TAMPA – As his family, friends and teammates filed into the media center, Jefferson LB Juwuan Brown looked at the ground. He buried his head in his hands. He bit his shirt.
And when it was time for him to speak as he signed with USF, he couldn’t stop choking up.
“I ain’t really the crying type,” Brown said.
He shed no tears during Wednesday’s ceremony, but he got close.
The two-star prospect wasn’t emotional about his decision. That had been firm since July, when the 6-foot-3, 210-pound beast orally committed to play for the hometown Bulls. He never wavered.
“I knew I was gonna go to USF no matter what,” Brown said.
The emotions came from the hoopla around him – the cameras staring at him and the room full of people waiting for him to speak. That was enough to make the violent tackler pause to collect himself.
“I don’t like to be the center of attention,” Brown said. “When all the eyes were on me, it kinda broke me down a little bit.”