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A 5’11” 210 lb. running back out of Meadville, Pennsylvania, No. 32 Journey Brown was a three-star prospect and a three-sport athlete, playing basketball, running track, and of course, smoking people on the football field as a 4-year letterman for the Meadville Bulldogs.
Brown helped get his Meadville team to the PIAA 5A state quarterfinals in 2016. That year, he rushed for 2,791 yards and 45 touchdowns and led the state in total touchdowns (51) and finished 16th in the state with 2,971 all-purpose yards as a senior.
Also impressive, in 2015, Brown set the Pennsylvania high school single-game rushing record with 722 yards and 10 touchdowns in a 107-90 win over my high school alma mater DuBois Beavers (but I won’t hold any ill will against him). Brown also broke the 90-year-old Pennsylvania single-game scoring record with 68 points against DuBois. That kind of high school football shellacking stings a little less knowing that Penn State has a new secret weapon in their running back unit.
Not only was Brown a high school football star and basketball player, he won the 2016 PIAA Class AAA State Championship in the 100 meter, breaking the record set in 1985 set by U.S. Olympian Leroy Burrell, and held the fastest time in PA and 10th fastest in the country with a 6.87 in the 60-meter dash for 2016-2017.
To say that Journey Brown is fast is an understatement. He could well be the fastest kid on the Penn State team this year.
What Nittany Lions fans should expect for 2018 is to see a lot of Miles Sanders as the starting running back, and plenty of play time by seniors Mark Allen and Johnathan Thomas behind Sanders. But even as a redshirt freshman, Journey Brown has too much talent, speed and agility to sit idly by, and should be a part of the running back rotation this season.
Just 32 more days to wait and see.
In the meantime, read up on the BSD 2018 season running back preview and get excited!