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RECRUITING ON THE SOUTH PLAINS
Measurables
BAYLEN BROWNPosition: OG Ht: 6'4" | Wt: 295 lbs | Forty: N/A High School: O'Connor (Helotes, TX) DTN Profile Video: Clip 1 |Clip 2 Rivals  5.7 | Scout ESPN N/R | 24/7 Sports 88 Cumulative Ranking: INC Offers
Baylor, Houston, Mississippi St., Oklahoma St., Purdue, Texas Tech, Tulsa |
I was actually just starting to cultivate the handful of offers out there for offensive linemen and now Texas Tech has it's third commitment in less than a week and it is Texas Tech's first offensive line commit in Baylen Brown for the 2013 class.
This is good news and the other interesting thing to note is that offensive line coach Chris Thomsen is the coach associated with this commitment and this is his first commitment on the job. Congrats to Thomsen for what appears to be an excellent commitment.
I also had to look up to see where the town Helotes is and it is apparently north west of San Antonio. I really had no idea.
Brown is the #67 best player in the state of Texas according to LSR top 100 and have him ranked as the #7 guard in the state and Rivals ranks him as the #16 offensive lineman in the nation.
Brown's offer list is actually pretty nice, has offers from the SEC to the Big Ten, but not huge programs. I would imagine that this would have changed at some point during the season as it is still really early in the process. I also believe that Brown's grandfather played for Baylor, many moons ago, and Williams article after the jump states that Baylor pulled Brown's offer recently, which is interesting.
Stats
Who has stats for an offensive lineman? Well, DTN does and although I really don't want to link to where I found the information (it is really easy to find) because it has Brown's personal email address and phone numbers. I'd rather not link to that, but I will quote the information. Here is what Brown did his junior year:
Baylen recorded 95 pancakes and 33 cut blocks, en route to his 2nd year of varsity honors as only a junior. En route to his state, district and team awards in his sophomore season, Baylen put up some senior like numbers, averaging a whopping 10 pancakes and 5 chops a game and, perhaps most impressive, the Panthers directed nearly 70% of all their rushing plays behind their young offensive tackle.
I'll take it. More after the jump.
The Player Speaks
LAJ's Don Williams spoke with Brown who said that Texas Tech is where he wants to be:
"It wasn’t too hard of a choice," said Brown, whose paternal grandfather attended Tech and whose father grew up in Lubbock. "I had a lot of offers, but Tech is where I wanted to be. Playing in the Big 12 has been a dream since I was a little kid."
Snip.
"I really like the city," he said. "It fits who I am. The biggest thing for me was the coaches. They’re real good guys. They were nice to me, they told me how it was, and they weren’t going to lie to me."
Williams notes about Brown's family, who has an impressive history of playing offensive line in college and professionally. Brown also notes that he's a better drive blocker and needs to work on his pass blocking and that's probably accurate.
Scouting Report
I really like Brown's strength and he seems to have pretty nice mobility for a guard and looks adept pulling and creating space. His opponents look to be on the smaller side, but that's not his fault. Although it is a highlight film, he is physically more dominant than any of his opponents and as Brown mentioned in the Williams article, he is gifted at run blocking and with so many spread teams, this is a bit of a lost art. I think that Brown could potentially play tackle, but it seems like he is a natural fit to play guard and if his measurables are somewhat accurate, I think he could contribute early if necessary. This would be an emergency situation, but I think the run blocking is the toughest part about being a lineman, aside from learning all of the different calls. I'm just including his junior film, but both his junior and sophomore films are linked above:
SB Nation's Wescott Eberts had this to say about Brown as well (if you like recruiting, then you should really follow the SB Nation recruiting):
At 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, Brown has the size to be considered a tackle prospect, but does not quite have the agility or arm length to play outside in college. However, he is a solid athlete for his position and appears to be at his best pulling into the hole, where he uses the agility he does possess to get a hat on second-level defenders and show a good punch through his hips into his hands -- he can knock defenders off their feet using just his hands. But Brown can also turn and bury defenders in the zone running game and shows the persistence to keep his feet moving on contact.