Lenox’s Brown inks with UNI

LENOX — Lenox senior Spencer Brown is headed to the “big time.”

The 6-9, 235-pound Brown signed his National Letter of Intent to continue his football career at the University of Northern Iowa here Thursday.

“This is the only player we’ve had that’s went big time,” said Allen Dukes, who is retiring as Lenox head football coach after 21 years at the helm. “We’ve had one kid that went to Macon, Missouri and played and we had a couple of kids go out to Nebraska and play like at Wayne State and Peru. But as far as in state, UNI, this is huge for our program.”

Brown, the son of Kurt Brown and Liz Jessen, has excelled in several sports at Lenox and garnered interest for both football and basketball.

Brown saw interest early on from both the Iowa and Iowa State football programs, but did not receive a scholarship offer from either. UNI, North Dakota State, Iowa Western Community College, Northwest Missouri State University and South Dakota all either offered scholarships or showed legitimate interest in Brown.

He also received interest from several small colleges for basketball, such as Briar Cliff, Buena Vista and Wartburg.

“Football was always what I wanted to do,” Brown said. “Every sport is fun. You have to enjoy it to do it, but football, I don’t know what it is about it. The violence, I guess.”

Tight end

Brown was a dominant two-way force at the eight-man level in high school, making big blocks in the run game and catching passes from his end position on offense, while also making life difficult for opposing quarterbacks as a nearly unstoppable pass-rushing defensive end.

During his senior campaign, when the Tigers won a district championship and finished the year 10-1, Brown caught 24 passes for 388 yards and seven touchdowns.

UNI recruited Brown as a tight end, as the Panthers have a surplus of defensive ends on the roster and in this recruiting class.

Dukes said Brown’s size will be his biggest asset early on, but noted he possesses all the skills needed as a pass catching tight end.

“A lot of people think he’s slow. He doesn’t look like he’s running very fast, but with those long strides he covers a lot of ground in a hurry,” Dukes said. “He’s got really nice hands, so if they put him at tight end, he can catch anything that comes to him. One thing he’s got to do is he has to finish his routes. After that, when he catches the ball, he knows what to do with it.”

Even though he’s recruited to the Panther program as a tight end, Brown said he’ll play wherever head coach Mark Farley and the rest of the coaching staff puts him.

“Defense is fun, offense is fun,” he said. “I’ll just do whatever they want me to. If they flip me or I can put on 70 pounds and get up to 300 and play tackle for them, I’d do that for them. It doesn’t really matter to me.”

Versatile athlete

Brown just wants to see the field.

After leading the state, all classes, this past fall in sacks with 17, Brown proved he could play defensive end at the next level.

He ended his career as Lenox’s all-time career leader in sacks with 37, with 29 of those sacks coming in his junior and senior years.

“He’s very coachable. He’s going to go up there and I know coach Farley and that staff will get him in the right position. They’ll get him where they need him, whether it’s at tight end or defensive line,” Dukes said.

“If he’s on the defensive side, just turn him loose, let him do his natural stuff. He can rush the passer. He’s grown into the position. I think he’s doing a hell of a job.”

Dukes said Brown’s time on the shelf this past summer after undergoing two knee surgeries was a turning point.

“Before this, I don’t think he realized how much potential he really had,” Dukes said. “Then last summer, when had his knees taken care of and he couldn’t do anything, he finally realized, ‘Hey, I can get in the weight room and make a difference.’ He’s really done that.”

Brown is undecided at this point what he wants to study at UNI, but knew it was the right fit for him.

“The size — it felt like a good fit for me,” he said. “Playing in the Dome is going to be sweet. The overall team, it just felt like everybody was great friends, a brotherhood. They welcomed me in and treated me like I was a teammate already.”