BOULDER — Tyler Brown has the perfect analogy for his 2023 season on the sidelines.
“It’s like you being trapped, just watching your brother get beat up and you can’t do anything about it,” Brown told The Denver Gazette.
An all-conference player in 2022, Brown was one of the several players who came to Colorado from Jackson State with Deion Sanders ahead of the 2023 season. Brown left not just a school he cared about, but also his hometown — Jackson, Miss. — to come all the way to Boulder for his final college football season.
Then it was all taken away from him.
As a result of his second transfer in as many years, Brown, who originally began his career at Louisiana Lafayette, was forced to apply for an eligibility waiver from the NCAA waiver and sent in a video detailing his struggles with anxiety and depression that began in his childhood.
Like many others around the country, Brown was ruled ineligible. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he wouldn’t be playing football in the fall.
“I wasn’t injured, it was just circumstance and rules and regulations,” Brown said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t meet the requirements.”
Everyone within the Buffaloes program rallied around him.
“That hurt tremendously,” Coach Prime said. “You say you really care about mental health, but when you have someone really dealing with mental health, there’s a problem. That’s trying for a young man. He’s not the only one. There’s a plethora of people around the country.”
Brown decided to speak out. He posted the video he sent to the NCAA to his YouTube page and it’s received nearly 100,000 views since.
“I just knew being at Colorado, all eyes are on us,” Brown said. “I wanted to call the NCAA out on their crap, in my opinion, because now you can transfer as many times as you want. Hopefully, I made a difference and hopefully my story — if I just helped one person, that means I was successful, I feel like.”
He also sought to dispel the notion his mental health issues are disingenuous, something he was using solely to earn an eligibility waiver.
“I didn’t want my anxiety and depression to be stereotyped,” Brown said. “It’s something I’ve struggled with since I was a kid. I’m a very successful man. I’m a functioning, great adult. I didn’t want that to define me and the way (the NCAA) worded their letter to me, I knew I wanted to tell my story.”
In doing so, Brown may have found his calling in life as an advocate for mental health issues in sports.
“I really genuinely do find a passion for helping people and making a difference,” Brown said. “Mental health is something that’s so important to me. Yeah, the stigma isn’t as bad as it (once) was, but there’s still a stigma there. We’re all human beings and we all go through so much. Just as comfortable as we are going to a doctor about a broken bone, we should be just as comfortable going to a therapist and saying, ‘Hey, I’m going through a hard time.’ If me, doing this as this big offensive lineman, helps, then that means the world to me.”
While Brown was eligible to practice and he spent each week going against the first-team defense as a member of the scout team, it pained him to watch his quarterback, Shedeur Sanders, take hit after hit, week after week, knowing he wasn’t able to do anything about it.
This fall, though, he’s out of the proverbial cage and ready to stick up for his quarterback.
Brown appears set to start at right tackle — a position he’s never played before this season — and is eager to be a key piece in the group that hopes to change the narrative for the CU offense this season.
“I can’t wait to go out there and just show dominant offensive line play and not just me, but the entire offensive line,” Brown said. “We’re gonna be dominant. We’re gonna establish the run and we’re gonna protect our Heisman (candidate) quarterback. I just can’t wait to show people that this guy isn’t just all talk. There’s a reason why he was missed last year.”
In 18 months, Boulder has already become home to the kid from Jackson. Any concerns he had about adapting to the community were washed away when he felt the “overwhelming” support from the fan base last season.
“Just the fact that the beautiful, amazing Colorado Buffalo fan base rallied behind me like they did and had my back through thick and thin when I couldn’t even go out there and do anything for them, it just made me want to work harder,” Brown said. “It made me love this school more, it made me love these people more, it made it to where this place feels more like my home away from home. I’m from Jackson, Miss., but being out here, I don’t get homesick because this is home and these people have made it my home. I can’t wait to go out there and make them proud.”
Whether he knows it or not, he already has.
“He’s a kid that is dear to me, like a darn son to me,” Coach Prime said. “Tyler Brown is a wonderful kid.”
King’s Colorado team awards predictions
Offensive MVP: QB Shedeur Sanders
With plenty of talented receivers and a new-look offensive line that figures to be much improved from last season’s debacle, there isn’t much stopping Sanders from looking like one of the best quarterbacks in the country on a week-to-week basis. He should be in the Heisman Trophy conversation. In his final year in college, Sanders is out to prove his worth as a top NFL draft pick in 2025.
Defensive MVP: DE B.J. Green
Still the most underrated addition of the offseason, Green came to CU after racking up 13.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss across three seasons at Arizona State. Like the offensive line, the defensive line has also been massively upgraded as well, and Green is the headliner of a group that figures to be more disruptive in opposing backfields. With plenty of talented players also attracting attention from opposing offensive lines, Green could find himself with a double-digit sack season for the Buffs.
Breakout star: CB DJ McKinney
Coach Prime often mentions his connections in NFL circles and knows which players on his team are being targeted by the next level. Oklahoma State transfer DJ McKinney is one of several the CU coach feels is going to be a pro. He’s given the Buffs defense something it didn’t have last season: a lock-down cornerback opposite Travis Hunter. While opposing offenses will often refrain from throwing toward Hunter, McKinney could see plenty of chances to showcase his coverage skills and might come up with one or two game-changing interceptions this year.
Local Boulder, CO
Most Popular
Comments / 0