Meet Orlando Brown, Who Wears Sooner Jersey No. 78
By Chip Rouse
Another season of Sooner football is upon us, and that means its time to start familiarizing ourselves with the names and numbers we are going to see and hear a lot about in the coming season. Today’s focus is on offensive tackle Orlando Brown.
The unsung heroes of the offensive line don’t often see their names in the game stories, but the skill players on offense who do get the media attention would not have the big games they do were it not for the heavy lifting done by the big guys up front in the trenches.
And no position on the offensive line of scrimmage other than the center – which, of course is responsible for delivering the ball to the quarterback – is more important to a right-handed-throwing quarterback like Baker Mayfield than the left tackle.
The left tackle is responsible for protecting a right-handed quarterback’s blind or back side from onrushing tacklers, who can cause the quarterback to fumble or mishandle the ball if he doesn’t see them coming and they get to him before he has time to get rid of or secure the football.
The player who mans the all-important offensive line spot for the Sooners is No. 78, redshirt sophomore Orlando Brown.
Brown is a big boy, standing 6-foot, 8-inches tall and weighing in at 340 pounds and, according to information provided by the OU athletic department, is one of 10 freshman players in Sooner football history to start a game at offensive tackle.
His performance in 2015 was strong enough to warrant selection to the Sporting News Freshman All-America team, and he was named to the All-Big 12 second team by ESPN.com.
College football expert and publisher of the eponymous Phil Steele College Football Preview magazine named Brown to the 2016 Preseason All-Big 12 First Team.
Although he is firmly entrenched as a starter on the Sooner offensive line, which Steele rates as the second best in the Big 12 coming into the 2016 season and 22nd best among all FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) teams, many Oklahoma football fans may not recall that Brown almost didn’t become a Sooner.
He had offers from a number of major college programs, including Alabama and Notre Dame and Ohio State, and originally committed to play at Tennessee. Late in the recruiting process, however, officials at Tennessee became concerned about Brown’s eligibility stemming from academic issues and backed off of the commitment, according to an article in OU Daily, the University of Oklahoma student publication.
Long story made short: Oklahoma was at the top of the list when he began researching other opportunities.