Brown grows into role

CEDAR FALLS — Bigger and better.

That’s how University of Northern Iowa offensive line coach Ryan Clanton describes Spencer Brown of Lenox, who returns as the Panthers’ starting right tackle this season. In fact, the redshirt junior who arrived on campus in 2016 as a 220-pound tight end could become one of the elite linemen in the Missouri Valley Football Conference before he’s through, Clanton predicts.

“Spencer is probably about 315 pounds now, but he doesn’t look it,” Clanton said of the 6-foot-9 former Tiger four-sport athlete. “A year ago he was still learning some basics. It’s like driving your daily car and then driving a race car on the track. I want him to be elite on the race track. Now he’s getting into more advanced footwork, advanced hand placement. Now he’s got four to five different techniques that he can use at any time that he needs it.”

At Wednesday’s media day main address to the assembled writers and broadcasters, head coach Mark Farley singled out co-captain Jackson Scott-Brown, a senior guard, and Spencer Brown as two returning leaders in the offensive line.

“Jackson and Spencer, those two are very close friends and great leaders,” Farley said. “How they prepare, what they’ve done in the offseason, their investment into this university and our program kind of puts them one step up on the others, but the others are improved in the experience they gained, too.”

While Lenox’s Brown has picked up some practice reps at left tackle, where all-conference performer Cal Twait was a senior last year, Farley said he will work primarily at the right tackle position he played all of the 2018 season, after missing all but five games in 2017 with a knee injury that required surgery.

“Spencer is a dude, man,” Farley said. “He’s got it all — height, length, size, speed. We just have to get him into really good positioning because he could be really special.”

Last year Brown started against Iowa as a 295-pound sophomore. On Wednesday he said he weighed in at 313 pounds. Combined with a season full of experience, he said he’s better prepared for the Panthers’ 2019 opener at highly-touted Division I Iowa State.

“Against Iowa I still had a broken hand and couldn’t really hold onto anything,” Brown said. “This offseason I gained 20 pounds since that game. One of my buddies sent me an article about the top 20 defensive lines in the country and it said Iowa State is 11th. I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s a big school and they pass up on a lot of (Iowa) guys we have here, so we always have something to prove here.”

Clanton, who played offensive tackle at Oregon in a BCS national championship game at 6-foot-4, said Brown’s physical attributes make him someone who could be a force in FCS football with possible opportunities after college.

“We’ve been working on some little technique things and he’s really picked up on it,” Clanton said. “He’s mauling people. He takes coaching and gets confidence as he goes. His biggest thing, if he keeps people away with that length, he can really round edges, he can keep people at bay. He has a lot of options that you don’t have when you’re coaching someone who’s 6-3.”

The Panthers are coming off a 7-6 season in which they tied for third in the MVFC at 5-3. UNI qualified for the FCS playoffs, opening with a 16-13 victory over Lamar University before falling to University of California-Davis, 23-16, in the second round.

The Panthers return 21 players who saw regular duty a year go, but are picked to finish fifth in the MVFC in a preseason poll.

“Where we’re picked doesn’t affect how hard I play,” Brown said. “I look at that and see three teams that we beat last year (Indiana State, Illinois State, South Dakota State.) Last year we lost some games we probably should have won. We’ve all been thinking about what we have to do to be successful this year, as we went about our summer work.”

Clanton said Brown was among several offensive linemen who were busy studying videotape over the summer in addition to the weight room workouts and conditioning work. Often, Brown went in for a second workout after the group early-morning session.

New quarterback

One of the 2018 players who has to be replaced is three-year starting quarterback Eli Dunne. So far, redshirt sophomore Jacob Keller and redshirt freshman Will McElvain are the leading candidates to succeed Dunne.

“Eli was more about setting up in the pocket and looking downfield,” Brown said. “These guys are a little more mobile outside the pocket and could be on the run more. It doesn’t change things for the offensive line a lot, because we still block until the whistle is blown.”