Want to attack every day with the latest Georgia football recruiting info? That’s the Intel. This rep has the latest with 5-star LB Sammy Brown. He ranks as the nation’s No. 1 LB and the No. 12 overall prospect for 2024 on the 247Sports Composite. On3 has him as the nation’s No. 1 LB and the No. 16 overall recruit.
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We’ve written a few Sammy Brown stories in this space over the years and feel we must start this one off with an apology.
We beg your pardon for not leading off with the hair. The mullet. The Jefferson High rising senior is the 5-star with the 5-star hair.
That’s why we’re always calling Brown, with all due respect, a young Captain America with a mullet.
Here’s the glorious visual.
Just picture Steve Rogers in high school. But this time he looks like he’s already had the Super Solider serum.
Check out the All-American resume on Brown:
- The 6-foot-2.5, 230-ish Brown ranks as the nation’s No. 1 LB and a top 20 recruit for 247Sports and On3. Rivals has him as the No. 1 LB and at No. 23 overall
- He’s never made a “B” in high school. “The closest I came was last year in chemistry,” Brown said. “Like my sophomore year. I think I made a 91 or a 92, but it was close all the way up until the end. That class was tough.”
- That “B” would have haunted him: “I don’t want to know what it feels like to make a ‘B’ on a report card,” he said. “I’ve never made a ‘B’ like ever. It is something I don’t want to experience.”
- Brown hasn’t done any one-rep max lifts in a while. But we’re pretty sure this won’t embarrass him by sharing he’s done four reps with 545 pounds lately on squats. He’s hovering around the 400-pound mark on power cleans. He’s also bench-pressed 345 pounds for four reps.
- If this was some sort of modern-day Samson thing with the hair, we’d understand.
- He’s also a two-time state wrestling champion.
- While it must feel like this is piling it on, he has been clocked at 10.8 seconds this spring in the 100 meters. That was in the 40-degree cold and rain. That’s at least a 10.7 in better conditions. His career PR is at 10.70. Brown’s best 200 meters stands at 21.8 seconds.
- How rare is that combo? In more than 20 years as a reporter, I’ve heard of just one high school athlete that could run a 10.7 in the 100 meters AND power clean 400 pounds. That’s Nick Chubb. Chubb ran a 10.69 in the 100 and a 21.83 in high school almost 10 years ago.
- The Jefferson High rising senior is the son of one a well-respected high school coach. Michael Brown, his father, has been a head coach, but he’s currently an assistant at Jefferson.
- Brown takes the discipline he attacks all of those physical feats with and applies it to his personal life. When he’s sent a text message, he responds very quickly. When an interview is scheduled, he’s prompt and ready to go. Time management? He’s all about that. It frees up more time for him to go fishing and hunting.
- He’s happiest when he is outdoors. Baiting a hook. Sitting in a stand or blind or riding an ATV. Bet that he also catches his limit every day. That’s just Sammy. When we learn he slices a golf ball almost every time he pulls the driver, it makes him seem more human.
- He’s the All-American sort on social media. Not afraid to make fun of himself. Not afraid to express his adoration and affection for his long-time girlfriend. Brown is very comfortable in his own skin.
- If we’re being honest, he’s grown tired of the recruiting process. He doesn’t see the need for more unofficial visits. Brown will take his five official visits in a row beginning in late May with Tennessee. He’ll follow that with Clemson, Georgia, Oklahoma and then Ohio State. Brown stated he has no idea how some kids would want to take double-digit officials with the new NCAA ruling. “I feel like at some point it gets old,” he said.
- He won’t need to be de-recruited in college. “I’ve said probably for a couple of months now that I’m kind of ready for it to be over and you know just be a high school kid again,” Brown said. “Instead of this big huge recruit that everybody knows and stuff. I’m kind of ready for it to be over. Shut it down. Just be focused on being a high school senior.”
- Brown is also weary of photo shoots. In fact, he’s a little bored by them now. “I’m so tired of those,” he said. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I run out of poses. Stuff to wear. I feel like there’s nothing else to do now.”
- No specific commitment date has been set. “But I’m kind of thinking like the first or sometime the first week in July,” he said. “Something like that.”
Just about everything Brown is about here is exactly what the UGA wants to see in every crop of football players. Brown is a lot like what Kirby Smart would be these days if he were a high school recruit.
Great academics. Son of a high school coach. Smart on the field. Multi-sport athlete. Runs track. We’re just not sure about the mullet.
Perhaps Glenn Schumann, also the son of a football coach, would have been able to pull that off.
Easy to see why everyone wants to sign Sammy Brown
Brown’s recruitment will be hard-fought until the end. He would be a dynamic player in Clemson, Columbus, Knoxville or Norman. His path to playing time would be accelerated in any of those spots compared to UGA.
Perhaps one of the most impressive things he’s told DawgNation recently was that Georgia’s depth chart is actually a plus. The ‘Dawgs are still working to get 2021 5-star Xavian Sorey Jr. on the field in a talented room. Jalon Walker was the nation’s No. 4 LB in 2022 and EJ Lightsey was a tremendous evaluation in the same class.
Those guys will see Jamon Dumas-Johnson and Smael Mondon Jr. as every down LBs in 2023. While Walker got on the field immediately as a freshman, that room requires patience.
Georgia also just signed another three guys that all ranked among the nation’s top six LBs in the 2023 class.
While rival schools might point to Georgia’s immense depth and use that as a minus, he likes that. He feels like he’s going to need a room like that to summon up his best football.
“Oh yeah,” Brown said. “I like that a lot. That’s what you need.”
We thought that was the best thing Georgia had going in its best chance to sign Brown. Well, until we spoke to him again this week.
He said two things that would indicate the ‘Dawgs still have a very good shot here. The first was in reference to what the vibe is now like with Schumman.
“The best thing about coach Schumann is almost every time we go we will sit down and we will talk about something that I can do better in my game,” Brown said. “We will sit down and watch film. He’s recruiting me but at the same time, he’s almost coaching me already. Just helping me get better.”
“The most recent time was just in my zone coverages. Covering the whole zone and flashing my eyes back and forth. The best thing about coach Schumann is he’s recruiting me but at the same time he’s coaching me.”
Brown has built that relationship over at least a dozen visits by now.
“I definitely see something new every time I go,” Brown said. “Some people say that you have visited with Georgia too much. It is not like I’m seeing the same thing every time. I’m seeing something new every single time I go.”
How Georgia continues to stand out for Sammy Brown
If Brown could only pick one thing, he still knows what he is looking for in the right school.
“One of the biggest things that can cover everything is the overall culture of the school,” he said. “That can cover the way they practice. The way they are in the meeting room. Like the school itself. The stadium. I think the overall culture of the school can and does play the biggest factor. That’s what you are going to be around every day. The people on the campus. The people in the position room with you every day.”
“The culture is the most important part. That is going to drive and influence you every single day.”
It makes sense to stop and think about all the things this young man has not just a handle on, but a wrestling champion’s choke-hold on in his life.
Grades. Football. Wrestling. Social life. Track. Just being a high school kid. The hair.
He is 99th percentile in just about everything. An achiever’s overachiever. And he can’t help but notice all the areas in which the ‘Dawgs are beasting right now.
Academics. National championships. NFL Development. Recruiting trail. Just plain getting after it in everything.
Those things are as big of a pull to him as signing with a school that is only about 30 minutes from his favorite fishing holes and hunting grounds back home.
This is a young man that hawks down excellence in everything he does. He’d naturally be attracted to a program committed to that at the next level.
“It is just the competitiveness that I can go in and have,” Brown said. “Another thing is just the way and the style that they practice with. It is just physical and hard-nosed and we are going to line up and hit you in the mouth. It is something we try to copy in high school. I think that’s something that I try to copy in the way I play.”
Is there another team out there that practices the way Georgia does?
“I don’t think so,” Brown said. “I think the way that Georgia practices is better than anybody in the country. They get after it more than anybody. I think that they compete more than anybody. In the last couple of times that I have gone and watched practice, there has been at least one fight between an offensive lineman and a defensive lineman. They get after it.”
He’s seen what Georgia has done in the NFL Draft. Dumas-Johnson and Mondon look like Day 1 or Day 2 picks in 2024. Nakobe Dean, Channing Tindall and Quay Walker were drafted in the 2022 NFL Draft in the third, third and first rounds, respectively.
Monty Rice was drafted in the third round in 2021. Roquan Smith was a first-rounder pick in 2018. Smith now commands a $20 million annual salary as part of the richest deal for a pure LB in NFL history. Tae Crowder was the last pick of the 2020 draft, but he’s started 31 of his 41 games in the NFL.
“That speaks volumes on the coaches and how they are able to bring in these very talented players,” Brown said. “Then develop them into talented and disciplined players that are able to get drafted like that. I think it does play a role with the development a school or program can do.”
Clemson, a school with a great reputation, can’t even match that. The Tigers have seen a first-rounder, two third-round picks and a seventh-round selection drafted over that same span.
He’s said he’s at the point where he’d feel free to ask Schumann how much longer he will be at Georgia. Not just that, but also where he’d be on the depth chart if he were in Athens right now.
“Not just to see if I would go there or not,” Brown said. “But just to see where I would rank with the other linebackers in the room. To see how I can compete.”
The typical Sammy Brown day
Sammy Brown has a lot of good days. Busy days. He’s currently juggling track practice in the afternoon and football spring practice in the morning.
Not to mention the school day. Good days are when the Dragons lift heavy.
He’ll wake up at 5:15 a.m. and be out the door by 5:30 a.m. Football practice starts at 6 a.m. every morning.
Jefferson will practice until 7:50 a.m. right before school. Then he’ll have weight training for his first period.
“Tomorrow we’ve got cleans actually,” he said earlier this week. “So it will be a good day.”
He has an adapted physical education class in the second period. That’s where he works with the special education students at the elementary school.
“I tell you what that class is super fun,” Brown said. “It is like playing with little kids every day. It is awesome.”
He has pre-Calculus in the third period. Physics comes after that.
“Physics is pretty easy,” he said.
He has track practice after school. After that, he will come home and eat dinner. There are several cooks in his family. His Dad usually makes a tasty breakfast burrito. For lunch, he has the school food in the cafeteria.
There’s no crazy plant-based diet or protein-shake-heavy meal plan here.
“Dinner is whatever my Mom cooks,” Brown said. “Today we had Taco Tuesday. I had a chicken, cheese and rice quesadilla and I tell you what it was really good.”
Brown will study a little bit and watch some practice film.
If he didn’t have to wake up so early for spring football practice, then he’d likely be throwing a line in the water every afternoon.
The super soldier serum here is actually clean living, breakfast burritos and Taco Tuesdays.
An All-Around Athlete: A layered scouting report on Sammy Brown
Brown is a game wrecker on both sides of the ball in high school. It just would have been overkill to mention that among the glowing bullet points up top.
His junior year stats:
- Offense: 181 carries, 1459 yards, 21 TDs 12 receptions, 246 yards, 3 TDs
- Defense: 113 tackles, 5 TFL, 4 PBU, 1 SK, Int
Check out the film:
These recruiters probably can’t help but see all that athletic ability and wonder about playing him everywhere.
He will be a special teams ninja early in college no matter where he goes. But now imagine him on a jet sweep. Or near the goal line at fullback?
Maybe just line him up at a tight end and send him downfield to a spot. He could very well have latent H-back or fullback or tight end skills in his game.
Brown said that 99 percent of the coaches at those five schools talk to him just about linebacker. But there’s an occasional joke about letting him get some run with the offense in a goal-line package.
Is his best spot at LB? That’s probably it. He doesn’t have that elite bend coming off the edge that the 5-stars that UGA has signed recently have. He wouldn’t be an EDGE.
Is he Nakobe Dean in pass coverage? No, not yet. Very few drafted linebackers are.
He’s continually getting better and turning and running downfield in pass coverage. That’s what a modern college ILB does. I can’t help but think what Brown might be in the Tindall role in Athens. See ball. Get ball. Close down space like a coach’s fast-forward button got stuck in the film room.
Those are all delicious possibilities for a prospect with all these NFL traits and an uncommon work ethic.
Brown said he wasn’t sure yet if he will graduate early.
“I haven’t made a decision yet if I am being totally honest,” Brown said. “My parents are kind of split on it and I am, too. I probably will decide later on.”
SENTELL’S INTEL
(check on the recent reads on DawgNation.com)
- KJ Bolden: 5-star priority 2024 target says UGA will “definitely” get an official visit
- Next Generation: The Lawson Luckie family story will make one want to be a No. 7 jersey
- Ryan Puglisi: Longtime 4-star QB doubles down on his pledge to play for UGA
- Eddrick Houston: 5-star in-state priority DL target has set his commitment date
- Dylan Raiola: How Georgia football continues to ‘deliver’ in the recruiting of the nation’s No. 1 prospect
