Camden Brown was the talk of Auburn’s fall camp a year ago, but his freshman season didn’t bear out the kind of production to back up some of that early hype.
There were flashes of his potential at times last fall, but Brown ultimately caught just nine passes for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Tigers in his first year of college football. Now as he prepares for Year two, with a new coaching staff and new offensive system, Brown is again garnering some early attention as he aims to have a breakout sophomore season for Hugh Freeze’s program.
“Cam has great potential, and I am excited about having him, for sure,” Freeze said.
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The 6-foot-3, 199-pound Brown is one of the bigger — and more physically gifted — receivers on Auburn’s roster this spring. That kind of size and catch radius is something Freeze values at the position, and something he tried to emphasize with a couple of new additions to the offense this offseason (6-foot-4 tight end transfer Rivaldo Fairweather and 6-foot-6 receiver transfer Nick Mardner). While Brown isn’t quite as rangy as either of those newcomers, the sophomore out of St. Thomas Aquinas in South Florida is once again turning heads on the Plains.
During the team’s first scrimmage-type situation last Friday, when Auburn held a standard practice that included some more situational work, Brown flashed some of that potential. He made what Freeze categorized as “three really nice catches” during the team situational periods that day, including a touchdown on a back-shoulder ball that particularly stood out.
“That’s a guy that has changed from Year one to Year two,” cornerback D.J. James said. “He’s developed. He’s gotten bigger, faster and stronger. I like him.”
Auburn still has a long way to go with its passing game, as Freeze was quick to point out Monday, with the quarterbacks and wide receivers not as far along as he’d like at this point in the spring. It has been an adjustment period for the receivers, particularly as it pertains to making the right reads on RPOs in the passing game.
Yet Brown has been one of the standouts of the group this spring, and during the portions of practices that have been open to the media, the sophomore has often been first in the rotation for position drills.
“The first thing that comes to my mind on him is that he’s one of the ones that’s hungry,” wide receiver coach Marcus Davis said. “He wants to get better. And he’s a younger guy. He’s a good person to have in your room. He does some good things. He’s getting better at his releases. He’s getting better at catching that thing with his hands. It’s just about continuing to build that confidence and continuing to go hard, because he’s somebody I see that can be a leader in that room, just by his approach.
“As a coach, that’s your job — to cultivate that. It’s been going well so far with him.”
Auburn still has five-plus months before it steps on the field for an actual game, which means plenty of time for the passing game to get up to the standard Freeze, Davis and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery expect of it. In a relatively unproven wide receiver room — with just two returning players who had double-digit receptions last season — Davis seems confident that Brown can become a go-to option in this offense.
When Davis arrived as part of the staff shortly after Christmas, he studied up on and got to know the group he was inheriting at wide receiver. What Brown showed on film was impressive, but Davis has been more surprised by the everyday approach he has seen from the sophomore in the three months since — both in offseason workouts and spring practices.
If Brown can continue that through to the season, Davis likes his chances of delivering on the potential he has shown on the field.
“You don’t know that from talking to a guy; it’s more of an action behind it, and so, his everyday approach is what separates him and makes him get better and makes him want to get better,” Davis said. “…Those things continue to show up on the film. So, that’s why I believe that he’s getting better, because it’s just the little things that he’s doing time after time that’s starting to show up in good moments.
“It’s just about him continuing to put his best foot forward and continuing to put his head down and work.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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