IOWA CITY — Everyone heard the questions about transfer WR Kaleb Brown this season. Brown, a 5'10", 197-pound redshirt freshman, finally answered the questions Saturday — with an exclamation point.
QB Deacon Hill found Brown for a 23-yard completion on Iowa's final drive of the game, setting up a 53-yard field goal by Drew Stevens for the 10-7 victory over Northwestern at Wrigley Field. Brown's catch was the first of his Hawkeye career (and second of his college career), but it'll be tough for any others to match it.
On Tuesday, Brown met with the media for the first time since the regular season began.
"Just to break the ice definitely felt good," Brown said of his first catch. "Definitely has been a long time coming, but behind the scenes, I've been working. So it's just a matter of time, and the time has come."
"I think the more impressive part, he fought for four or five yards after he got the ball, head coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. "That was critical at that point. We were confident we didn't have to move it too far, but to move it without putting things at risk."
Part of Brown's path to the field was WR Diante Vines getting hurt during the Northwestern game.
"Diante was out at that point," Ferentz said Tuesday. "It's next man in, next man up. If you do get an opportunity, you never know when it's going to come, typically. And it is an opportunity to do something — get noticed in a positive way."
Brown prepped at St. Rita High School in Chicago, Illinois, and the opportunity to make a play to help win the game in his hometown was not lost on the sophomore wideout.
"It was perfect timing," Brown said. "It felt good and real comfortable to be home, knowing my whole family was there. Just to be in the presence of Chicago — that felt great."
The hype surrounding Brown upon his commitment to Iowa towered over that of any other incoming recruit or transfer, outside of QB Cade McNamara. As a former four-star, top-100 recruit, Iowa fans' eagerness to see Brown's playmaking ability was equally palpable and understandable.
Every offense needs weapons, and Iowa's offense needed one like lungs need oxygen.
Head coach Kirk Ferentz has been quick to remind fans, however, that Brown is still not only quite young, but still inexperienced at wideout relative to other second-year college players.
"He's not an infant as a receiver, but it's really the first year he's really been in the deal," Ferentz said. "Right now he's getting the work, he's doing a really good job — he's got good ability, good attitude."
Hype and patience are the water and oil of the college football world, though, and that's even before the expectations added by hefty NIL deals like the one that brought Brown to Iowa City.
Brown also missed the Purdue game entirely, for reasons Ferentz would only describe at the time as "personal." And if any drama surrounded Brown's absence at the time, it is well and truly gone now — thanks to the effort Brown has put into practice.
"It's just him working every day," Ferentz said. We just got done talking about Jay [Higgins]'s ascension in the last year-and-a-half, hopefully we'll see the same thing with Kaleb. He's got an opportunity here."
On an offense starving as badly as ever for playmakers after a spate of injuries to its skill position players, that opportunity is right there for the taking. And now that Brown is back on the depth chart as the second-string WR behind Vines for the first time since Purdue week, it's clear the coaches are ready and willing to see Brown fulfill the lofty hype that carried him into Iowa City.
