AMHERST — UMass Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford announced on Monday morning that Minutemen football head coach Don Brown has been released of his duties with two games remaining in his third season leading the program.

The 69-year-old Brown finishes his second tenure as head coach with the program — his first since UMass moved up to FBS — with a 6-28 record, only two of those wins coming against FBS opponents.

Offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery will serve as the interim head coach until a permanent one is named, and according to UMass athletics, “the search for a new head coach will begin immediately.”

“I am extremely grateful to coach Brown for returning to UMass three years ago to help us build back a program he once coached to a national title game,” Bamford said in a statement. “Don should have immense pride in the outstanding contributions he has made to advance Massachusetts Football during his three stops in Amherst.”

UMass lost 35-34 in overtime to Liberty on Saturday at McGuirk Alumni Stadium after holding leads in every quarter, including overtime. A Jacob Lurie missed extra point was the difference in the extra session.

During Brown’s first head coaching tenure in Amherst, UMass posted its best five-year record in school history (43-19) and made it to the FCS National Championship after winning the Atlantic 10 conference title in 2006.

In 2007, Brown again led the Minutemen to a conference crown, this time as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.

However, his second tenure was filled with miscues and missed opportunities, and he was let go after one final letdown against Liberty.

“Upon his return in 2021, we shared a common goal to help UMass football attain conference membership, something that was realized last spring,” Bamford said. “Largely due to his renowned coaching reputation, Don legitimized our FBS program and Massachusetts football has taken positive steps forward since his return. We are structurally positioned to accomplish our competitive goals as we move into a new league and a new college athletics landscape in 2025.”

Brown, a Massachusetts native, signed a five-year contract in December 2021 worth a minimum of $4 million with UMass after leaving his position as defensive coordinator at Arizona. He had two years left on his deal. The contract comprised of a $700,000 base salary and $100,000 in deferred compensation. In 2023, Brown was the sixth-highest-paid state employee, making $831,065. For reference, Minutemen men’s basketball head coach Frank Martin is the highest-paid state employee at $1.657 million, and Bamford checks in at No. 8 with a salary of $651,196.

Throughout Brown’s second tenure at UMass, the Minutemen had the second-worst overall team grade (65.0) according to Pro Football Focus, as well as the worst special teams grade (56.7) in all of FBS.

This season, UMass was within one possession, tied or leading in the fourth quarter of six games. The Minutemen only won two of those games, both victories coming against FCS opponents Central Connecticut State and Wagner. They went 0-2 in overtime games and in each instance held leads late in the final frame before the opposition tied it up and won in OT.

Brown is one of eight FBS coaches to be fired during this college football season. The two-time Broyles Award finalist (given to the best assistant coach) at Michigan is the second head coach Bamford has fired in the middle of a season (the other being Walt Bell in 2021) during his tenure as AD at UMass, which started in 2015.