Spring Forward: Rising stars can shine at Blue-White Game
When Penn State signed Journey Brown in February 2017, it was understood that he wouldn’t simply show up on campus and parlay his blazing speed into an immediate role in the backfield. He would have to wait his turn, and even then, speed alone wasn’t going to propel him into the starting lineup.
But even though he went into his college career with his eyes open, the transition was difficult. Penn State’s system was very different from the wing-T offense in which he had excelled at Meadville (Pa.) High, and as he attempted to master it, he found himself developing some bad mental habits. Brown had a tendency to dwell on personal and academic problems, to the point where they became football problems, too.
“I would let it clog my brain,” he said. “In high school, football was my escape. I always used football to get away from my off-the-field challenges. I feel like I kind of lost that [at Penn State]. It was more of a business-type thing. I wasn’t having as much fun. I was dwelling on stuff on the field… and I wasn’t satisfied with my play.”
Brown redshirted his first year, then found himself playing behind a younger running back in 2018, as four-star freshman Ricky Slade leaped past him into the backup role behind starter Miles Sanders. Two seasons into his college career, Brown wasn’t on the fast track that he had hoped would lead to more playing time, and he knew that it was his mental outlook that was holding him back. Eventually, that outlook changed, but it wasn’t the arrangement of the depth chart that caused him to re-examine his approach to the game. It was a personal loss – the death of his grandmother.
“When she passed away, I really locked in,” Brown said. “Everything I did was for my grandma, so I guess you could say when she passed away, I was like, ‘What am I doing? Who do I want to be with this?’ I would always hear her voice in my head, and I started to learn how to be confident in myself, because she always gave me that confidence.”
As he prepares for his redshirt sophomore season at Penn State, Brown has used that newfound confidence to build momentum. He’s listed at 206 pounds this spring, 12 pounds above his weight when he arrived at PSU, and he’s still blazing fast. He’s also developed a better understanding of the full range of his responsibilities in the Nittany Lions’ offense.
When the Lions take the field for the Blue-White Game this Saturday, Brown will undoubtedly be one of the more closely watched players. Coaches and teammates have praised his development this spring, citing him as one of the foremost members of a group of underclassmen who are set to make a big impact in 2019.
“There are a lot of things going right for Journey right now,” coach James Franklin said. “He’s confident, he’s becoming a leader, he’s had an unbelievable off-season. He’s always been extremely gifted. Last year, he ran a 4.3 for us and pulled his hamstring while running the 40 and missed a lot of spring ball because of it. But the light seems to be coming on for him. It’s never been a physical thing. It’s been a confidence thing, an assignment thing – not only with our offense but also with defensive recognition for blitz pickup and things like that. He’s doing some really nice things.”
Added running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider, “Journey has really been a pleasant surprise. He’s taken the next step. He can make us different. His speed is game-changing. When he learns to trust himself as a player, he can be special.”
Brown is coming off a redshirt freshman season in which he carried eight times for 44 yards. He saw little action on offense, tying wideout K.J. Hamler for seventh on the team in rushing yardage. But four of the six players ahead of him are now gone, and Franklin said that Brown and Slade have separated themselves from the other running backs on campus this spring, a list that includes January enrollee Noah Cain and Notre Dame transfer C.J. Holmes.
The battle at running back will be only one of the attractions in Penn State’s spring game on Saturday. There’s also a quarterback vacancy to fill, and while Tommy Stevens’ availability for the game is very much in doubt as he works his way back from the unspecified injury that slowed him throughout the 2018 season (and resulted in his undergoing surgery at the end of the year), fans are likely to get an extended look at Sean Clifford and Will Levis, and possibly January enrollees Ta’Quan Roberson and Michael Johnson Jr., too. Clifford is challenging Stevens for the starting job after flashing his potential with two touchdown throws last year, while Levis, a redshirt freshman, will be making his Beaver Stadium debut.
There are also tight position battles at right guard (C.J. Thorpe vs. Mike Miranda), free safety (Jonathan Sutherland vs. Lamont Wade) and defensive tackle (Antonio Shelton vs. P.J. Mustipher). What’s more, the spring game should give fans a chance to watch young receivers Justin Shorter, Daniel George, Jahan Dotson and Cam Sullivan-Brown audition for bigger roles in the fall. With Juwan Johnson having transferred and DeAndre Thompkins lost to graduation, the Lions need their inexperienced wideouts to step forward.
Penn State suffered more than the usual graduation-related attrition this off-season, some of it expected, some not. The Blue-White Game will afford the coaches another opportunity to see how their depth chart makeover is proceeding, but the evaluation process is by no means over.
“It’s happening all the time,” Franklin said. “It’s happening now in spring. It happens over the summer. It happens obviously during camp – how you’re looking at guys, how they’re going to fit, what their role is going to be. And then obviously there are going to be a few guys who are going to surprise you. There are going to be some guys who make significant steps between now and camp, after their meetings with their coaches and getting really good feedback from myself and their position coaches on what they need to improve on. A couple of the freshmen will show up and surprise us [by being] more ready to play than maybe we anticipated. All of those things are going to be discussed and outlined and detailed so that we give ourselves the best chance to come to camp and have some experience and have some depth and make sure that we’re getting talented guys some opportunities to get on the field.”