Northwestern beats out the big boys for Brown

Northwestern beat the big boys for commit No. 5 in its Class of 2017.

The Wildcats went into Texas and bested Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M to land defensive end Earnest Brown of Denton (Texas) Ryan. The 6-foot-5, 235-pounder, who had 26 offers in all, confirmed his commitment to WildcatReport tonight.

“I couldn’t tell you yesterday because I needed to tell the coaches first LOL but now I’m a Wildcat,” he stated via Twitter direct message.

Just the day before, Brown told WildcatReport that his decision would be more about relationships than it would history. On Tuesday night, he proved that he wasn’t joking.

“I’m looking for a place that feels like home first,” said Brown on Monday night. “The players have to get along with me, and I know that I’m cool with everyone at Northwestern.”

He added: “Everybody over there (at Northwestern) is great. Coach Fitz (head coach Pat Fitzgerald) has such a positive attitude and you can tell he really cares about his kids. They’re not just football players to him. He wants them to succeed in life after football. What a great guy.

“And Coach Long (defensive line coach Marty Long) is another person that really cares about student athletes. You can see that it’s really important that all of their players succeed.”

Brown was planning upcoming visits to Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Texas Tech but decided to scrap those plans and pull the trigger for Northwestern.

Brown is the fifth overall commit for Northwestern and second defensive lineman, joining fellow Texan Sam Miller.

Matt MacPherson serves as Brown’s area recruiter, but he said that he talked to Long most frequently.

Log onto WildcatReport for more on Brown’s commitment…