Football: Brown brings experience to Pitt

Zach Brown rooted for the Green Bay Packers during last year’s Super Bowl, but Pittsburgh fans… Zach Brown rooted for the Green Bay Packers during last year’s Super Bowl, but Pittsburgh fans shouldn’t hold that against him.

He’s a Steelers fan now.

The redshirt senior transferred from Wisconsin to Pitt this summer to complete his final year of football eligibility. Not only will Brown sport the blue and gold this year, but he also said that he’ll definitely switch to rooting for the black and gold, too.

Brown finds himself in a unique situation for a college football player, having completed his undergraduate degree and four years of his football career at one university before transferring to another.

He never could have anticipated the situation that he’s in, Brown said, but he’s thankful for the opportunity and wants to take advantage of it.

“I enjoyed my time at Wisconsin — I wouldn’t take it back for the world,” Brown said. “I was looking here [at Pitt] coming out of high school. It’s a great program with a lot of tradition and I’m looking forward to my season here.”

Brown will pursue his master’s degree in health and physical activity at Pitt’s School of Education. If he can’t move on to play football at the next level, Brown said he’s interested in teaching.

The 5-foot-10, 220-pound running back could have an immediate impact for the Panthers on the field this season. A powerful runner, Brown described himself as more of a “bruiser” than Ray Graham, and he could provide the perfect complement to Pitt’s leading returning rusher.

“I’m more of a ‘between the tackles’-type guy,” Brown said. “Ray is a dasher. He’s very good at making a man miss.”

Brown rushed for 1,152 yards and 11 touchdowns on 240 carries during his three-year career at Wisconsin. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry and also finished his time as a Badger with 20 receptions for 105 yards, a 5.3-yard average.

Pitt co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Calvin Magee said he expects Brown to bring mature, physical running and skillful blocking to the Panthers.

“He’s not a little guy,” Magee said. “He’s going to be able to carry the ball. He can catch the ball in the backfield. Ray can’t do it all by himself, he can’t play the whole season. We really need a couple guys to go in and I think Zach gives us that.”

Yet Brown doesn’t see himself as simply a backup or complement to Graham. He say he feels like all the running backs are “coming in to be the man.”

“Ray has the most experience right now in Pittsburgh, but I just feel like we’re all coming in trying to be that guy, and at the end of the day, that will make us all better,” he said. “So whoever gets the job at the end of the day, we’ll be ready to go.”

Pitt football head coach Todd Graham said the most important quality Brown brings to the team is “the kind of person he is.”

“The leadership and the character he brings in here, he’s a very special guy,” Graham said. “He’s a young man that has a very strong faith.”

Graham said that from the first day that Brown arrived, he started to help evaluate the other players after practice.

Magee added that Brown isn’t afraid to take on a leadership role with the other players because he is “going to be positive with his words.”

“He’s just mature, a good guy,” Magee said. “It’s also a compliment to these players that they accepted him in that way [as a leader].”

Ray Graham said that because Brown is a veteran, he expected him to come in and help out right away.

“It’s going to be good to see him get on the field in that Pitt uniform and get things going,” Graham said. “He’s a hard worker. He came in and did things well as soon as he came in.”

Brown said that he wanted to come into the Pitt program and help teach the younger players.

“I have a lot to contribute, I’ve seen a lot,” he said. “I just want to come out here and teach the young guys and just put out there what I’ve been through to make us better.”

Pitt’s and Wisconsin’s playing styles are different, Brown said. He said the Big 10 relies a lot on power, whereas at Pitt players have to be able to run. But he’s not planning on letting the change in style hold him back.

“I feel like I’m an all-around back,” he said. “I feel like if you put me in any offense, I can succeed. That’s just the confidence I have and the experience I have just playing the game.”

A new playing style isn’t the only thing to which Brown needs to adjust.

“Pitt is more of a city; Wisconsin is more of a campus,” he said.

“The team has been great helping me out: Any questions I have, they provide answers for me right away to help make it a smooth transition for me.”