Central-Carrollton’s Brown surprised he got job; now 21-4 in 2 seasons
When Central of Carrolton hired Umbrah Brown to lead its program in 2023, it came as a bit of a shock to him.
Central just had its best season in six years at 8-4. After the season, coach Darius Smiley decided to take an opening at Sandy Creek, which had just won a state title. This left Central looking for someone who could grab this bit of success and run with it.
Brown had just completed his first year as head coach at Paulding County in 2022. The team was 6-5 in his debut. It was the school’s first winning season since 2015 and first playoff appearance since 2017.
“I got a phone call from our principal here at Central,” Brown said. “I think he had seen what we were able to do at Paulding in a year’s time. One thing led to another, and I was able to get the job.”
Brown, a 2007 Central graduate, has a record of 21-4 so far, Central’s best two-year run since the Lions were 21-4 in 2013-14.
Brown set himself up for this moment through hard work and perseverance.
At the time of his hire, Brown didn’t really grasp that what he was doing had made some waves back home.
Central’s principal, Kelly Edwards, taught and coached football and baseball when Brown was a student some 20 years ago. Brown credits the relationship they built in his formative years with allowing him to have this opportunity at his alma mater.
As the previous coach, Smiley had worked to rebuild that program during his six years at the helm. So, Brown didn’t have to start from scratch.
“I thought coach Smiley did a great job during his time here,” Brown said. “Kids knew how to work. That was something we didn’t have to worry about.”
Brown would go on to have an excellent first season with a 12-1 record and Central’s first region title since 2014. The Lions also would go undefeated in the regular season for the first time since 2014, and the second time since the glory days of the 1980s.
Brown would follow that up with another region championship in his second year and a 9-3 record.
Brown credits his success to the coaches who took him under their wing along his journey. He started his career at Hiram in 2012 under Andy Dorsey, coaching defensive backs and being responsible for strength and conditioning.
Chris Brown, his defensive coordinator, became head coach in 2013. With Brown, Umbrah began to really dive into coaching and learning different defensive principles. He started to have a different perspective on how to approach the weight room and walk the thin line between coaching a player hard and too hard.
In 2018, Pete Fominaya came to Hiram from Naples, Fla. Instead of leaving, Brown decided to stay another year and experience what it takes to rebuild a program from the bottom.
“I wanted to see that firsthand,” Brown said. “(Fominaya was) somebody that really understood the big picture of things and understood how to love kids up and how to be relatable and how to be organized and teach them (kids) how to play the game the right way.”
Brown used that information to get his first defensive coordinator job, at New Manchester. There he met Kevin Whitley, who had just left Stockbridge, where he had a 94-20 record in 10 seasons. Brown admired Whitley from afar as a young coach.
“I just liked the way his teams played,” Brown said. “They played physical. They were guys that stick their face in the fan and play the game the right way. He always had his teams ready to go.”
Whitley held the New Manchester job for just four months during the offseason before joining Georgia Southern’s staff, but he still made an impact. He told Brown that he had to run the defense his way, which forced him to learn to use and scheme for an even front (an even number of defensive linemen) instead of his usual odd front (an odd number of defensive linemen).
At the next stop, Paulding County, Brown met Van Spence. Brown was impressed by his organizational skills. Brown says that he uses all aspects of organization that he learned from Spence today.
“Some of the ways we organize our meetings, our practice plans, film, our weekly schedule, our calendars (is from Spence),” Brown said.
Brown also puts his own twist on things.
For example, this and every offseason, Brown is on the field participating in conditioning and running with the kids every practice. He says this has been a powerful message to his players. He and his staff aren’t the type to just talk about what they are going to do.
“Everybody talks about it, but that’s the difference,” Brown said. “We don’t spend a ton of time talking about it. We try to walk it, live it, breathe it, develop it, and we try to be it.”
Brown has been a sponge throughout his journey. But with all this information, you still have to know when and where to implement them. He didn’t want his learning to affect the team negatively.
“It’s almost like having a baby,” Brown reflects. “You can read all the baby books in the world until that baby is here. It’s (still) almost like learning on the job.”
Brown says that he’d thought about returning to Central as he began coaching but never looked at it as something imminent or an end goal. Now that he’s there, he feels no pressure to perform. But he’s aware that being the first Central alumnus to lead the program is a badge of honor for him.
He looks at the 1986 and 1987 teams his father played on as a benchmark he’s looking to achieve. Led by coach Ronnie Burchfield, those teams won back-to-back region and state championships.
“You don’t come back home for nothing,” Brown said. “If you’re going to come back home, you need to try and do something special.”
Perhaps the 2025 team will. Central will build around Jonaz Walton, one of the state’s best running backs. Walton’s numbers on the ground were down a bit with 1,387 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground compared to 1,683 yards and 22 touchdowns his sophomore year, but he turned into more of a receiving threat with 39 catches for 646 yards and four touchdowns.
Quarterback J.R. Harris broke out last season with 2,667 yards and 29 touchdowns passing while adding 458 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.