By T. Scott Boatright
Lincoln Preparatory School has added a familiar and proven face to its football staff as former Lane University head coach and Grambling State product Vyron Brown has returned to full circle to rejoin the Panthers.
Brown, who became Lincoln Prep’s offensive coordinator in 2016 following a two-year stint as associate head coach as well as offensive coordinator and receivers coach at Texas Southern, left the Panthers in 2019 to become offensive coordinator and running backs coach at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee.
He was promoted to Dragons’ head coach in 2020 and stayed until last November, chalking up a coaching record of 17-23 in four seasons (Lane didn’t play football in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Along the way Brown coached 22 All-SIAC players, recruiting many from north Louisiana, including former Lincoln Prep standout Taviauhn Turner.
“We did some great things and coached some great players at Lane,” Brown said. “Andrew Farmer got signed into the NFL by the San Diego Chargers and is still in the NFL right now with the Denver Broncos. But it was time. I had my three other sons with me at Lane and to be there together and help groom them into the young men they are today was a great thing.
“But it was time. It was time to come home and be with my wife and my baby boy. To come home and be with them — that means everything to me.”
Brown said he left that job expecting to take another prominent coaching position that didn’t end up happening.
“I had done everything I could do at Lane, and thought I had another job ahead,” Brown said. “I was told I did, but then I didn’t. But somehow God looked down on me and opened the door to this opportunity. He called me back home, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.”
Brown, who starred at Woodlawn High School in Shreveport, has been a longtime fixture for north Louisiana football.
“I played at Woodlawn from 1993-97,” Brown said. “And to play at a school like Woodlawn and all the players that went before me — players like Terry Bradshaw, Joe Ferguson, Robert Pennywell, Lawrence Hart, Donovan Wilson and my father, among even more — that gave me a great start.”
He was recruited to Grambling State University by legendary coach Eddie Robinson and played for the G-Men under Robinson’s successor — another GSU product by the name of Doug Williams.
There Brown helped Grambling win back-to-back National Black College Championships before graduating and taking over as offensive coordinator at Carroll High School in Monroe.
He then joined Williams’ Grambling staff as a defensive assistant coach. He served in that role for three seasons before spending 2007 as interim head coach/offensive coordinator at Southern Lab High School before moving on to Shaw University in 2008 as offensive coordinator/running backs coach and then to Alabama State as running backs coach from 2009-10 before returning to Grambling from 2011-13 as offensive coordinator before taking the associate head coaching role at Texas Southern.
“I’ve been blessed every step of the way,” Brown said. “It’s just great to be back home at Lincoln Prep and to be a part of this program again. Football has been good to me and I’m just happy to be able to be giving back to it.”
And as his father (also named Vyron) was concerning him, Brown might be most pleased about being able to give back to his three oldest sons, who all starred at Calvary Baptist in Shreveport.
Brown’s son (another Vyron better known as “Shun”) set a Calvary Baptist record with 23 touchdowns as a senior while catching passes to the tune of 1.362 yards before playing collegiately at Arizona State as a standout receiver, finishing with 140 receptions for 1,773 yards and 15 touchdowns while adding another two scores on punt returns.
His younger brothers, Jeremiah and Ike, both played collegiately for their father and Lane.
Ike led the Dragons in rushing last season with 711 yards and seven touchdowns on 113 carries while Jeremiah recorded 49 tackles last season while adding a pair of pass breakups.
And Brown’s youngest son Noah, a 9-year-old fourth grader at Cypress Springs Elementary, is another budding standout athlete and is a candidate for National Youth Athlete of the Year who played for the Ruston Dixie All-Stars earlier this summer for Coach Stoney Stone.
“God is good, and I’ve been blessed, especially with my kids,” Brown said. “I’m talking about my children. I’m talking about all the players I’ve coached over the years. And I’m talking about all my kids playing for me at Lincoln Prep.”
A former ground-and-pound running back himself at Woodlawn and Grambling, Brown said that as an offensive coordinator, he tends to take what he’s been given and plans to do so with his Panthers’ offense.
“You know I like to move the ball up and down the field on the ground,” Brown said. “But at the same time, as a coach, you’ve got to do what the kids can do. At the end of the day, it’s all about winning the game.
“A smart coach molds his system around the players he has. But we (Lincoln Prep) have the kind of skill set where we can throw 50 times a game, or we can run 50 times a game if we want to, too. Get your popcorn ready.”
