By Josh Troy
Clarksdale Advocate
Kaleb Brown, a 2020 Clarksdale High School and 2022 Coahoma Community College graduate, is playing college football on the big stage at the University of North Alabama. Brown, a junior who starts at defensive tackle for the Lions, has more than 30 tackles and three tackles for losses this season.
“It’s been a very productive year,” he said. “I think I’m in the top five on my team for tackles.” The Lions (3-7, 1-5 in 2023) are at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level as a member of the United Athletic Conference. They will be on the road against the No. 4 team in the nation, Florida State, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“I’m just going to attack the week of practice like it’s any other team because that’s how you’re supposed to do it,” Brown said. Brown (6 feet, 280 pounds) said his best game of the season was when he had seven tackles in a 49-39 loss at Austin Peay on Oct. 28.
The University of North Alabama is just three-and-a-half hours away from Clarksdale, and the location helped attract Brown to the program. “It was close to home,” Brown said. Brown said the new coaching staff, including first-year head coach Brent Dearmon, also influenced him to play for the Lions. “He just makes sure everything comes in as work,” said Brown of Dearmon. “The standard is never going to drop. He expects 100% out of us, no matter what we’re doing.”
Brown was a guard and center on offense for the Clarksdale Wildcats and a defensive tackle. He was a defensive tackle at CCC Tigers from 2020 to 2022. He was able to play an extra year at CCC since the 2020 season came in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
Brown has had to step up his game playing for the Lions. “It’s more intense here,” he said. “Every day is a workday.” “It’s football, so I’ve been doing the same thing my whole life. What’s expected is very different. I’m expected to do my job every time. The expectation is higher.”
In Brown’s senior year at the University of North Alabama, he said his goal is to “win every game and develop my skills and become a leader on and off the field and do whatever it takes to win.” Brown is a sports management major and hopes to either coach, do sports marketing, or something where he is involved with a professional sports organization after college graduation. His GPA has been in the area of 3.0 throughout college. He stressed the importance of focusing on academics while playing football. “It’s very important,” he said. “After football, I’ll have to have something to fall back on.”
Brown’s high school team, the Clarksdale Wildcats, is 8-3 on the season, district champions, and in the second round of the playoffs. He believes they have a chance to go far in the postseason. “All the teams they knocked off this year, we were losing to when I was in high school,” he said. “They’re on the right path.” Brown noted the Wildcats’ defense has given up seven or fewer points in the past four games. He also praised the job first-year Wildcats head coach Curtis Kemp Jr. has done. Kemp played quarterback for the Wildcats and was a longtime assistant for the program. “He got them boys ready,” said Brown of Kemp. “I know they lost to Cleveland Central in the regular season and then beat them boys (in the playoffs).” Brown mentioned how the Wildcats won the division, and that was something his teams were unable to do in high school.
