Texas lands pledge from 4-star Georgia RB Derrian Brown

One trip to the Forty Acres was all it took for Buford (Ga.) running back Derrian Brown to leave Austin as a Longhorn. On Sunday, after officially visiting Texas for the Longhorns 37-14 win over No. 22 USC, the four-star ball-carrier brought his recruitment to a close and committed to Texas, per a report from Rivals’ Chad Simmons.

“I just committed to Texas,” Brown told Simmons. “I had it planned to come in and commit. I just wanted to come and see the atmosphere.

”It was a great experience and I just committed to the coaches. I got to bond with the coaches, talk to the players about it here and it was all great.”

Dubbed as the No. 15 running back nationally, per the 247Sports Composite, Brown’s recruitment was relatively quiet considering his ranking. Despite a lengthy offer list that includes invitations from Florida, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, Michigan State, Auburn, Ohio State, Florida State, Penn State, and LSU, Brown’s only documented visits were a pair of trips to Virginia Tech, another to Alabama, and another to Tennessee. His weekend official tour to Texas was his marked Brown’s first official visit, and his only trip to the Forty Acres thus far.

Nevertheless, Brown named the Longhorns as his outright leader on August 15, long before his first trip to campus. Even prior to that point, Crystal Ball projections were pouring in picking Texas as his eventual landing spot, and on Sunday, those predictions proved true, with Brown now becoming the latest addition to the Longhorns 2019 class.

Burnt Orange Nation’s Wescott Eberts recently dissected what Brown brings to the table from a skill set standpoint:

As an athlete, Brown’s testing numbers are good — he ran a verified 4.62 40-yard dash, 4.28 shuttle, and posted a 35-inch vertical. Of all those numbers, the vertical leap is the best pure measure of athleticism because it doesn’t require the same refined techniques as sprinting and running a shuttle. And Brown’s vertical is the most impressive test result there.

At 5’10, 179 pounds, Brown has some upside with his long speed and shows a willingness to put his pads down and drive into and through defenders. However, he doesn’t have a naturally powerful build. Brown makes up for that by showing good body lean through the line of scrimmage and the aforementioned toughness to maximize his physical strength.

Brown hasn’t shown the ability to jump cut to make defenders miss, but he can slide through traffic at the line of scrimmage and shows the type of one-cut decisiveness that will help him excel in zone schemes at the college level.

As a junior, Brown shared carries with a pair of prized ball carriers in Anthony Grant and Christian Turner, which now suit up for Florida State and Michigan, respectively. Nevertheless, Brown still amassed 844 yards on 94 carries, and now as the feature back, he’s well on his way to surpassing those efforts. Through three games, Brown has totaled 486 yards and eight touchdowns on 68 attempts, and added another 75 yards and one score as a receiver.

At 5’10, 179 pounds, Brown is ranked as the nation’s No. 235 player and as the No. 26 player in Georgia.

With Brown on board, Tom Herman’s 2019 class is now up to 16 members. More notably, to account for early in-state struggles with Texas A&M and Oklahoma recruiting the Lone Star State tremendously well, the Longhorns have loaded up with elite out-of-state talent.

Brown now becomes the eighth out-of-state talent to commit to Texas this cycle, with pledges hailing from California, Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Florida.

• Tyler Johnson — 4-star OT
• Jordan Whittington — 4-star WR
• De’Gabriel Floyd — 4-star OLB (California)
• Jake Smith — 4-star WR (Arizona)
• Kenyatta Watson II — 4-star CB (Georgia)
• Demariyon Houston — 4-star WR (Oklahoma)
• Brayden Liebrock — 4-star TE (Arizona)
• Chris Adimora — 4-star S (California)
• Javonne Shepherd — 4-star OT
• Roschon Johnson — 4-star QB
• Derrian Brown — 4-star RB (Georgia)
• Marcus Tillman Jr. — 3-star OLB (Florida)
• Peter Mpagi — 3-star WDE
• Marques Caldwell — 3-star CB
• T’Vondre Sweat — 3-star SDE
• Jared Wiley — 3-star TE

Brown’s pledge pushes Texas’ 2019 class back into the top 10 nationally at No. 9 overall and No. 2 in the Big 12.

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