Only Cam Brown Until Penn State Football

A four-star recruit out of Maryland, Cam Brown joined Penn State in the class of 2016. While James Franklin and Co. would have loved to keep a red shirt on Brown for his freshman year, the improbable amount of injuries to the linebacking corps forced him onto the field. All told, Cam played in 12 games with two starts, and logged 33 tackles, 1.5 TFL, and 0.5 sacks. He also came up huge in the upset of Ohio State, blocking a punt in the fourth quarter.

Oh, and for those of you who love linebackers returning punts - Cam even chipped in a punt return, though it resulted in a fair catch. For his efforts, Brown was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team by both ESPN.com and BTN.com.

2017 should be an improvement over an already solid freshman campaign for Brown. With the emergence of Koa Farmer in the spring, the starting linebackers should be Jason Cabinda in the middle, with Manny Bowen and Koa on the outsides. That will take some of the burden off the sophomore, as he rotates in as a primary backup, along with Jake Cooper and Brandon Smith. In fact, we here at Black Shoe Diaries believe that Cam is a breakout candidate for 2017.

Only 31 days left!