Trace Brown excited about opportunity to play at Penn State
Trace Brown was part of the “White Out’ throng at Beaver Stadium in 2016 when Penn State upset Ohio State, 24-21. That’s all the recruiting the Nittany Lions needed to do to nab him.
“(I knew right then) that’s who I wanted to play for,” said Brown, who grew up a Nittany Lions fan and often attended games with his family.
The Berks Catholic senior realized a dream earlier this week when he accepted a preferred walk-on offer from Penn State. He’ll join his cousin Kaleb Brown, a Wilson grad who played in four games for the Nittany Lions this season as a true freshman.
“Going to Penn State, I have the chance to play at the highest level I can,” Trace Brown said. “It’s really cool having the opportunity to play on one of the biggest stages in college football.”
Brown appeared on Penn State’s radar screen a couple years ago.
Early in his sophomore season at Reading High he sent a highlight tape that included a one-handed interception against McCaskey; that obviously caught someone’s attention. A few weeks later he was invited for a game-day visit.
Brown was busy throughout the offseason working on his skills and trying to gain notice. He attended camps at Temple, Cincinnati, Villanova and Penn State, competed in a 7-on-7 national tournament in Florida and at a showcase in Virginia.
Penn State took notice and invited him to three games this fall. It offered him the chance to walk on about a month ago. It’s the only firm offer Brown has received.
As a preferred walk-on he’ll have a roster spot and can earn a scholarship through performance, as Gov. Mifflin grad Jan Johnson did several years ago.
Brown came up as a defensive back and feels that’s his natural position. He saw a lot of time at outside linebacker as a senior. He liked the spot, though at 6-1, 165 pounds felt he was a bit undersized there.
“It was fun playing linebacker,” he said. “I like hitting.”
Brown ended up with 77 tackles, second-most on the team, including seven tackles for loss. He showed the speed and athletic ability to perform in the secondary and the strength and aggressiveness to defend the running game as a linebacker. His highlight tape includes plays against Gov. Mifflin’s Nick Singleton, who will now be a teammate.
Brown helped the Saints win seven games, including a District 3 Class 4A quarterfinal over Cocalico.
During games he would move from linebacker to defensive back when the Saints went to a two-deep look, with two safeties. He excelled at both spot.
“You can do more things defensively (with your team) when you have a kid that, that no matter where you put him, he has the talent to be really good at that spot,” said Berks Catholic coach Rick Keeley. “He can play multiple spots and be good at all of them.”
He also returned punts and kickoffs.
Brown transferred to Berks Catholic before his junior season when Reading High decided to go to all-virtual learning and when it suspended its 2020 football season. He had hopes of playing college football and couldn’t fathom a fall without football.
“It was hard,” he said of the decision. “I’m still really good friends with all those guys (I grew up playing with).”
Brown earned second-team honors at linebacker in Section 1 of the Berks Football League as a senior and All-State recognition on the Pafootballnews.com Class 4A team. He feels colleges didn’t see his true abilities as a defensive back because most of the video they watched was of him playing linebacker.
“I (would be) undersized for that position (in college),” he said.
He is excited to be reunited with Kaleb. The two were close growing up and often trained together; they they were only teammates for one season, in an arena league.
“It’s really cool to play with Kaleb, finally,” he said. “With Kaleb being there, I know I have someone to lean on. He knows the ins and outs by now.
“He’s told me everything about Penn State football. It’s a lot of work, but it all pays off at the end. Penn State has so many opportunities (available) that you wouldn’t get a lot of other places.”