Blue and Gold Illustrated

Will Fuller and Corey Robinson and standout freshmen Equanimeous St. Brown and CJ Sanders, Brown is con‑ tent with standing in the shadows, es‑ pecially as a senior leader. "I'm a vet, the oldest guy in there, but I try and set leadership standards and hold those guys to that," Brown said. "And they hold the guys underneath them to that and continue to hold the tradition that TJ Jones led for us." Brown is quiet and soft‑spoken in interviews, but he's much more vocal around his teammates, which can be seen in practice, during games or on the Showtime series. "I feel like I had one of the best off‑ seasons since I've been here," he said. "I trained [in South Carolina] and fo‑ cused on correcting things in my craft, and I feel like it showed dividends throughout my camp. I had one of my best camps. I'm just going to let it show on the field and play free. "In your first year you might get a little nervous, but I feel like as receivers you want to make them feel as comfort‑ able as they can in every situation." Brown isn't afraid to display his self‑ confidence when asked whether he, Fuller, injured cornerback Shaun Craw‑ ford or KeiVarae Russell is the fastest player on the team. "KeiVarae can run, and Will is my man," he said. "But I can never say anybody's faster than me. Will can run. I'll leave it at that." That blazing speed is what caught fans' attention when Brown was a freshman, but now he's able to run ev‑ ery type of route. He trained at Velocity Sports Performance in South Carolina during part of the summer and spent the rest developing a rapport with starting quarterback Malik Zaire enter‑ ing the left‑hander's first season as the starter. "You don't have t o b e p e r f e c t , " Brown said he told Zaire. "Just put it in our area and we'll make plays. "He's spent a lot of time this offseason perfecting his craft. Obviously he's going to be more technically sound, footwork, throwing — all those things that a quarterback tries to strive for. He's the same type of guy, real confident and real high en‑ ergy, and we feed off that. "He's made great strides in it, and he's putting the ball where he wants to put the ball. You can't ask for much more from the quarterback situation." In perhaps the greatest compliment to Brown's skills, defensive backs coach Todd Lyght said he wants his cornerbacks going up against Fuller and Brown as much as possible to hone their skills. His thinking is that if his de‑ fensive backs can slow down that duo, managing other teams' top receiving threats will be a breeze. "As far as our DBs, they're going to get a great look every single rep," Brown said. Few on the team can understand that better than Brown, who himself has benefited from practice reps to develop from solely a speed threat to an all‑ around receiver. ✦ "IF YOU ASK CHRIS, HE WANTS TO BE THAT GUY THAT IS COUNTED ON IN CRUCIAL SITUATIONS. THAT'S PROBABLY THE MARK OF A GREAT TEAMMATE. HE WANTS THE BALL." HEAD COACH BRIAN KELLY ON BROWN

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