 "Photo: Caleb Miller/The Daily Texan")
Curtis Brown may want to save his teammates the trouble next time.
As the junior cornerback returned an interception 77 yards for the score against Oklahoma State last week, virtually the entire Texas defense escorted him to he end zone. Defensive end Sergio Kindle put the finishing touch on the return by blocking OSU quarterback Zac Robinson — not that he had to.
“He wasn’t going to tackle him. That’s how fast Curtis is,” Kindle said. “I was just making sure. Since we didn’t have our gigantic big screen, I couldn’t see where he was at. Nobody’s going to outrun Curtis. The guy can run like a cheetah.”
Teammates don’t call him “The Cat” for nothing. To save some energy, it might serve Kindle best to ease off on blocking after Brown breaks another interception return.
And all signs point to that becoming a common occurrence. Brown has gone from being a role player in a loaded Texas secondary to being one of the impact corners in the Big 12.
His pick against the Cowboys — the first of his career — all but signaled his arrival.
It’s even more special when you consider what the 21-year-old has already overcome in his life.
“I feel so spoiled when I talk to Curtis and see what he’s overcome to be where he is today. He’s got so much more confidence [now],” said Texas coach Mack Brown. “He’s smiling. He feels good about himself. He’s one of the great stories that college sports can help a kid.”
Curtis Brown’s tough journey started just after he was born. Through circumstances that he doesn’t like to discuss, he ended up in the care of his paternal grandmother, Oneta Taylor, at 6 weeks old. M’Dear, as Brown affectionately calls her, raised him the rest of the way.
Seeing his 77-year-old grandmother struggle while trying to raise him alone forced him to mature at a young age and contributed to the development of his personality. By the time he got to high school, he already knew what he needed to do.
“I had a pretty rough upbringing,” Brown said. “I stayed with grandma my whole life … and basically football and her are the main things in my life. My grandma and just trying to get out of the situation I was in [motivates me].”
Taylor stressed the importance of education from an early age, which meant having do his homework before he could play football. Luckily, he got his work done and quickly became a star player at Gilmer High School in East Texas.
After playing cornerback his sophomore season, Brown switched to wide receiver and became a five-star recruit and U.S. Army All-American. Texas, Oklahoma, UCLA and others recruited him, although Mack Brown wasn’t sure if he would be a good fit for the Longhorns.
“I said, ‘I’ll take you, but I’m not sure you should come because it’s hard. There’s a lot of pressure here,’” Mack Brown said. “It was just because he was so shy and I didn’t feel like he had a tremendous amount of confidence, and this is a place where you need to have some confidence or it will eat you up.”
Texas wanted him for his raw athletic skills, so much so that defensive backs coach Duane Akina wanted him to switch back to defense.
“He had unbelievable quickness— the things you can’t coach,” Akina said. “He’s as good an athlete as I’ve ever coached, but that doesn’t always mean great football player.”
Despite Mack Brown’s concerns about his personality, Curtis Brown enrolled at Texas a semester early in January of 2007 and quickly made the adjustment to cornerback and earned his nickname.
“He didn’t have the right stance,” Kindle said. “He had a humpbacked stance and wasn’t good at backpedaling, but what made his transition so easy is [because] he has cat-like reflexes.”
He played in every game as a true freshman on special teams and as a reserve defensive back. His first breakthrough came last year against, fittingly, Oklahoma State.
With starter Chykie Brown (no relation) sidelined with an injury, Curtis Brown made his first start and guarded All-American Dez Bryant well, holding him to 74 yards.
He hasn’t looked back since. This season he leads Texas in pass breakups (12), blocked a punt that was recovered for a score and had the aforementioned touchdown.
But make no mistake, he still doesn’t talk much. But when he does, it’s with confidence.
“Curtis never wants to talk,” said safety Earl Thomas, one of Brown’s closest friends. “He’s not a trash talker, but he’s kind of got a swagger about himself now. He’s just feeling confident, and you can see it Saturdays.”
He also has more incentive to make big plays now and improve his NFL stock. On Oct. 1, he became a father. His daughter Alayah, was born in Houston, where she now lives with her mother.
It’s just more motivation to improve.
“That’s the main thing in my life,” Brown said. “You’ve got to provide for your family eventually, and obviously football can do that job for you.”
Be the first to comment on this article!