Svoboda dug this one up. Make sure you read the last line.
Posted on Mon, Aug. 13, 2007 10:15 PM
Wichita linebacker drawing national attention
By TEREZ A. PAYLOR
The Kansas City Star
WICHITA | It’s the first day of high school football practice in Kansas, and at Wichita East, a player recently dubbed the best high school football prospect in the nation is just trying to work his way through the heat.
Yes, all eyes are on Arthur Brown, a senior linebacker who is being called the best player to come out of Wichita since Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders.
Two cameramen from local television stations come by to check out East’s first practice under new coach Brian Byers. They don’t talk to Brown, but they all make sure they get footage of him doing drills.
This is really just the beginning, and Brown knows it. But the thing is, he never expected any of this. He never thought he would become college football’s top recruiting prize.
But that’s what happened this summer when Scout.com, a respected national recruiting Web site, anointed Brown as the nation’s top prospect in the Class of 2008.
So yes, this is an important year for Brown. And Brown, a quiet, reserved kid, says the onslaught of attention he’s received has been overwhelming. He’s already done interviews with The New York Times and USA Today. Plus, he’s been in Sports Illustrated.
“I’m more of a laid-back kind of person,” says Brown, whose uncle, Lawrence Pete, played in the NFL for five years. “I have a lot to say, a lot for people to hear, but I don’t speak up most of the time. I don’t want to say I’m shy, but I guess I am a little bit.”
However, it only takes one look at his highlight tape to understand why he’s getting so much attention. Brown’s unique combination of size and speed — he is 6 feet 1, weighs 210 pounds and runs a 40 in 4.5 seconds — jumps out on film. So does the way he uses it to terrorize quarterbacks and running backs.
And he’s not the only member of the Brown family receiving attention. Brown’s younger brother Bryce, a running back, already is considered one of the top juniors in the nation.
Bryce, who is 5-11 and 215 pounds, rushed for 2,039 yards and 26 touchdowns for East last season. Arthur had 158 tackles and eight sacks. Together, their stats look like something out of a Madden video game.
“Arthur and Bryce are the highest-ranked guys we’ve ever had in Kansas,” said Rivals.com recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree. “We’ve never had two five-star guys like this, let alone top-15 guys in the entire country.”
That’s why Rivals lists Arthur as a five-star prospect and the nation’s 16th-best player, and Crabtree says Bryce has a good chance to be the nation’s top prospect in the class of 2009.
That’s why Wichita East’s game against Dodge City (which has a top recruit of its own in quarterback Kale Pick, who is headed to Arkansas) on Sept. 7 will be shown on ESPNU.
That’s why, despite the fact Arthur stopped taking phone calls, staffers at recruiting Web sites called his home three or four times every day earlier this summer.
But Brown knows he hasn’t really seen anything yet. Starting Sept. 1, college coaches can call him at home once a week. Brown, who has more than 50 scholarship offers, already gets about 15 letters a day from several high-profile colleges. USC’s Pete Carroll, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops and Florida’s Urban Meyer have all come through Wichita to sell him on their football programs.
“Coach Meyer told me he’s selling me on championships and Tampa chicks,” Arthur said, laughing.
