Why LB Cam Brown could be Penn State football’s 2019 defensive captain

Last April, Trace McSorley shook his head in the Lasch Building, reminding himself how close the Nittany Lions were to a College Football Playoff berth in 2017. “Five points from an undefeated season,” the quarterback said at the time, before vowing Penn State would right those wrongs in 2018.

Instead, the Nittany Lions lost to Ohio State by one point in a primetime game (again) and later lost to Michigan State in frustrating fashion (again). For more reasons than one, it was more of the same.

Now that McSorley, Nick Scott, Amani Oruwariye and a host of leaders are gone, new voices have had to speak up this offseason and set the tone for Penn State. Outspoken linebacker Cam Brown has emerged as one of them — and, like McSorley, he’s keeping things real in spring camp.

“Guys are hungry. We’re coming for a national championship this year,” Brown said Wednesday after practice. “We’ve made our mind up. We’ve let it slip out of our hands the last two years to go to the playoff by one point and then three points in the second game, the same exact way two years in a row. We can’t let that happen again. We’re not going to let it happen again on this team.”

Of course, many may view Brown’s words as wishful thinking. The Nittany Lions’ over/under win total for 2019 is 8.5 games, and their odds to win the national title are set at 100/1, alongside Utah, Iowa, Miami, USC and Florida State. With games against Ohio State, Michigan State and Iowa on the road — and several position battles to sort out between now and Aug. 31 — those numbers seem about right.

Still, Brown is confident, both in himself and his teammates. That’s not lost on anyone in the Lasch Building or at practice in Holuba Hall, either. Barking out orders and taking young, promising linebackers like Brandon Smith and Lance Dixon under his wing, Brown has come into his own.

Brown has never been one to shy away from being straight-forward. He spoke out against Garrett Taylor’s targeting call against Indiana last year, saying the rule was “ruining the game in certain aspects.” And later in his postgame interview, he admitted that the win over the Hoosiers was “a sign of hope,” while many of his teammates downplayed the victory that came after their disappointing losses to Ohio State and Michigan State.

But, now, Brown is applying that honesty as one of the team’s go-to mentors.

“Honestly, I had to embrace it. It was my time,” Brown said. “I’ve got young guys looking up to me. I feel like I’m in a position where I understand the program, and I understand what’s going on on the field.”

His head coach and teammates, past and present, see that, too.

James Franklin said Brown — who tallied 63 tackles, 6.5 TFLs, six passes defended and three forced fumbles as a 12-game starter in 2018 — has “a pretty good idea who he is and where he’s at.” Center Michal Menet named Brown and quarterback Tommy Stevens when asked who took ownership of the team during an offseason filled with roster attrition and coaching changes. And Scott, Penn State’s 2018 defensive captain, said Brown or Taylor would be his pick to assume the mantle in 2019.

“He leads with his voice,” Scott said of Brown. “He’s not shy about it. He makes splash plays. He’s intense. He’s a hard hitter. And he has a presence in the locker room.”

Added Franklin: “He’s taken a real command of the team and taken a real command of the defense. ... He’s more confident, and I think he has a chance to have a really good year.”