Last week was a big one for the Arkansas Razorbacks, as Bobby Petrino and company received good news from East Paulding fullback Jahron Brown. On Monday, Brown, a 6-foot, 218-pound senior, gave the ‘Backs his pledge over an offer from Western Carolina and despite receiving interest from Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee State and Troy. Though a standout on the high school level, the relative disappearance of the fullback position no doubt quelled the interest Brown received along the recruiting trail, making the established Arkansas program all the more attractive.
“Arkansas was the biggest offer I had,” Brown explained in a recent interview with HawgSports.com. “It’s a full ride and Coach (Lorenzo) Ward really talked it up to me. I like Arkansas a lot. Darren McFadden is the reason I started watching Arkansas play football, and I never dreamed they would come after me.”
Although Brown has been mostly recruited to play the fullback position in college, he does see considerable time at the tailback position for his 8-1 East Paulding team and is confident in his versatility and overall skill.
“I run with the ball really well, I have good vision and I’m a good blocker,” Brown explained. “I’m still working to improve on my blocking. I also can catch the ball well coming out of the backfield.”
Despite Brown’s confidence and unquestionable talent as a fullback, however, he possesses neither the speed nor the agility to be anything more than a short-yardage runner in the college game.
PAULSEN LEAVING STATE
On Sunday, Walton defensive end David Paulsen moved one step closer to beginning his college football career, committing to the Cowboys of Oklahoma State over offers from Stanford, Tulane and Miami of Ohio. Paulsen visited Stillwater last weekend for the Cowboys’ Saturday showdown with Iowa State and committed to head coach Mike Gundy on the spot.
“It went very well, I ended up in the end committing to Coach Gundy this morning,” Paulsen told Ostate.com in a recent interview. “I think all of [the coaches] are great guys and I could see myself playing for them and becoming friends with them, not just in football but as a person.”
Interestingly, despite Paulsen’s success on defense at the high school level, he will be playing the fullback position when he suits up for the Cowboys over the coming years. As a result, the Oklahoma State coaches specially featured the position last Saturday and spent extra time after the game making sure Paulsen was comfortable with the position change.
“It was a great game, it was a very long game, I know that, but anyway it was funny when I was talking to the coaches again after the game and they were talking about how they gave the fullback the ball on the first touchdown just so I could see it,” Paulsen said. “[After the game] we were watching all the cut-ups of fullback plays that they’ve run over the past two or three years and we just went over all the different ways I could get in the game and all the different things I could do to help the offense and it was all very impressive.”
Finally, Cowboy fans will be happy to learn that Paulsen has no other official visits planned and, barring a “freak accident,” calls himself “100 percent a Cowboy.”
Janovitz can be reached at sjanovitz@scoreatl.com.
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