STARKVILLE — Freshmen usually have two schools of thoughts when it comes to their first college football season. They either want to play right away or they want to sit out the first season and be redshirted.
Mississippi State junior linebacker Richie Brown fell in the latter category and was redshirted as a freshman. He said it was one of the best things that could have happened to him.
This season, Brown is set to be a starter at middle linebacker, so when he looks back on his redshirt season, he sees it as one of the main building blocks in his progress in the past three years.
“I think redshirting helped a lot,” Brown said. “There was a lot of development, size, growth, and strength that gets pumped into you that redshirt year. You really get to focus on getting your size and speed up and little things you don’t really think about coming out of high school.”
Before the Long Beach native arrived at MSU, he had his mind made up about redshirting. He also received advice from his cousin, Robert Ellis, who played linebacker at Nicholls State from 2003-06. Brown decided to follow Ellis’ advice.
“He kind of suggested for a linebacker to redshirt,” Brown said. “It’s usually more beneficial for linebackers.”
Brown has played in all 26 games (no starts) in his two seasons at MSU. He has 88 tackles (four for loss), two sacks, one fumble recovery, three pass breakups, and four interceptions.
Brown anticipates getting his first start this season. He could get the nod at 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, when MSU takes on Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Fox Sports 1 will broadcast the game.
“He’s a guy who is going to be much more in a starting role,” said MSU coach Dan Mullen, whose team received 100 votes and was No. 26 in the preseason Associated Press poll released Sunday. “He’s the guy that’s got to be ‘the one’ now. Last year, he got to come in as the relief guy, and now he is the guy that people are going to look to.”
Along with the redshirt year, Brown used the past two seasons to shadow Benardrick McKinney, who earned All-America honors last season. The Houston Texans used the 43rd overall pick to select McKinney in the 2015 NFL draft.
Brown split time with McKinney a lot last season, so he has experience and is looking forward to being a starter.
“I’ve had plenty of playing time, so I’m not worried about that,” Brown said. “We kind of viewed ourselves as starters last year with the amount of playing time we did get.”
MSU will have to replace McKinney and Matt Wells in the starting lineup. Beniquez Brown will return as a starter and Zach Jackson will join Richie Brown as another new starter.
“Our chemistry is good with us three in the game,” Jackson said. “Beniquez is going to tell us the call, Richie’s going to set the front and I’m going to tell Richie the splits of the receivers. It’s communication all the way up and down the line.”
The starting role comes with more responsibility than being on the field first. Brown will be looked to to be a leader.
Instead of focusing on his game, Brown has concentrated on helping the younger linebackers. He has embraced his leadership role and has worked with redshirt freshman Gerri Green and sophomore J.T. Gray to help prepare them for this season.
“I’m just trying to help my team and get everybody better and help the young guys and bring them up with us,” Brown said. “When you can teach it, that’s when you can know it. That’s the best part when you can teach something because that helps you understand it even better.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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