Longtime Nebraska assistant football coach Ron Brown is joining Bo Pelini’s staff at Youngstown State as associate head coach and running backs coach.

Brown said Thursday he wanted to stay at Nebraska but never was in line for a job on new coach Mike Riley’s staff.

Brown has attracted national attention for using his position as a platform for expressing his Christian faith. He was lauded in 2011 for leading a prayer at midfield at Penn State after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal broke. He was also criticized in 2012 for testifying to the Omaha City Council against an ordinance to protect gay and transgender people from discrimination.

Brown came to Nebraska in 1987 when Tom Osborne hired him to coach wide receivers.