Our Honor Defend

It has taken me too long to get this series back on track, a particularly unfortunate situation given how rapidly the regular season is approaching.  I will try to make up some ground in this 13th installment of the now 19-part series titled Better Know A Buckeye.  Here, I take a look at the case of Corey Brown, an athlete out of the Keystone State.  Coincidentally, this will be the second consecutive series on Corey Brown, an athlete from Pennsylvania.  Last year’s feature was on the WR/DB prospect from the Monroeville program in Western PA.  This one will be on the WR/DB prospect (definitely WR at the moment) from the O’Hara program just outside of Philadelphia.  As such, given that the Buckeyes now have two players on the team with the same name from the same state, the incoming Corey Brown has earned the nickname “Philly” to differentiate him from the Monroeville product.

Both, however, were highly recruited prizes from the Keystone State.  In this feature, I outline how Philly emerged as the top prospect in his class in the talent rich state of Pennsylvania, earning offers from every college football power east of the Mississippi.  High on Ohio State along with Miami, Rutgers, Florida and others, Philly committed to the Buckeyes shortly after the USC game that we would all rather forget.  His recruitment, commitment, strengths and weaknesses and other usual details are given below.  Thereafter, he is classified as “better known” and is put on the board.

Height: 6’0
Weight: 175lbs
40: 4.4
Academics: 3.0 GPA, 17 ACT
High School: Cardinal O’Hara HS; Springfield, PA

His Recruitment: Brown was on the fast track to college football recruiting stardom.  The sophomore year is always important for high school football players hopeful to get a free ride to college to continue playing the game they love.  Many potential 1-A players already pick up some non-BCS verbal offers in the summer before their junior year.  These come in written form by September 1st.  The higher profile offers, should they come, usually matriculate in the mailbox later.  Brown bypassed this phase of recruiting, receiving verbal offers from Pitt in March of his sophomore year (2008), Penn State and Rutgers two months later and offers from Illinois, West Virginia and (I think) UCLA by the end of July.  Those were just the verbal offers.  Many others, Ohio State included, were in pursuit.  In fact, the Buckeyes could not wait until September 1st either.  They informed Brown that an official offer would be forthcoming a week before they could actually send him one.

Brown had a stellar sophomore season and was starting an equally impressive junior campaign.  However, an MCL tear (that did not require surgery) derailed his junior season.  Rather than focus on recruiting, Brown opted to invest more in trying to get back on the field to help his O’Hara football program.  Big offers came in that resulted in no material change of position for any one of them in the Corey Brown 2010 sweepstakes.  However, it is important to note who had extended scholarships before the end of his junior year of high school.  The offer list featured basically everyone of consequence east of the Mississippi, including Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt, Michigan, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Georgia, Florida, Miami and Alabama.  Without exaggeration, that is just about everyone that’s anyone in college football, without having to delve into USC and Oklahoma/Texas’ super-regional scope for recruiting.

Given the injury and the focus on trying to finish his junior season of football and also fulfill his track and field obligations, most updates that you will read through the spring and summer of 2009 feature Brown talking about the process, what he likes and what he thinks about specific programs.  You can follow some of those links to read the particulars, if you are interested.  Fortunately for Buckeye fans, Ohio State was always mentioned.  Even if Ohio State did not have “most favoured college” status for a particular update, they were always a name that came up in conversation.  Philadelphia definitely represents the eastern axis of the Keystone State, but the Buckeye offer represents the best in the Midwest.  The Buckeye offense through 2008 was probably not something that would catch the interest of Brown when offers from Florida and Alabama were on the table.  Nevertheless, it did.  When Brown whittled his list of schools to five at the end of August, Ohio State made the cut and was going to get his first official visit.  Miami was named the leader in that particular update, but the interest in Ohio State remained.

The first official visit for Brown happened to be the highly anticipated Ohio State-USC matchup.  This particular matchup need not be recounted in great detail here.  The atmosphere was electric for something that Smart Football author Chris Brown dubbed the “grizzly demise of Tressel Ball“.  An unfortunate loss at the time made all the more unfortunate given the trajectories of both teams as the seasons progressed, one could not fathom any instant recruiting gains to emerge for the Buckeyes.  Certainly not on offense.

Fortunately, it did.

His Commitment: Buckeye fans still licking their wounds after the loss to USC were licking their chops when Corey Brown committed to the Buckeyes in the aftermath.  Asked why he committed, Brown pointed to the atmosphere.  He had never been to Ohio State before, though he tried in earnest to arrange an unofficial visit in the summer.  In love with everything he saw, Brown pulled the trigger.

“I loved it,” Brown said after seeing the atmosphere in Ohio Stadium for the big prime-time OSU-USC showdown.  “Everything was great.  It was my first time out there and I thought it was the place for me.”

Brown became the thirteenth commitment in the 2010 recruiting class, complementing the commitments from James Louis and Tyrone Williams.  An important recruiting get by itself, it has to have made the Buckeyes the first program in college football history to get two different Corey Browns in two consecutive recruiting classes.  This is an all too important historical footnote that Ohio State will share with no one.  So suck on that one, USC.

Where He Excels:  There is a lot to like with Corey “Philly” Brown.  The benefit of doing these features after the kids enroll for summer school is that I can update my hunches, initial observations about them with updates from their performances early in the summer.  I am pleased to read that Philly is one of three members of the 2010 recruiting class who continually come up in the “pleasant surprise” and “turning heads” categories¹.

Brown will draw a lot of comparisons, for better or for worse, to Lamaar “Flash” Thomas, the 2008 signee who recently transferred to the University of New Mexico.  Both are incredible athletes with speed to bare, hoping to make the transition from running back to wide receiver for the Buckeyes all the while contributing in the return game.  Thomas never quite made the transition, but this similar skill set has Buckeye fans hoping that the story does not repeat itself.

Speed-wise, Brown is as good as it gets.  There is a reason that Urban Meyer wanted him as a Percy Harvin type of player.  Certainly not the biggest guy, Brown demonstrates a really intriguing ability to make lateral movements at top speed.  His burst is special too.  Brown is an either/or at both wide receiver and cornerback positions, though the idea is to establish him in the wide receiver rotation and hope that he sticks².  If so, Brown would be a tough guy to defend when operating in the slot.  Should he learn the position and adjust to the increase in “traffic” he will see as a wide receiver on short yardage situation, he becomes a guy that can turn three yards into 30… in a hurry.

Must Work On: Like Thomas, Brown will have to learn the intricacies of a position he played very little at the high school level.  As the case of Lamaar Thomas demonstrated, this is indeed a transition.  Transitions tend to entail challenges.  Route running, catching away from the body, awareness of down, distance and location and countless other details are things we hope he picks up in the years to come.

Importantly, the 6’0 175-ish Brown will need to find a balance between maintaining his speed, lateral agility and footwork and increasing his frame.  In particular, Brown will need to develop a stronger upper body to compensate for the fact that future defensive backs will try to jam and harass him off the line.  I highly doubt Brown plays split end for the Buckeyes, but he will get entangled.  He has a fairly developed lower body to help, but strength in the upper body becomes imperative.

Redshirt? In another one of my dumb posts, I suggested that Brown was one that could benefit from a redshirt, but likely will not sit out his freshman year.  I initially did not think he has the immediate impact ability of James Louis and he is learning a new position.  If he is just not getting it early into the season and he is not adding anything tangible to special teams, I think he benefits more from getting an additional year than he does consuming a year of eligibility playing sparsely.  This is surely a result of the cautionary tale of Lamaar Thomas, and I freely admit that is problematic way to approach the issue.  Every kid is different.

All told, I still think Brown 2010 sees the field in a season where all hands will be on deck to try to return Ohio State to the promised land.  If the positive updates we read are accurate, he could be an immediate contributor.

Highlights: It gets difficult sorting out which highlight reel corresponds to which high school year. The first one is definitely his sophomore year, and I am inclined to believe the second features more of his (limited) junior year exploits.  ESPN has film too, but I believe this is mostly sophomore year.  Various highlights have emerged on YouTube, featuring the senior Corey Brown in specific games (example).

Miscellany:

• Philly rebounded from his partial MCL tear quitely nicely.  He lit up the track scene in Philadelphia upon his return.
• Not to be outdone in post MCL-tear form, Philly went out with a bang as a senior.  Details include:

Slowing down Corey Brown was the one thing the Explorers couldn’t do.

The O’Hara senior turned in arguably the most impressive performance in meet history.

Brown set meet records in the 100 and 200 meters in winning three gold medals and a silver.

The Ohio State football signee opened with an impressive 100. Firing out of the blocks, Brown had the lead at 40 meters before winning in 10.65 seconds. The previous mark of 10.68 was set by Roman Catholic’s Dasahn Hare in 1997.

Brown also dominated the 200, crossing the finish line in 21.18. Cardinal O’Hara’s Chris Day had set the previous record of 21.58 in 1992.

Brown’s third gold medal came on O’Hara’s winning 4×400. He also ran a leg on the Lions’ second-place 4×100, and was named the meet’s boys’ track MVP. Teammate Chazz Wilks was the boys’ field MVP, winning the shot put (50 feet, 6 inches) and discus (156-10).

• He also led this comeback on a relay.
• Rutgers had early position on him as a result of the early offer and the commitment from star quarterback Tom Savage.  Savage, who emerged as a true freshman quarterback from the Scarlet Knights, is from the same high school.
• He was named the county’s male athlete of the year as a senior.  This was an honor he was not on hand to accept, since he enrolled at Ohio State in the summer.
• I think most would agree that Sharrif Floyd was the best prospect in the state in that class, but Brown was holding down that honor entering his senior season.  The Buckeyes almost got both, but were foiled when God told Urban Meyer to make Floyd come to Gainesville.
• Brown, alongside James Louis, represented the Buckeyes at the Under Armour All-American Game.  Better yet, he won the “hands” competition during weekend festivities, beating out Alabama’s DeMarcus Miliner.  So yeah.  Roll that, Bama.
• Philly will further differentiate himself from Monroeville Corey Brown by wearing #10 for the Buckeyes.  This is disappointing for those of us who wanted him to wear #3 (Monroeville Corey’s number), with no additions to the last name on the back of the jersey³.  Basically, I knew this would make Mike Patrick’s head explode and that’s why I wanted it to happen.  The football program whiffed on this and everyone involved should feel bad.

I think Corey Brown is now better known, in that we can probably distinguish from the two Corey Browns from Pennsylvania on our roster.

Let’s go ahead and put him on the board.

Class of 2010
Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?	Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?
Darryl Baldwin	DE	Solon, OH	05.25	James Louis	WR	Delray Beach, FL	06.21
Drew Basil	K	Chillicothe, OH	05.17	Scott McVey	LB	Cleveland, OH	05.03
Corey Brown 2010	ATH	Springfield, PA	08.08	JT Moore	DE	Youngstown, OH	02.15
Christian Bryant	DB	Cleveland, OH		Andrew Norwell	OL	Cincinnati, OH	03.29
David Durham	LB/DE	Charlotte, NC	04.12	Verlon Reed	ATH	Columbus, OH
Taylor Graham	QB	Wheaton, IL	05.08	Bradley Roby	DB	Suwanee, GA
Adam Griffin	ATH	Columbus, OH		Roderick Smith	RB	Fort Wayne, IN	05.13
Chad Hagan	LB/S	Canonsburg, PA	07.06	Jamel Turner	DE	Fork Union, VA	03.08
Johnathon Hankins	DT	Detroit, TSUN		Tyrone Williams	WR	Cleveland, OH	07.09
Carlos Hyde	RB	Naples, FL	06.29.09

1. The others are Christian Bryant and Johnathan Hankins.  Hankins mention here makes me really happy. [↩]
2. Brown, for what it’s worth, is comfortable playing whatever will get him on the field quickly. [↩]
3. I am also in favor of renaming the jerseys so that one reads “Feldman” and the other reads “Haim”. [↩]