Stetson introduces former staffer Brian Young as new football coach
Happy 49th birthday to Brian Young, who received quite the gift Tuesday.
Stetson University introduced Young as its new football coach, and it was a familiar setting for the former Hatters defensive coordinator.
Young, who was part of the first seven seasons of Stetson’s football resurrection under head coach Roger Hughes, spent last season on the staff at Georgia Southern. He returns to take the place of his former boss Hughes, who stepped down last month to take the position of president at alma mater Doane University in Crete, Nebraska.
“I cannot tell you how excited I am to have the opportunity to come back home and stand before you today as the new head coach for Stetson football,” Young said upon being introduced. “I am overly joyed about being your new head coach. Let’s go, Hatters.”
During the first seven seasons of Stetson’s football return in 2013 from a nearly 60-year hiatus, Young helped coach the Hatters to a record of 31-46, including a 7-4 mark in 2019, the best season since the rebirth of the program.
Young said he learned a great deal under Hughes.
“Me and Coach Hughes are different people. You’re not going to get a better Roger Hughes. You’re just going to get the best Brian Young,” the new coach said. “We going to be in the community more. … We’re going to be a team that is recognized more throughout the city of DeLand and Daytona,”
Spending a year at Georgia Southern gave Young a feeling of what he would love to see more of at Stetson, which is even more of a community football feel for DeLand and its relationship with the Hatters program.
“Anybody who’s ever been to Statesboro, Ga., understands that without Georgia Southern there is no Statesboro,” Young said. “That community support that I had a chance to experience … is something we will try to strive to have here in DeLand … community involvement, being a part of a team and understanding everybody being involved will help this program succeed.”
