnati to Wisconsin.
Brown, 34, was wide receivers coach (2019-22) and passing game coordinator (2022) under Fickell. Hitschler, 36, had been co-defensive coordinator and coached safeties after starting as quality control coach in 2018.
Following are some of their comments as they prepare for the 2023 season, their first at UW.
Mike Brown, associate head coach/wide receivers
Q: You started out as a wide receiver at Liberty but switched to quarterback and started your final two seasons for the Flames, in 2010 and 2011. Can you explain what factors led to the position switch and how did playing quarterback help expand your expertise as a coach?
A: I went to Liberty to play quarterback. I got there and they had a quarterback that was a junior, so in order to get on the field I went over to play some receiver for the first two years. But I was always meeting with the quarterbacks.…
That transition was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me because … I was always learning things from a quarterback’s perspective but having to execute from a wide receiver’s standpoint helped me learn that much faster.
Q: You played three seasons in the NFL after signing with Jacksonsville as a free agent coming out of college. What can you tell current UW players about the difficulty of making the jump from college to the NFL, but that it can also be done the hard way?
A: Just sharing my experiences with them and showing them the work ethic that it takes to get there, just being an example of that. And then Coach Fickell does an outstanding job of just preparing these guys and creating a culture that will prepare these guys for the next level. I think everybody has a different role in that.
Obviously, with me being in front of them every day and them understanding where I’ve been that my words could weigh a little bit more in certain areas. But it is a culture that is created throughout the program and it’s contagious. And if you don’t buy into that culture, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. You’ll be very uncomfortable.
Colin Hitschler, co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach
Q: Your coaching career began in 2009 as a training camp assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles. You followed that in 2010 working as a player personnel assistant with the Kansas Chiefs. Can you share some memories from those experiences and how they helped launch your career? And did those experiences make it clear to you that you wanted to be in coaching?
A: You learn a lot just being around elite coaches, watching what they do and how they study the game and just the process of what it takes at that level. When I was there, Kansas City was nowhere close to Super Bowl champs. …Some of the guys I worked for with the Eagles (are) with the Chiefs. I can’t say that I was an integral part of either program but it was a great process to learn and be around that level of ball.
My dad was a high school football coach and a wrestling coach. I grew up as a little kid sitting on his knee at a wrestling match yelling out instructions to somebody twice my age. That was my introduction to coaching, where I fell in love with coaching.
Q: You worked as the co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach with defensive coordinator Mike Tressel last season at Cincinnati. You are set to resume that relationship with Tressel at UW. What factors are essential for making such a relationship work?
A: I think defensively it is unique when you work for Coach Fickell, first and foremost. We do things a lot together as a group and I think it allows us to learn from each other and pick each other’s brains and everybody has a voice in the room. Even the GAs (graduate assistants) are integral parts in the game plan.
Everybody role is slightly different, but at the end of the day we’re all coming together as one on game day and putting our best foot forward. So whatever voice ends up leading to this answer, we all go behind it.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin football assistant Mike Brown, Colin Hitschler interviews
