GBMW: Friday Night Lights — Greg Brown 2011 Michigan Commit

GBMW: Friday Night Lights — Greg Brown 2011 Michigan Commit

GBMW traveled to Fremont last Friday to view 2011 Michigan commit Greg Brown. Most of you certainly remember the last player from Fremont Ross, a Little Giant who became a Michigan Wolverine, one Charles Woodson. Friday’s contest matched Fremont against Tiffin Columbian at renovated Don Paul Stadium.

Greg Brown is listed at 6’0, 185lbs. Like Woodson, he essentially does everything on the field. Greg played wide receiver, cornerback, running back, participates in the punt and kick return units, and even plays on the kick-off coverage team. The only time Greg comes off the field is for extra points, field goals and when the coaches think he needs a rest, mostly times on offense. So right there it is obvious Greg is a versatile and skilled player who the coaches want on the field as much as possible.

The action started off a little slow for Greg since not much action was going on either on offense as a wide receiver, or as the strong side cornerback. He played mostly man-to-man and seemed to relish the challenge of one-on-one coverage.

Fremont had the ball with only twenty seconds to go before halftime and with the clock running decided to run a play. The play Fremont ran was certainly the right call. Fremont ‘s quarterback threw the deep ball to Greg Brown, who ran past a Tiffin defender and caught the ball in stride and scored a touchdown on a forty-one yard passing play with only two seconds left on the clock. That was the first time we were able to see Greg’s athleticism and speed on display. Fremont went into halftime with a 21-14 lead.

In the second half Greg Brown caught a touchdown pass that covered twenty-nine yards. Again in the fourth quarter Greg Brown’s ability at wide out showed Fremont completed a slant pass to Brown for another thirty-nine yards. Greg finished the night with three catches for 109 yards.

Fremont had 216 return yards and most of them were attributable to Brown, who had a breakout kickoff return in which he went sixty-four yards to the Columbian 28 yard line.

Greg carried the ball three times for twenty-nine yards.

On defense we at GBMW can tell he has really improved since last year (two 2008 visits). His footwork, stance, and movement appeared to be really improved. The only problem, and a good sign, was that Greg did not get many balls thrown his way. At all levels, a dominant corner can cause the opposing team will look the other way.

Two passes came his way, one in man coverage (the ball was knocked away) and the other was in zone coverage, where the receiver cut inside and Greg got blocked from the offensive linemen that was coming out and picked him off before the linebacker was able to make the tackle after a fifteen yard pass play.

On offense you can observe from Greg’s first step whether or not he believes the ball is coming his way. Just the quickness he shows of getting off the ball and using his hands very well to shed defenders serves as a tip-off.

This was one of the better football games I have seen at the high school level in awhile. Both teams played hard and it was going to be whoever made a mistake or whoever had the ball last. Neither defense could really stop the other. Tiffin would drive down the field getting short yardage bit-by-bit, while Fremont was running off one big play after another. Well, Columbian fumbled the ball on their own fifteen-yard line with five minutes to go and Ross went in for the score which made the final score 49-35. The first big mistake noted above.

Some quotes from after the game: “He’s Greg. He’s versatile, he can hurt you in so many different phases of the game and we’re gonna try to take advantage of that,” Fremont Ross head coach Derek Kidwell said.

“We got some situations tonight by formations that we isolated him on the corner, I mean, we took advantage of them. That was a huge kick return he had in the fourth quarter, also … that just gave us a little momentum back.”

After the game Greg spoke about what he needs to do for his team “I feel like I always have to step up,” said Brown, who has verbally committed to attend Michigan. “If I step up, then there’s a good chance we’re going to win.”

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Written by ErocWolverine