Journey Brown out to prove he can 'ball with the big boys'

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – One of the best days of running back Journey Brown’s life has often become an ice breaker when meeting with college coaches, fans and future teammates.

When someone rushes for 722 yards and 10 touchdowns in one high school football game -- like the Penn State running back signee did in 2015 during Meadville High School’s 107-90 victory against DuBois -- everyone wants to know how it happened.

Even Saquon Barkley, with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and his own list of impressive feats that have NFL scouts salivating, asked Brown about the eye-popping stats from that game when the two met.

“It was actually really cool,” Brown said. “I was like ‘Wow, you’re just a dog, bro. He was like, ‘Yeah, but you ran for 700 yards in one game.’ We just went back and forth and he was real cool, real humble and I can’t believe how humble he is. … He’s just a very good role model for me to learn from.”



Taking a page from Barkley’s book of humility, Brown, standing on the infield of Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium during this past weekend's the PIAA track and field championships, insists the best is yet to come. Coming from a town with a population of less than 14,000 and facing questions throughout his recruitment about the level of competition his team faced and whether or not he could produce similar results in college, Brown is determined to make his mark at Penn State when he arrives next month.

“I’ve already outshined it,” Brown said of his big game 20 months ago. “Committing to Penn State, coming out of Meadville, I won a state championship, those are the things that I think are better than that moment because those were personally for me. The 720 [yards], my line was just on point that game and I don’t think a lot of people understand that. I didn’t get touched half the time I got the ball so all I had to do was run fast and I scored.”

Brown one-upped himself on Saturday when he became the back-to-back gold medalist for Class AAA in the 100-meter dash. While dusting the competition in the rain in the final he also broke the 32-year-old PIAA meet record with a time of 10.43 seconds. In the last event of Brown’s high school athletic career he overcame a strained hamstring that bothered him earlier this track season and new starting blocks that he hadn’t used prior to Friday’s qualifier.