Why Barion Brown’s electric debut might not signal change in Kentucky kick return strategy
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Preview: No. 20 Kentucky at No. 12 Florida
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This was what a top-100 recruit is supposed to look like.
As freshman wide receiver Barion Brown, the highest-ranked offensive skill player to sign with Kentucky in the recruiting website era, turned the corner on what ended up being a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half in Kentucky’s season-opening win over Miami (Ohio), UK Coach Mark Stoops was confident.
“I wanted to see that because a great returner like that needs to trust his speed in that situation,” Stoops said. “Guys that have it, do it in that moment. … I didn’t know who was in position on that sideline, but I felt like it was going to the house because the great ones when they turn that corner in the open field like that it’s all about the true speed. He has it.”
There were tense moments to come during a lengthy replay review in which officials tried to determine if Brown had dropped the ball before crossing the goal line, but the touchdown eventually stood. With the score, Brown ended a 13-season drought in which no UK player returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
When Brown, a four-star recruit from Nashville’s Pearl-Cohn High School, was informed of the long stint without a kickoff return touchdown before the opener, he simply looked at wide receivers coach Scott Woodward and laughed.
“I knew I was going to do it,” Brown said after the 37-13 win.
Brown was one of three players across the country to return a kickoff for a touchdown in the first two weeks of the season. He was the only one to do it after catching the ball in his own end zone.
On Monday, Brown was named the first SEC Special Teams Player of the Week of the season. With wide receiver Tayvion Robinson showing off his punt return skills on a 23-yard return in the opener, Kentucky suddenly has a dynamic pair of returners for the first time in the Stoops era.
So, should fans expect a more aggressive return game after years of Stoops emphasizing maintaining possession over long returns?
Maybe not.
“Some of these guys we play, they’re not going to get a chance to put the ball in his hands or it’s going to be hung so high that coverage is brutal,” Stoops said. “A lot of that is kicking. We face some really talented punters, as well. When that ball is hanging in the air for a long time and they have a chance to cover, you’ve just got to secure the ball and move on.”
Stoops pointed to Kentucky’s own kickoff unit as proof of that theory.
Kickoff specialist Chance Poore recorded touchbacks on all seven of his kickoffs in the opener. Last season, all but three Southeastern Conference teams averaged fewer than two kickoff returns allowed per game. Kentucky was one of five teams that averaged one or fewer kickoff returns allowed per game.
Only three SEC teams allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown last season. Just one player in the SEC returned multiple kickoffs for touchdowns in 2021.
“But, we always work at it,” Stoops said. “Maybe there’s that one miss. Maybe there’s one mishit or it’s a little lower and we get that opportunity. When you get the opportunity you’ve got to make the most of it.”
Brown certainly proved capable of making the most of any future mistakes in his Kentucky debut.
The 6-foot-1, 166-pound receiver won the Tennessee state track titles in the 100 and 200 meters as a junior and senior. On the football field, he won the Tennessee Titans Class 4A Mr. Football award as a senior, seeing time at quarterback, running back, receiver, defensive back and kick returner.
“He’s a weapon back there on special teams,” quarterback Will Levis said of Brown, who also caught three passes for 45 yards against Miami. “I think some teams are going to have to think about kicking to him or not. We got to get the ball into his hands as much as possible because obviously he’s an electric playmaker.”
Brown is no stranger to opponents’ ability to scheme against an electric kickoff returner.
As a sophomore at Pearl-Cohn, Brown returned four kickoffs for touchdowns, according to MaxPreps.com. He did not return another kickoff for a touchdown in his last two high school seasons for a simple reason.
“They stopped kicking me the ball,” he said.
There is always a risk a freshman brimming with confidence might grow impatient in the returner role. After predicting to teammates he would return a kickoff for a touchdown in the opener, Brown looked overeager early in the game when he caught Miami’s first kickoff high while backpedaling into UK’s end zone and chose to try to return the kick anyway.
Disaster was averted when Brown was able to reach Kentucky’s 21-yard line, but Stoops was quick to point out the error on the sideline. The lengthy review on his touchdown return offered another lesson about the importance of handing the ball off to an official after scoring rather than dropping it early.
Having a mentor like Robinson, who led the ACC in punt return yards at Virginia Tech last season and returned one punt for a touchdown, should help Brown learn when to be aggressive and when to play it safe on a return.
His physical gifts won’t always make that an easy decision, though. Even the touchdown return started with Brown fielding the kick above his head while taking a step back into the end zone.
“He does have to learn,” Stoops said. “This week (at Florida) you catch that a yard or two deep going the wrong way and we’ll be pinned inside the 20.”
The reality is Kentucky has not had many offensive skills players as ready to contribute immediately as freshmen as Brown appears to be. He and classmate Dane Key won starting wide receiver jobs in preseason camp then combined for 219 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns in their debuts.
Even program legend Lynn Bowden was limited to 17 receptions as a freshman at Kentucky.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but that guy will probably play on Sundays,” offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello said of Brown during preseason camp. “You know what? He’s learning how it’s done right now when he walks into Green Bay or San Francisco or wherever. That’s pretty cool. I think he embraced that and he understands the value of that.”
Brown, who committed to Kentucky over Alabama, TCU and LSU, has a bright future ahead of him at UK, but fans will not have to wait to see an impact. He has another chance to prove worthy of his recruiting hype when he steps into the national spotlight for the first time this weekend at Florida.
Buck Fitzgerald, Brown’s trainer at National Players Academy in Nashville, thinks even though it might not have been evident in his performance there were some nerves for Brown in the opener.
The fact that Kentucky coaches were willing to play Brown and several other impact freshmen early in the game let those players work through any nerves, Fitzgerald theorized. Then when Brown came back on the field for the second half, he was ready to show his elite speed on the kickoff return.
That play came as little surprise for Fitzgerald, but that didn’t make it less noteworthy. If anything, it served as a reminder of how excited Kentucky fans should be about a potential game-changing talent.
“I think it’s easy for everybody to say because a kid is a great player we expect this and that,” Fitzgerald said. “Kickoff returns in college football, at any level of football, are mighty special. They don’t happen all the time. … Him having the talent and the ability to do it is no surprise, but you’re always excited and it’s always special to see it.”
Next game
No. 20 Kentucky at No. 12 Florida
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN
Records: UK 1-0, Florida 1-0
Series: Florida leads 53-19
Last meeting: UK won 20-13 on Oct. 2, 2021, in Lexington
This story was originally published September 6, 2022 at 6:20 AM.
