Brown gaining interest

With the arrival of spring, Long Beach (Miss.) junior linebacker Richie Brown has maintained a busy slate with track and field as well as his football recruitment. Judging from the recent results, the 6-foot-2 and 225-pound Brown has tasted much success on both fronts.

After his initial offer came via Mississippi State in late February, Brown added another BCS offer late last month. But he noted other schools have also increased their interest level.

"So far I have offers from Mississippi State and Stanford," said Brown, who has combined for 313 tackles the past two seasons. "But other schools have also been picking up interest like Tennessee, Miami, Arkansas and Arkansas State. Things are actually going great with Mississippi State and I stay in touch with them a lot. We're just building on that relationship and it's been going good.

"The Stanford offer was pretty special and exciting to get that offer, especially with them being so far away and with their tradition of academics. My dad and I plan to to visit Stanford sometime this summer."

Having attended junior days at MSU and Ole Miss, Brown is planning more trips in the near future.

"I've been kinda held up some because of track meets," said Brown. "But me and my dad are about to get the calender out and start planning some trips and visit a bunch of schools next month. I plan to go back to Mississippi State and we might go visit Miami, Florida and Tennessee."

And speaking of track meets, Brown has gotten off to a solid start in his junior campaign.

"We've been doing pretty good," said Brown. "We've had three track meets so far and pretty much won every one of them. In my last two meets, I got first in every event except for one and that was when my teammate beat me in the 100 meters. I've also competed in the long jump, the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay events.

"My best long jump this year was 21 feet. I am shooting to break my personal record of 22 feet that I set last year."

Back to his football recruitment, Brown said he is still eying all of his options and keeping everyone on a "neutral" playing field.

"I am still neutral to all of them," said Brown. "I am not trying to have any favorites and I will save all of that until after I make a lot of visits. Then once I see a lot of schools I will narrow them all down. I want to take some trips my senior year and not make a commitment until I have everything figured out.

"I also have to figure out my major and what every coaching staff is like and how these programs are building. Academics, as I said, is a major factor, too. I am looking to major in science technology or engineering. My dad and his dad both majored in science and have worked for NASA over 50 years."