Golden Bear Preview: Jackson Brown
Big Bay Area Beef
As we wind down towards the end of the freshman signees, we turn the focus back towards the meat of the California Golden bears; the offensive line. Today’s preview gets at Jackson Brown, a local product who has helped stemmed the tide for Bay Area recruiting and finishing the job against other power five teams who came full steam ahead at the last minute.
The Bio and measureables:
6 ft 6 inches
295 LBS
San Ramon Valley High School (Danville, CA)
What is Cal getting in Brown?
I can see why teams like Kentucky, Missouri, and Minnesota want Brown’s services at the next level. Brown has the ability to get out in open space with his huge frame and absolutely smother defenders at the primary and secondary level. Look here as he goes against De La Salle, he simply is too much for their defensive end at 1:43 to handle. Brown does a great job finishing his blocks without committing penalties, usually because his blocks end with defenders on the turf hoping that the play is over with. Brown also does a good job of setting the edge at 2:28 off the halfback stretch, elevating towards the perimeter in a timely fashion just for his back to cut back and upfield.  Imagine someone like Damien Moore or Chris Street or even Jaydn Ott using these vital cutback lanes to put their foot in the ground and take off. Considering this is a great characteristic for our running backs, this is a nice complimentary piece in terms of fit and style with Brown. Having an Ott and Brown combination sounds really nice this time of year.
Is there anything Brown can improve on?
If there is one reservation I have about Brown, it is the ability to not rely solely on power along with the idea of offensive scheme fit. SRV ran a zone read style offense, where is blocking scheme was wholly different in assignment compared to the Musgrave pro style offense. Blocking for a longer time takes its toll for those who aren’t ready, but I see a lot of Patrick Mekari in what Jackson Brown brings to the table. A steady presence, one who stems the tide in cases where the rest of the offensive line may be struggling.
More of Brown’s tape can be found on Hudl.
Best of luck to Jackson as he starts his Cal career!
It takes three things to be a great O-Lineman: 1. must be big and long - - 6'6" with a good reach is a big plus, he needs to get his weight to a solid 315#, athleticism = quickness, mobility, flexibility is all important, nasty - there are a lot of big tough guys, but very few big nasty guys. Nasty is real simple: you beat the guy across from you relentlessly until he submits, you put him in the dirt every chance you get, you run him off the field every chance you get, you out work him every play, it's a unique take no prisoners attitude of pure dominance. If you have all these then you have the makings of a good o-lineman. Then you need to take a couple of years (at least) with hundreds of reps to perfect technique, and you need a couple of years on the weights to bulk up with good weight and get rid of the bad weight (an stellar example of this on the D-Line is Brett Johnson). If you are 6'6" and can squat a car and bench 400+ pounds, then you are probably going to be at the top of the heap of college o-linemen. If you have the frame, athletic ability and nasty, then the rest is all about hard work. That's why there are only two reasons why a freshman o-lineman plays and they go hand in hand. One is you are fortunate enough to get a freak athlete and two is your existing talent pool is not good and you have no depth. Freshman do end up starting at O-line, but I would bet everyone of them will tell you that they were much better as a player in their 3rd year (like any freshman starter). The thing that takes time with o-linemen is transforming youthful blubber into muscle. I'd like to see Jackson kill it in the weight room (along with all of our o-linemen) for the next two years.
Sounds like a starter in year 2 or 3. Go Bears!