Matt Brock is the new defensive coordinator for Jim Mora’s UConn Huskies. Mora and the program sent out a statement on Tuesday morning.
Brock is headed for quite a different scene after he spent the past four years at Mississippi State.
“Matt is an excellent football coach and one of the best young defensive coordinators in our profession,” Mora said in the statement. “Matt comes to us with a great track record having made a tremendous impact on the Mississippi State defense the past four years in one of the toughest college football conferences in the country. We are excited to have him joining our program and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
“I am grateful to be joining the UConn football family and want to thank Coach Mora for this opportunity,” added Brock. “I am really excited to get to work with the rest of our coaching staff and am looking forward to working with our student-athletes as we strive to keep improving our football team every day.”
Brock was promoted to DC for the Bulldogs for the 2023 season after handling defensive play calling duties in MSU’s victory over Illinois in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Brock joined MSU in 2020 as special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach, and rose to coach the entire LB group in 2022.
Prior to his stint at MSU, Brock spent two seasons at Washington State as the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach.
Brock served in the same role as a special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Bowling Green in 2016 and 2017. After the 2017 season, Brock was a nominee for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in the country after his special teams units ranked among the nation’s top 20 in net punting average (4th), kickoff return defense (3rd) and punt return defense (20th).
Before that, Brock was at Texas Tech (2013-15) as a defensive quality control coach as well as stints coaching the defensive line and linebackers. Brock began his coaching career at his alma mater Baker University (2011-12), where he served as a graduate assistant coach, oversaw the team’s linebackers and assisted defensive coordinator Jason Thoren in the coaches’ booth on game days.
Brock was a linebacker during his collegiate playing career at Baker. Brock was impressive, posting 277 career tackles and seven interceptions while leading the league in total tackles and tackles per game during the 2010 season.
Mora and the Huskies program are looking to get back to where they were in 2022 and this hire should certainly bring a boost to the defense that struggled at times last season. The youthful energy combined with experience in some pretty major conferences/programs can only be a positive moving forward.