Brown builds bond between Hawaiian football and Bishop Gorman

Earlier this year, Chris Brown was promoted to associate head coach for Hawaii football. His goal since joining Timmy Chang’s staff two years ago has been to bring a piece of Bishop Gorman High School, a national powerhouse headquartered in Las Vegas, with him.

UH has six Bishop Gorman alumni on its roster for the 2024 season, but the impact Brown envisions extends far beyond one player.

Brown, who served at Bishop Gorman from 2015 to 2021 in various roles (assistant head coach, defensive coordinator, linebackers coach), said he’s never been around a team at any level that “coached as hard as those guys.” For a former three-time All-WAC linebacker who played a pair of NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, that’s high praise.

“The motto there is hard work and discipline,” said Brown, who helped the Gaels to their second and third consecutive national championships in 2015 and 2016. “That’s what’s on every shirt, that’s what’s in the locker room and that’s what they’re taught day in and day out.”

Hawaii practiced with shoulder pads for the first time Friday, when the team implemented tag tempo, the act of tagging a ball carrier’s hip during practice to promote full-speed play without the potential risk of contact injuries. Brown said he recently gave an all-player presentation on the concept, which is widely used at the college and professional levels.

The Bishop Gorman group — sophomore defensive backs Fabian Ross and Elijah Palmer, sophomore linebacker Jamih Otis, sophomore running back Cam Barfield, redshirt freshman defensive back Aiden McComber and freshman quarterback Micah Alejado — had already received the memo.

“Those little traits add up to the game in a big way and helped us at Gorman,” Otis said.

“We keep our feet on the ground, we hold boards, we don’t drop our knees — just accountability things that translate to the field. And one of them is keeping our brothers safe, practicing like pros.”

Palmer added: “At the end of our career it will be something we’ve been preaching about for eight years.”

Such discipline extends beyond the field and, for some, into religion. Otis and Palmer were baptized as Christians in May, with Brown as their godfather. They said Bible study sessions are held up to twice a week among some players, perhaps more often if discussing Scripture over lunch counts.

To get closer to God, the two had to take a leap of faith. When they consulted Brown before their baptism, his answer was one they already knew.

Don’t take it too lightly.

“When you look at the Gorman guys we have here, one thing always stands out is they are very disciplined in everything they do, whether it’s in the classroom, on the field, in the weight room or just in publicity,” Brown said.

“It’s so good for the program because they bring that mentality of hard work and discipline, and it’s infectious.”