Browns final game of the 2019 season was not just his best, but likewise one of the leading individual bowl efficiencies in school history. Brown was up and down as the season unfolded, and was even changed in the beginning lineup by real freshman Noah Cain in a win at Michigan State.
With Cain hobbled following that matchup, Brown ended up being the starter again and took firm control of the task in the last 4 video games of the regular season. Brown was a fairly late addition to Penn States 2017 recruiting class. Even with Brown out of the mix, Penn State has actually a stacked running backs room.
Penn State running back Journey Brown, a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate, might miss the whole 2020 season due to an undisclosed medical condition, the program said in a statement to Lions247 late Monday night. Brown was the Nittany Lions prominent returning rusher after a breakout 2019 campaign that saw him average 6.8 yards per carry while accumulating 890 yards and 12 touchdowns.
” Journey Brown is being dealt with for a medical condition discovered throughout the off-season and will possibly miss the 2020 football season,” the statement stated. PSU is slated to open its 2020 season at Indiana Oct. 24 (3:30 p.m. Eastern, FS1).
As just recently as Oct. 1– when Penn State was in the middle of its Media Days occasions– Brown told reporters he had actually quickly thought about avoiding the 2020 season. However he was never major enough about it to talk about the matter with his coach, PSU running backs coach JaJuan Seider.
” I had ideas, but I value Coach Seiders viewpoint very much and I feel like he understands what hes talking about,” Brown stated. If I had actually thought about it, I would have talked to Coach Seider about it, and we never ever talked about it, so it was never ever a thought.”
At the time, Brown also told press reporters that he wished to get the most out of his college football profession before ending up being a professional. Prior to his team-high 129 brings last season, Brown had just eight career totes.
“You cant come back– youve got four years or 5 years and youre done. Im gon na ride this one out.”
Browns last game of the 2019 season was not just his best, however also among the leading private bowl performances in school history. His 202 rushing backyards in Penn States 55-39 Cotton Bowl win over Memphis were the most ever by a Nittany Lion in a postseason video game and the sixth-most ever in the prominent bowl. His 12.6 lawns per carry vs. the Tigers were the most ever by a Penn State gamer in a bowl.
In being called the games Outstanding Offensive Player, Brown firmly laid to rest the label of “track guy” that had actually followed him– fairly or unjustly– from his days at Meadville (Pa.) High. Brown was a standout football player at Meadville, hurrying for 7,027 yards in his profession, and uncorking one game in which he rushed for a Pennsylvania high school record 722 backyards and 10 scores.
That was eclipsed by his achievements as a track and field professional athlete. His highlight there was breaking the state Class AA 100-meter record with a time of 10.43 seconds in 2017. The previous mark had actually been set by future United States Olympian Leroy Burrell in 1985.
Brown gotten to Penn State later that summer season, however with a couple of guys named Saquon Barkley and Miles Sanders at the top of the running backs depth chart, the decision was made to redshirt him. Brown had only eight brings as a reserve behind Sanders in 2018 as he found out how to better release his speed on the football field.
That paid off early in 2019, when he overtook Ricky Slade for the starting task in the third game of the season– a win over Pitt in which he hurried for 109 lawns. This regardless of being suspended from the program for the summer season semester for an unspecified offense of group guidelines. Brown was up and down as the season unfolded, and was even changed in the beginning lineup by true freshman Noah Cain in a win at Michigan State.
With Cain hobbled following that match, Brown became the starter once again and took firm control of the job in the last 4 video games of the regular season. Running fast and hard, he balanced 97.8 backyards per getaway and scored an overall of seven touchdowns. He followed that up by trampling Memphis in the Cotton Bowl, establishing severe expectations for his 2020 season. One early projection provided him a 50-1 chance to win the Heisman.
To prepare himself for 2020, Brown bulked up from 206 pounds to 220 pounds. He addressed that at Media Days.
” I desired to sort of be a little bit heavier, so I can kind of play the way I wish to,” he said. “Kind of be that big back– not big back, however huge enough to take big enough hits. (I can) be elusive still, at that weight, and my body can manage that weight. So I wished to have to do with 220-225. I felt comfortable at 220. I still was moving … I in fact felt that I could move much better, I felt like I was more grounded.”
Brown was a fairly late addition to Penn States 2017 recruiting class. He was a three-star prospect in the 247Sports Composite Rankings and thought about the 51st best running back in the class.
Even with Brown out of the mix, Penn State has a stacked running backs space. Cain and fellow sophomore Devyn Ford both saw major action as rookies in 2019, combining for 737 yards and 11 TDs. Joining the mix this season are former four-star high school backs Caziah Holmes and Keyvone Lee.
— Sean Fitz and Tyler Donohue added to this short article.
