A new role at UGA for former tailback Thomas Brown

ATHENS -- Thomas Brown is back in Georgia's weight room, where he is something of a legend.

"Personally one of my highest acclaims ... was being known as pound for pound the strongest football player in Georgia history," the former Bulldogs tailback said Friday. It was a reputation the 5-foot-8 Brown earned by setting several UGA weight-lifting records for running backs.

A sixth-round draft pick of the Falcons in 2008, Brown spent his rookie NFL season on injured reserve with a groin injury. The Falcons released him in the final cuts before the 2009 season. The Cleveland Browns signed him to their practice squad later that season, but released him in June 2010, forcing him to confront the end of his football-playing days.

"I decided it might be best if I just moved on and got the second chapter of my life going," he said.

That led Brown, 24, back to UGA, where he began work this month as an assistant strength-and-conditioning coach.

"I'm hands on," he said. "I'm on the floor every day motivating guys, encouraging them to give their all, to buy into the system and get back to playing sound team football."

Georgia's strength training, like many facets of the UGA program, has come under fire as the Bulldogs have posted back-to-back 8-5 and 6-7 seasons. Dave Van Halanger, Bulldogs' director of strength and conditioning since 2001, was reassigned by coach Mark Richt last month and replaced by Joe Tereshinski, a long-time Georgia staffer. Tereshinski hired Brown as an assistant.

As a player, Brown thrived in the strength program under Van Halanger and still has "the highest respect and regard" for him. Brown isn't sure what went wrong in the past couple of years, but suggested: "I think maybe [it] had to do with guys getting too comfortable with him and ... and maybe not responding to him as well as they needed to."

From what he has seen in his first few weeks on the job, "I think overall we have a great group of guys who are committed to win," Brown said. "There are some guys who need a little extra pushing, which is what I'm going to do -- push them until they quit or turn around."

Brown, a Tucker High School graduate, had 2,646 yards rushing at UGA from 2004-07 -- a playing career that overlapped with fellow tailbacks Danny Ware, Kregg Lumpkin and Knowshon Moreno.

"I think overall you can solve most problems with more competition," Brown said. "I think it's one of the biggest [differences] from when I was here as a player. When I came in, I was highly recruited -- the No. 1 running back in the state of Georgia, No. 3 or 4 in the nation. And I was No. 7 on the depth chart of eight running backs, and I had to compete.

"I think it's harder for guys to be motivated when they know they're kind of guaranteed to play. So I think ... bringing in guys to compete with those guys will make everybody a lot better."