When Austin Brown packed his belongings into a 26-foot U-Haul and embarked on a two-day, 16-hour drive to South Dakota with his wife and young son in tow, he wasn’t exactly sure what their future held.
Brown had just resigned from his latest coaching gig as the offensive coordinator at Eastern Oregon, an NAIA school in La Grande where the offense saw plenty of progression under his tutelage. But with family roots in the Midwest, it was time to move a little closer to home.
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Not for a coaching job, mind you. He helped out on the family ranch.
“We were in talks with a bunch of (football programs) initially and decided that we would move home for (the) time being until our next stop came about,” Brown said. “We were in South Dakota for a while there, in between jobs, where I grew up in Buffalo, (S.D.), on a ranch, helping my parents out for a few weeks.”

Brown’s respite on the ranch was short-lived, though. It didn't take long after he garnered interest from Bemidji State.
“When we got the call to come out and interview at Bemidji, we were really, really excited to come out this way and see what they had to offer, just seeing from afar what (BSU head coach Brent Bolte) has done here,” Brown said.
Soon after, Brown accepted Bemidji State’s offer to become the team’s new wide receivers coach and co-special teams coordinator.
A culture fit
Brown started his coaching journey as an intern at Colorado in the Pac-12 before heading over to Oregon State as a graduate assistant. He stayed out west for his next two jobs, joining Southern Oregon as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator before ascending to offensive coordinator in his second season.
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His last stop before heading back to the Midwest was at Eastern Oregon as the offensive coordinator.

One coach in particular stood out to Brown among the rest: Jonathan Smith.
Smith and his staff took over Oregon State in 2018, a basement-dwelling program in desperate need of a reboot. Brown was a part of that staff as a graduate assistant from 2018-21, assisting with wide receivers.
In just four years, the Beavers earned their first 10-win season since 2006 and capped the year off by dominating Florida 30-3 in the Las Vegas Bowl. In short, Smith had put the program back on the map again.
“Being around the coaching industry for my short career so far, I’ve got to experience some (different) things and just get a view of some of the different cultures I got to work with,” Brown said. “One of the best ones was there at Oregon State and how Jonathan Smith and those guys ran that program, and how they resurrected it – really from the dead, to be honest with you there – and how they did it. The way they went to work, and just getting to be a part of that was unbelievable.”
Brown had those prior experiences in mind when he interviewed with Bemidji State. He quickly realized that Bolte’s program would be a good fit for him and his family, seeing similarities between Smith’s culture at OSU and the culture at BSU.
“Bemidji is a lot further along than we were at Oregon State, but (I just see) a ton of ties and just the staff makeup,” Brown said. “How we operate and those types of things really drew me to Coach Bolte. Just the type of man that he is, the way that he runs this program, as well as the staff. He’s got a big-time staff.”
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What Brown brings to the Beavers
Brown’s attraction to Bemidji was mutual.
In his short stints as the offensive coordinator at both Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon, both programs saw their offensive numbers soar.
Eastern Oregon’s offense improved by nearly 10 points, over 100 yards and 121 passing yards per game in Brown’s lone season as the offensive coordinator. Southern Oregon finished with the top-ranked passing offense in its conference with Brown in charge.
Of course, Karson Pike still reigns as the Beavers’ offensive coordinator, but BSU is getting a coach in Brown with experience on that side of the ball – especially with wide receivers.
“One of the things that attracted me here was the type of offense that coach Pike runs,” Brown said. “And in order to play in that type of offense as a receiver, you’ve got to be a football intelligent guy - we call it ‘FBI’ here on our end of things – football intelligence.”

That’s a big part of Brown’s coaching philosophy: making sure his players are as well-informed as possible heading into each game.
“I think the biggest thing is you’ve got to find ways to relate information to the players,” Brown said. “We run a complex offense here. I ran a multiple offense and (it was) very similar to what we’re doing here at Bemidji.”
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For Brown, who had a hand in recruiting at a couple of his previous jobs, it all starts with finding the right players.
“You’re looking for guys that are football junkies, guys that just love everything about the process of becoming a better football player,” Brown said. “When opponents are watching us, hopefully (they) see that these guys play hard, they play fast and they play physical on our end of the field. We’ll play through the whistle, we’ll play with an edge on our shoulder. Those are goals that we’re trying to achieve when opponents watch us on tape.”
Brown will help address some questions about Bemidji State’s wide receivers in 2024. Last year’s top target, Dhel Duncan-Busby, was selected in the Canadian Football League’s 2024 Draft. Totaling 11 touchdowns and over 800 receiving yards in 2023, replacing him will be no easy task.
However, Bemidji State has proven commodities in the receiving room. Four of the returning wide receivers eclipsed 300 receiving yards a season ago, led by Jake Hill’s 486 yards.
“We’ve got a lot of talent in this room for sure,” Brown said. ”It’s going to be my job and Coach Pike’s job to find to use all these guys, which is a good problem to have.”
There’s still a long way to go until the 2024 season kicks off for Bemidji State. For now, it’s all about preparation.
“We’ve got a great group,” Brown said. “I know one thing is for certain: there’s a chip on these guys' shoulders to go prove that they’re more than capable of picking up some roles that need to be filled from previous seasons, guys that are ready to go. It’s fun to watch these guys work.”