Easy Advantages

Tennessee is the only school that Marlon Brown has actually visited, but he says he'll try to get out to as many schools as he can over the summer. "I'll probably head out to the West Coast," Brown said. "I want to visit Stanford and USC. My grandma likes Stanford because of their academics, but I really don't know much about them besides that. I've talked with head coach Jim Harbaugh and..."

Marlon Brown the 6-foot-5, 205-pound five-star wide receiver from Harding High School in Memphis, Tenn., finished his junior season with 41 catches for over 860 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 60 carries and 630 yards and 10 scores.

"I can get yards after the catch," Brown said. "I'm pretty tall, so I have a height advantage over a lot of people. I'm really elusive and hard to stop. I can make a quick move around the corner and I'm gone."

Brown admits he wants to work on his overall speed and strength (benches only 215 pounds, squats 420). "I want to work on getting past the quicker defensive backs and get faster," he said.

A talented athlete, Brown says he started playing football when he was seven years old. "I started at running back and I loved it. I was playing good right away. It just came pretty easily to me."

Brown, Scout.com's No. 2 wide receiver nationwide, has over 20 scholarship offers, but denies a favorite. "Right now I'm really wide open," he admitted. "I'll probably have a top five or six during the summer. I'm just taking things slow and not worrying about it right now."

Some of the schools that have offered Brown are Tennessee, Stanford, Colorado, Oklahoma, USC, Indiana, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Texas Tech, Kentucky, Auburn, Ole Miss, LSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Georgia and Missouri among others. The Rebels were the first school to offer Brown during his sophomore year.

As a youngster, Brown followed Tennessee. "It's the big program in Tennessee," he said. "They are about six hours away, but that's not a big deal. I'll go anywhere, but Tennessee is like the home team.

"I really like their tradition and they have great coaches," he said. "I think the offense is going to be coming together, so I think they should be much better next season."

The Vols are the only school that Brown has actually visited, but he says he'll try to get out to as many schools as he can over the summer. "I'll probably head out to the West Coast," he said. "I want to visit Stanford and USC. My grandma likes Stanford because of their academics, but I really don't know much about them besides that. I've talked with head coach Jim Harbaugh and (defensive backs) coach Clayton White and they seem really cool. They are fired up and they say that their offense is made for a wide receiver."

The Trojans are the other West Coast program that has piqued Brown's interest. "Pete Carroll is a great coach and they win championships," he said. "I love that. I want to find a program that has good tradition and wins a lot. I want to play for great coaches who have a history of winning, but are still laid-back.

"I also really like the pro-style offense that USC runs because it really prepares you well for the next level."

Another state that Brown plans on traveling to during the summer is Florida. "I really want to check out Florida, Florida State and Miami," he said. "They all have great tradition and Florida won the national championship a few years ago. It would be a great offense to be in and it would be amazing to play with a quarterback like Tim Tebow. It would be a real honor."

While Brown isn't sure if he's going to visit Oklahoma during the summer, he admits they meet his criteria. "Coaches are really important to me and coach Bob Stoops and his staff are some of the best coaches in the country. Every year Oklahoma is in the race for the national championship."

Although Notre Dame hasn't lived up to their history the last few years, Brown admits he's intrigued by the Irish. "The whole program is basically starting over," he said. "I was really surprised by how many games they lost last season, but coach Charlie Weis is a great coach, so I expect a lot from them next season. I'm really looking forward to seeing them play and see how they do."

Brown hasn't attended any junior days and is unsure about which camps he'll be attending this summer. "I'm sure I'll go to a few," he said.

One reason that Brown hasn't been able to focus on football recruiting is that he just finished helping lead his team to a state basketball championship. Brown averages 16 points and 10 rebounds per game and plays forward. "I'll play both sports in college," he said. "I love basketball as much as football and want to be able to do both."

He reports a 3.2 core GPA and is awaiting his SAT results.