His future position coach’s résumé, along with the current and past success of specialists from the Lone Star state in a Sun Devil uniform, all prompted 2022 Dawson (Tex.) High School kicker to commit to Arizona State on Friday afternoon marking ASU’s first pledge of the 2022 class.

“I love the coaching staff and coach (Shawn) Slocum is a great special teams coach,” Brown said, “and I just love the culture that Arizona State has. They had (Lou Groza Award winner) Zane Gonzales, who was a kicker from Texas and now kicks in the NFL and they have another guy from Texas, punter Michael Turk. I know that another punter he (Slocum) coaches Matt Haack is in the NFL too. So, I always liked ASU, and seeing those guys have success played a big factor in my decision because I'd like to go to a school where I know how successful their specialists are after college.

“They offered me on September 1st, and when I talked to coach Slocum, he told me that he likes my balance and consistency and how I can really contribute to the offense. He likes me both as a placekicker and a kickoff guy. He didn’t mention punting, but if I need to do some punting, I can do that too.”

As a sophomore for the Eagles, the 6-1 185-pound Brown converted 15-16 field goals, with his longest going for 49 yards. These exploits earned him a spot on the MaxPreps 2020 Preseason Junior High School All-American Football Team.

Kicking guru Chris Sailer ranked Brown as the no. 4 kicker in his class.

Currently Dawson is undefeated and district champions heading into the playoffs in two weeks (following a bye) with a 9-0 mark. Thus far, Dawson has made seven of nine field goals with a long of 43 yards, which presents a somewhat ironic good news, bad news situation from a personal stats point. Then again, he wouldn't have it any other way.

“Our team scores almost 40 points a game and finishes a lot of drives,” Brown explained. “I don’t mind because that means we’re successful even if I don’t get that many opportunities to kick field goals. But last week, I kicked a game-winner in overtime.

“I’ve seen myself really improve on kickoffs this year, and I also improved my consistency with touchbacks and field goals. I didn’t have any chances to kick longer field goals this year, but I’m comfortable kicking from 52-yards and in.”

Brown said that several Power 5 schools have been showing interest in him in recent weeks, and he had visited the campuses of Clemson, Texas A&M, and Houston last year. He didn’t have a chance to visit Tempe before COVID-19 imposed a lengthily moratorium on recruiting visits; however, that didn't deter the Texas kicker from enjoying the recruiting process with Arizona State, one that culminated with his pledge today.

“We had plans to visit ASU in the spring, but then everything shut down,” Brown stated. “But if we can, we'll get out there as soon as possible because I always wanted to visit ASU. Even though I didn’t get to see it in person, I just felt it was the right time to commit to ASU, and it felt comfortable because I liked everything I saw on my virtual visit when I saw the facilities and everything.”

Brown said that while he plans to sign in December of 2021, he’s undetermined on when he will arrive on campus.

“Graduating high school early (in December of 2021) is something that came up,” Brown commented, “but it's just something that I think I'm going to need to talk to my family about and just really think about because I'd like to enjoy my high school my last year of high school. But I also it's a great opportunity to prepare for the season and get more time on campus.”

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