Defensive line commit Brown works to impress

Gary Brown was in intense pain as he lay in a hospital bed at Shands during one of UF's football camps in June.

The only thing the defensive tackle from Quincy could think about was that he might not be participating on a football field for a while.

"I love being at Florida for anything," said Brown, who was UF's second verbal commit of the 2009 class. "Whether it's watching the game or being on the field I just love being there. Not being able to be there — stuck in the hospital all day long — thinking about what they're doing at practice and doing something that I really love was just painful for me."

The reason for Brown's hospitalization? A full-body cramp he suffered after guzzling down a bottle of Gatorade upon returning to his Trusler Hall dorm room at the conclusion of one of the night sessions at the camp.

Brown said he had heard of players getting such intense cramps before, but he had never experienced something like it himself. He admits that he's known to cramp up when he eats or drinks something sweet after workouts.

"I left a Gatorade in the refrigerator and something was telling me, ‘Don't drink it. Don't drink it,' but I remember it just looking so good and I was so thirsty that I drank it," said the West Gadsden High tackle, who is a four-star prospect and rated the sixth-best defensive tackle in the country by Rivals.com. "I just started cramping up from there. I felt a twitching in my leg, so I decided to stretch it out and once I started stretching it just got worse from there."

Soon, UF's football training staff arrived and rushed him to the hospital where his treatment was swift and he was up and moving in no time.

"The training staff is a class-A staff," Brown said. "They'll come take care of you if you broke a finger nail."

His return to Gainesville for Friday Night Lights was what he called a "revenge trip" where he wanted to show UF's coaches that he wouldn't let an injury like that keep him from competing at the highest level with some of the best high school football talents from all around the country.

The 6-foot-3, 275-pound Brown had a lot of hype to live up to at FNL. According to Rivals, as a junior Brown put up monster numbers with 113 tackles and 26 sacks. He definitely didn't disappoint at Friday Night Lights, as he overmatched almost every lineman he faced. When he wasn't throwing other linemen to the ground, he was blowing through drills faster than anyone.

Brown's motor never seemed to quit. The only time he didn't look active was when he was eating his plate of chicken and pasta at the conclusion of the camp.

"(The injury) motivates me a whole lot because (after) something like that happens the coaches were saying, ‘You've never worked this hard before,'" Brown said. "For me, I just get motivated a lot and I just worked hard after that so I could get better."

Besides the chance to compete with such talented players, Brown said another big motivating factor for him is just being on UF's campus and around his future coaches.

"When I come here I just feel at home," he said. "My chest just sticks out a little bit more. The atmosphere is great and the coaching staff is great people. They might get on you and cuss you out on the field, but after all that's over with they are actually genuinely nice people. I just really appreciate that."