A little over five years after having a stroke, former Texas Longhorns running back Derrian Brown hasn’t given up on his dream of playing football again. On Tuesday, he registered as a graduate transfer through the NCAA transfer portal, as reported by Inside Texas among other places.
Despite playing behind running backs who signed with Florida State and Michigan, respectively, Brown racked up 642 yards and nine touchdowns as a sophomore and 844 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on nearly nine yards per carry as a junior. Brown was a unanimous four-star prospect in the 2019 recruiting class. He committed to Texas during an official visit in September 2018 over nearly thirty other offers.
Before having a stroke at his high school that necessitated emergency brain surgery and three months in the intensive care unit at a Georgia hospital, Brown signed a contract with Texas during the early signing period. He was ventilated for a few days. A portion of his skull that had been removed to lower pressure inside his brain was replaced during a subsequent procedure.
Brown returned to modified workouts with the Longhorns in late 2019 and enrolled at Texas as a corporate communications major. Despite the difficult recovery process, which included speech treatment, he was named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll in spring 2020.
At the time, former Texas head coach Tom Herman remarked, “We’re just kind of playing that one, I don’t know if it’s day by day, maybe month by month, and seeing his progress.”
However, Brown’s recuperation did not advance to the point where team physicians were comfortable giving the go-ahead for him to play football. As a result, Brown reportedly went on a medical scholarship in 2021, dashing any chance he may play for the Longhorns.
Is Brown able to resume his football career? He said to Inside Texas that he has.
“I want to prove to everyone that I am an all-around running back who can do anything that the next team needs,” Brown stated after a protracted journey. A common question is, “Are you still fast? Who are you, exactly? And I’ve been putting in a lot of effort to disprove folks.
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