As I closed the door to my vehicle and headed to the Brown University Football Practice Field I was surrounded by the sounds of pads crushing, whistles blowing, and the astounding voice of HC James Perry leading the Bears on that fine Thursday afternoon in New England.
HC James Perry is entering his 5th season with the Brown Bears and being a former Brown QB you can see and hear how cerebral Perry is during practice. Perry is joined by Assistant HC Willie Edwards, OC Ryan Mattison, and DC Tim Weaver. The Bears also have the only female positional coach in all of FBC/FCS with QB coach Heather Marini. Marini enters her 3rd season as QB coach for the Brown Bears and will be in charge of a very underrated QB room.
The QBs for the Brown Bears were locked and loaded during the 9th spring practice. The offense was led by Senior QB Jake Willcox who played in 7 games last season for the Bears, including 2 games with over 300 yds passing and a 3 TD game vs Harvard. Willcox was spreading the ball around the field hitting Sophomore WR Jackson Delaney and Junior WR Samuel Baddoo multiple times over the middle as well as down the sideline.
QB Will Jarvis seemed to be channeling his inner Anthony Richardson during this practice as he was able to escape the pass rush multiple times for positive yards. Midway through the practice Jarvis gave the defense a fake jump step and took off down the left sideline for a 1st down. QB Cortland Dicks also got plenty of action in the 9th spring practice. The left handed lace launcher hit RB Stockton Owen many times out in the flat and had a few positive runs when the pocket closed. Dicks is a former 3 sport athlete and his athleticism was showcased on the field.
The OL is led by Donovan Allen, Lucas Ferraro, Hayden Bozich, and Jack Connolly. Connolly was the obvious vocal leader and was creating lanes for the RBs. The Bears will be without RB Allen Smith as he tries to continue his football career in the NFL. But make no mistake about it, this RB room has juice and is ready to show it. Junior RB Stockton Owen had plenty of pop coming out of running lanes and was targeted many times by all 3 QBs aforementioned. Senior RB Ian Franzoni seemed like the bruiser of the group and he was ready to take on LBs head on for most of practice. Junior RB Jordan DeLucia wasn’t available for practice but Asst. HC Edwards told me not to sleep on DeLucia in 2023.
The WRs had a few guys working out on the sidelines recovering from injuries, from what I heard it was more precautionary than anything else. Jordan McIntyre, Chason Barber, and Solomon Miller weren’t in pads and were going through light drills and stretches. WR Samuel Baddoo was very active over the middle and got some targets deep down the sideline. WR Jackson Delaney who has a tight end build was targeted often in quick outs and short routes. The Brown Bears run a very high paced offense averaging around 85 to 95 plays per game. The offense runs a lot of the passing plays including quick in routes with the hopes of getting chunk plays and wearing down the opponents defense.
Speaking of defense, there were a few players on that side of the ball that stood out in a major way. Isaiah Reed is HIM for the Bears secondary. The 3rd year player just oozes leadership and confidence and it appears to roll off onto the rest of the team. You can hear Reed calling out plays and directing traffic all practice and the QBs know not to challenge him! Reed lets them know it was a bad choice if they try him!
On the front line of the defense, Senior DL Terrence Lane III and Senior DL Kevin Coss seemed to be the anchor on the line. Lane left practice early with an injury that didn’t seem to be anything serious but was seen stretching with the trainer. The LBs were led by Senior LB and Captain Junior Gafa who had 34 total tackles and 24 solo tackles for the Bears in ‘22. Sophomore LB John Perdue looks to take a step this season for the Bears as he was a 4 sport athlete for St. John’s HS in Houston Texas just 2 years ago.
Austin Alley and Christopher Maron are both Juniors and will lead the special teams FG kicking unit. Maron could play a huge role in tight games down the stretch for the Bears! 2023 could see the Brown Bears improve to 6wins in the Ivy league!
