Kyle Brown, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound wide receiver from West Bloomfield High School is so highly sought that football powerhouses around the nation didn’t renege scholarship offers after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament early this season.
And after visiting East Lansing for Saturday’s Homecoming football win, Brown said MSU is his front-runner.
“I like Michigan State’s coaching staff because I like Bobby Williams,” Brown said. “I want to play for a black coach. After meeting all these coaches I like him, the whole coaching staff is just real friendly.
“The players are just really cool. Like (junior tailback) T.J. (Duckett), me and him made eye-contact, and he was like, ‘Call me up tonight, we’re gonna hang out.’ Other places you go you see (players) a lot, and they see you, but they hardly recognize you, they’re kind of arrogant and stuff.”
MSU offered Brown a scholarship last year along with the other four schools in his top five - Miami, Oklahoma, Purdue and Georgia Tech.
And despite his ACL injury, no school has let him go.
“None of the schools have backed away from him,” said Bill Kurelic, a recruiting expert from of Midwest Recruiting News. “Certainly (the injury) doesn’t help, but I don’t see any school taking their offer off the table.”
That is most likely because of his speed. His 40-meter dash time (4.4) was the fastest at both the Florida State summer camp and the Nike Camp. He also won the state championship in the 100 meter as a junior.
“Those things speak very loudly to a lot of colleges, and speed kills,” Brown’s high school coach Dan Shrewsberry said. “He should come out of this injury even stronger, because you go through rehab and typically you come out stronger.”
But coming back from an ACL injury isn’t easy, and Brown said it has made him re-evaluate some issues in his life.
“You gotta really think if you love this game or not,” he said. “This injury really got to me. I have to start all over again - it makes you think about a lot.”
But if it is his future he’s contemplating, MSU has some of its recruiting work taken care of - many people in his life seem to be pointing him toward life as a Spartan.
His older brother Pierre, a wide receiver at Wayne State, worked out at MSU last summer and said he thought it would be a good fit for his younger brother.
“MSU was like a family atmosphere when I went up there,” said Pierre, a candidate for the Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. “They made an exception when most colleges won’t let you (work out) - that was cool.”
And part of that family atmosphere is Brown’s sister, Tajie, a merchandising management junior who works at the Duffy Daugherty Football Building and is a Spartan aide during home games.
“I hint that it’s a really good school,” she said. “The team is really good and the coach is really nice. (Kyle’s) been up here a lot, he knows the campus really well. I think he’ll feel more comfortable (here) because we’re really close.
