College Football

Once a Vols commit, Orlando Brown happy to be with OU

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:09 p.m. ET

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Oklahoma starting left tackle Orlando Brown thought he was going to be playing for Tennessee.

Now he's going to be playing against Tennessee.

Bron had committed to play for the Vols but when he went on his official visit, Brown got word from the team he wasn't going to be offered a scholarship.

"It was the Sunday before signing day," said Mark Fleetwood, Brown's coach at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Georgia to The Tulsa World. "He's up there on his official visit and they tell him that Sunday, and signing day is Wednesday, that he's done. They're not gonna sign him. He had committed to Tennessee, but then had fallen through the cracks academically.

"He came home floored. He comes in here Monday basically crying. He doesn't want to tell me. He's embarrassed. He hadn't had a great semester, and I had been riding him about that."

Meanwhile, this was just another setback for Brown. He lost his father Orlando "Zeus Brown," who had played n the NFL for the Brown and Ravens just three years earlier. Brown died from diabetes.

So the younger Brown dedicated himself to football and was offered scholarships by a number of SEC schools as well as from Oklahoma in 2013.

Academics kept him out of Tennessee but Fleetwood and Brown worked to get Brown back involved. Fleetwood knew Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, so Fleetwood gave Stoops a call. OU added Brown very late in the recruiting process and it worked out. Brown redshirted all of last season and was able to use former OU Outland Trophy winner Jammal Brown as a mentor. Jammal Brown had worked with Zeus Brown in the NFL.

"I am grateful to be here," Brown said to The Tulsa World. "I've got nothing against Tennessee, but I'm blessed to be here."

(H/T The Tulsa World)