Sammy Brown has surgery, but might practice with Tigers as Gator Bowl nears

Sammy Brown hopes to join the Tigers at the bowl site.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Dec 11 07:00:05 GMT-04:00 2023

Sammy Brown had an eventful end to his high school career, and in a few weeks might get a head start on wearing the uniform of a Clemson Tiger.

Brown, the nation’s No. 1 linebacker and Clemson commit, injured his ankle late in a playoff loss to Creekside. His injury required surgery, but he says he should be good to go sooner than expected.

In fact, as an early enrollee, he wants to try and make it in time for a couple of bowl practices as the Tigers prepare to face Kentucky in the Gator Bowl (Dec. 29 at noon in Jacksonville's EverBank Stadium).

“So, I actually got surgery yesterday,” Brown told TigerNet last week. “I got that tightrope surgery that Brock Bowers got, and on the way to recovery now. So, I'm on crutches right now, but I'll be walking in two or three more days. And then, after that, it's really just kind of my pain tolerance that limits what I can do. I'll go through some kind of stages, so the second stage after crutches is just doing the basic movements of your ankle and all that.

“And then I'll probably be running in a couple of weeks. So, I might try to practice in a couple of the bowl practices, but if not, I'm definitely going to try to play in that All-American Bowl at the beginning of January.”

Brown said he hopes he can be ready to don orange a little after Christmas.

“I talked to the coaches,” he said. “I'm going to see if I can try to come down the day after Christmas for those last couple days, because they're practicing at Clemson next week, but we're going down to Naples for my little brother's All-American game. But I'm going to see if I can go down after Christmas and if not practice, at least watch some of the practices.”

What is it like knowing he will soon be moving into his freshman apartment at Clemson?

“It's honestly a little weird to think that I start college in a month, but I'm really excited,” he said. “I'm excited to move in with Nolan (Hauser), my roommate, and just get started, get started at Clemson and get, I don't know the word I'm looking for is... I don't know. I'm ready to get there and get started.”

Brown was also recently awarded the Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s top high school linebacker.

“Well, they actually kind of surprised me. They acted like they were just going to recognize me as one of the finalists, and then Dick Butkus' son came out and actually told me that I won it,” Brown said. “So, they kind of surprised me, my whole family was there. It was a really cool little event that they did.

“It was just in our gym, actually. They brought the football team out and were acting like they were going to recognize me as a finalist, and they ended up giving it to me. It kind of threw me off guard. I didn't really know what to feel. It's definitely a great way to end my high school career. That's a really big honor. It's one of the best in the country, so it was really cool to win it.”

Brown said that he’s now ready to get to Clemson and learn from Barrett Carter.

“I am really excited to play with Barrett and just kind of be under his wing and kind of learn from him this year. It's going to be really fun to play with him and play with Wade (Woodaz) and just be with them for a year and really learn under their wing and see how they play and just kind of get acclimated to the way they play. But I'm really excited to play with Barrett,” Brown said.