Pitt FB Recruiting
4-Star DE/LB Naquan Brown Excited to End Recruiting, Join Pitt
The recruitment process for Naquan Brown is something that he’s been dealing with since his freshman year at Ocean Lakes High School.
The highly skilled pass rusher has received offers from some of the biggest programs in the country and originally planned to play for the LSU Tigers but had second thoughts and then gave a commitment to Pitt on Dec 4.
His decision to join Pitt will become official Wednesday when he signs his Letter of Intent and becomes a huge piece of Pitt’s Class of 2021. Brown becomes the fourth four-star defensive recruit in Pitt’s recruiting class, joining defensive tackle Elliot Donald, defensive end Nahki Johnson and cornerback Khalil Anderson.
Pittsburgh Sports Now caught up with Brown, on the eve of his big day, and he admitted to be happy to getting this part of his life over with.
“This has no doubt been a long journey and a long process for me,” said Brown. “I’m now just excited and am really ready to get to Pitt and make a name for myself in college and prove myself once again.”
Courtesy of Naquan Brown
After being committed to LSU since July, Brown made the decision to de-commit on Dec. 3 but quickly decided to join Pitt. In fact, it took him just one day to make the decision to join Pitt. Why did he made the decision so quickly instead of going through the process of getting recruited again by other schools?
“It was real easy to make my choice because Pitt really never stopped recruiting me, even after I committed to LSU,” Brown said. “They were always on my side and they proved that to me. I didn’t want to take any chances and knew that I already had a great relationship developed with Coach Beatty so the choice was easy. Coach Beatty is a great and very loving guy. He truly cares about all his players and the players that he recruits. It’s easy to tell and he really shows you how appreciated you are. He’s always showed me love and it can’t get any better than that.”
Brown (6-foot-3, 215 pounds) is someone that should fit in very well with his Pitt defense because of his skills of getting after the quarterback. The question now becomes will his future position be at defensive end or outside linebacker?
“The coaches are talking to me about playing some linebacker but then the d-line coach is talking about me playing with my hand on the ground,” said Brown. “Me personally, I feel I can and would be comfortable doing either, but I feel I’d be better as a standup rusher at linebacker but like I said, I’ll be comfortable and willing to do either.
“I feel like the defensive players in this class are really going to make a big impact and I feel like the Pitt defense, which is really good now, is going to stay good. I know they’re losing two great players in Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver but we’re going to be able to step in and make a big impact when we get there.”
