University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: What Brown Can Do For You
October 29, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
Oct. 29, 2011
You don't have to have seen Saturday's win over Wake Forest to know who the impact players were. One look at the stat sheet tells the story: Giovani Bernard ran for 154 yards and two touchdowns, and caught another. Bryn Renner threw for 338 yards and three scores. Erik Highsmith caught two of those touchdown passes. But scroll down to the defensive statistics, and you'll see one name stand out: Zach Brown.
Brown, the senior linebacker from Columbia, Maryland, recorded nine tackles, forced and recovered a fumble, hurried the quarterback and had an interception he returned for 22 yards. All in a day's work for Brown, whose outstanding performance last weekend at Clemson was overshadowed by the final score.
Zach Brown is one of the fastest players on the team. He was a state champion in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes in high school and ran track as a freshman at Carolina. His closing speed and his linebacker size give him loads of potential that he hasn't always realized. Playing behind Quan Sturdivant for three years, Brown made his mark on special teams early in his career. He showed flashes on defense. As a junior, he started five games and finished second on the team in tackles.
This, his senior season, was supposed to be the year that Zach Brown broke through. It hasn't gone as smooth as he might have liked. A few weeks into the season, he was relegated to scout defense. Brown played only on special teams at Georgia Tech. Whether or not that ultimately impacted the final score - the Tar Heels lost by a touchdown - that game made Brown then realized his value to the team. "I watched the film and I was sitting here thinking, `I could have made this play. I could have helped out,'" he said. "So I was like `Whoa, I can help out by just doing everything right, now.'"
"He came in here with a lot of talent and athletic ability, but that doesn't get you everything you need to be a really good football player," Everett Withers said of Brown. "I think he's grown up, as far as being a student of the game, studying the game, being a leader on defense, and all those things show up because with his talent and athletic ability if he can align, be good on assignments, those type things, he can make a lot of plays."
And make plays he has. Through nine games, Brown has 17 more total tackles than any of his teammates, and is tied with two other Tar Heels with two interceptions on the season. Saturday, he was everywhere. On the fifth play from scrimmage, Brown fought pass Demon Deacon left guard Joe Looney to get to quarterback Tanner Price. He chopped the ball loose and pounced on it. With slow starts plaguing the Tar Heels lately, it was a huge play to start the afternoon. "Me and Kevin (Reddick) talked about it," Brown said. "We've got to make a play, first drive, so we can set the tone for the defense and the team."
The Tar Heel offense took over at the Wake Forest 34, and Bernard was in the end zone moments later. Carolina had struggled with turnovers of late, and Withers asked the defense to do their part in helping the offense. They came up with five on Saturday. "We took it as an insult that we're not getting enough turnovers, so we got our turnovers today, and we've just got to keep it going."
Brown had a hand in two of them, adding a 22-yard interception return in the fourth quarter. On the series prior, he nearly had another, but teammate Tydreke Powell hauled in a ball that he and Brown both tipped. Brown described the action like so: "I blitzed, and I got caught up with that center," Brown said. "I came out of it and I saw the ball in the air, and I tried to jump up with one hand and catch it. And then, Lord, here comes Tydreke Powell out over the top of me. I thought it was Wake Forest for a second, because all I'd seen was some white gloves. `Aw, that's Wake Forest.' He kind of shoved me. I was like, why didn't you run it back? He was like, `Man, I'm just happy I caught it.' An interception's an interception to me."
Even when he wasn't making a tackle, picking off a pass or forcing a fumble, Brown was eating up a blocker or pressuring the quarterback to help his teammates make a play. All afternoon, number 47 was running sideline to sideline, making an impact. His time off the field early this season helped him realize the value of his time off of it. "And so since then, I practice hard, and when game time comes, I'm going to do the same thing: Ball out," he said. "I'm going to give them my all, because I know they're counting on me to make a play."
Brown said the 49-24 victory wasn't a perfect Tar Heel performance, but the team is getting there. "I think it's coming up, but we don't know which game," he said. "We're just waiting to see which game."
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly. Other titles considered for this story: `Meet the Browns' (Charles Brown had an interception and five tackles on Saturday) and `Zach Attack,' after the band on TV's Saved By the Bell. Turner's weekly Tar Heel football podcast, The Walkthrough, is available on iTunes.
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