Kaleb Brown now more comfortable playing receiver with running back edge
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kaleb Brown’s first season as a receiver for the Iowa football team was showing signs of being a major disappointment last fall.
The Chicago native barely played in the first half of the season, even with Iowa’s lack of depth at receiver.
Brown also didn’t dress for the sixth game of the season against Purdue, leaving one to wonder if Brown was more hype than bite.
The fact that he had transferred from Ohio State, and was also a four-star recruit in high school, had helped to fuel the hype.
But Brown was also still learning to play a new position after having been a star running back in high school.
He only had one catch for Ohio State as a true freshman in 2022, so when Brown transferred to Iowa last summer, he was raw and mostly untested as a receiver.
He played behind Diante Vines in the first half of the 2023 season, but then Vines was injured, leaving Brown as the next man in.
Brown would go on to seize the opportunity, while Vines has since transferred to Old Dominion.
“That’s pretty much it, patience and keep grinding,” Brown said when asked the key to his late-season surge. “It’s easier said than done, obviously, when you’re in that situation.
“But it’s just what you’ve got to do, especially in this sport. So, that’s probably the biggest thing, you just need to stay patient, even though it’s easier said than done.”
Brown was among 11 Iowa football players that were made available to the media on Tuesday.
His late-season surge was one of the few bright spots for the Iowa offense last season.
Iowa won the Big Ten West Division last season, and 10 games for the second time in the past three seasons, but with little help from an offense that ranked at or near the bottom nationally in multiple statistical categories.
The situation was so bad that Brian Ferentz was fired as the offensive coordinator with four games left in the season.
Tim Lester was hired as the new offensive coordinator in January, and according to the players, Lester already has put his stamp on the offense with new terminology and more pre-snap motion and movement.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is supposedly giving Lester more freedom to run his offense, and with Lester being a former head coach at Western Michigan, and a former star quarterback for the Broncos, there is reason for hope and guarded optimism, partly because Lester is far more experienced than Brian Ferentz was when he was promote to offensive coordinator.
Brown said Lester’s offense is better at getting him the ball in space, and if that is true, that would be a significant step forward, because as a former running back, Brown is dangerous in space.
“That’s the biggest thing for me is just seeing myself as a receiver,” Brown said. “But also having that running back edge, once I get the catch and still making a move for extra yards.”
The game of football has certainly evolved over the decades with offenses and defenses more complex than they used to be.
But on the other hand, football isn’t rocket science.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Brown is one of Iowa’s best playmakers, and that getting him the ball in space on shorter pass routes would be beneficial to Brown and to the offense.
Brown had a few drops last season, but they mostly came on passes that were thrown extremely hard into tight windows down field. He at times would let the ball come to his chest instead of grabbing it with his hands.
The best way for the 5-foot-10, 197-pound Brown to correct that problem is with repetitions in practice.
He now has a year under his belt as an Iowa receiver and that puts him in a much different place than last season.
“It’s tough,” Brown said of learning how to play receiver at this level. “But at the same time, obviously, we get reps and things like that. I’ve always had good hands and I definitely want that to show that this year.”
Cade McNamara is listed as Iowa’s starting quarterback and he also started the first five games last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
McNamara is reportedly close to 100 percent and is expected to be ready for the start of preseason practice.
However, he is also coming off back-to-back season-ending knee injuries, so he might lack some mobility.
One of the best ways to protect McNamara would be for him to get rid of the ball quickly, and that’s where Brown could be a key factor on shorter passing routes that are designed to take advantage of Brown’s running skills.
Brown ranked third on the team last season with 22 catches and with 215 receiving yards. He caught his first touchdown against Rutgers in the 10th game, and he had a career-best seven receptions for 71 yards against Illinois in the 11th game.
And while making the switch to receiver at this level isn’t easy, Brown only has to look at the Iowa receiving records to know that anything is possible.
Iowa’s top three leaders in career receiving yards – Marvin McNutt, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Tim Dwight – didn’t play receiver in high school.
McNutt and Johnson-Koulianos both played quarterback, while Dwight played running back in high school.
“It’s definitely a little different,” Brown said. “They kind of go hand-in-hand as long as you can just be able to run fluid and be able to get to a spot. Obviously, it’s two different positions and it does take some adjustment in getting used to it. I had been a running back my whole life, not just in high school.”