FAYETTEVILLE — With little time remaining in the first half on Sept. 14, 2019, Arkansas cornerback Montaric Brown flipped his hips to run with a Colorado State wide receiver when he felt something pop.
At the end of the half, LaDarrius Bishop, Brown’s cousin, entered the game for him. Brown was unsure what was causing the sudden discomfort in his groin. As a result, the Ashdown native did not play the following Saturday in the stunning loss to San Jose State.
But he was in the lineup the next week against Texas A&M at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Brown, with family members in attendance, came away with his first career interception late in the third quarter, picking off Aggies quarterback Kellen Mond in the end zone as Arkansas attempted to hold on to a 24-21 lead.
“It was incredible, man. It was exciting,” Brown said of the interception. “It was a moment I’ll never forget.”
Fast forward to the end of Brown’s redshirt sophomore season, the pain he’d first felt months before had continued and gotten progressively worse. A trip to the training room shed some light on his injury.
“Boom, it was a sports hernia,” Brown said. He underwent surgery in January.
During winter workouts, the quick-twitch defensive back was unable to reach top speed. He kept feeling a sharp pain in his right groin, and Brown said he was becoming slower and slower. It was all new and surprising to him. He had never been injured before.
Heading into the 2020 season, Brown is feeling great and almost back to 100 percent. He had his future in mind as he worked his way back toward game shape.
“One of my goals is to take responsibility in recovery,” he added. “I try to get enough rest at night. After every workout or run, I try to get extra recovery, like baths and stuff, to help my body. Once I’m done with this game, I want to be fit and healthy.
“A lot of guys leave this game not healthy and injured and stuff. I’m trying to leave it healthy and fit. I’m trying to take care of my body and do the little things.”
Brown is hopeful and optimistic that doing the little things on and off the field will spark some change in an Arkansas defense that has struggled mightily in recent years. He is not satisfied with how the previous two seasons have played out or how he has performed during them.
Brown finished tied for fifth on the team in tackles with 39 in 2019, recorded one tackle for loss, one fumble recovery and broke up three passes. He believes he can be much more productive.
“I have a lot to prove,” he said. “I haven’t done what I thought I was going to do coming in. I redshirted my freshman year, so that kind of set me back, but I’ve got a lot to prove this season. I feel like if I put the work in everything will come. Just steady grinding, building team chemistry amongst my teammates, because I know if I push my teammates then they’ll push me.
“Everybody on the defense is focusing on their job. I’m just taking responsibility that my coach gives me and setting out goals and reaching them. Just doing my job, really, and being a leader. I’m working at being one percent better.”
Brown now prides himself on being a physical, sure-tackling cornerback. He looks up to the likes of the late Shawn Taylor and Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
But his early days were more about baseball. Brown latched on to baseball first growing up in southwest Arkansas. After his friends influenced him to try Little League football and a conversation with his mother, Danica, Brown quickly fell in love with the game.
He has not slowed down since.
Once in high school, Brown began to take the game even more seriously. He realized his talents were being noticed and colleges, including a number of decorated programs across the South, were showing strong interest and offering potentially life-changing opportunities.
“It’s either you’ve got a fast-food job or you play sports,” he said of his hometown. “I decided to play sports. … I really focused on football and really stopped playing all sports and I just ran track and played football. It took off from there. I felt like I was better at football than baseball and I just really focused on football.
“I could have played both, but I just felt like I was way better at football, and it just took off for me.”
He blossomed into a 4-star prospect and the No. 1 player in Arkansas by the major recruiting services. Brown, who finished with 110 tackles and seven interceptions as well as 813 yards receiving and seven touchdowns as a senior, had a decision to make.
He held scholarship offers from the best of the best in the region — LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma — as well as Arkansas. Brown elected to stay home and play for the Razorbacks.
Entering this fall, Brown says coaches have spoken to him about becoming more of a vocal leader. In his first two seasons on the field, he sat back and allowed players like Kam Curl, a 7th round pick of the Washington Redskins in April, to lead the secondary.
Brown’s aim is to take more responsibility in the back end of defensive coordinator Barry Odom’s unit.
“I can stop the small things, bubbles — I can stop anything,” he added. “Just the small things. I can tackle in space. I can improve on off-coverage. I feel like I’m a physical corner and can stop a lot of things and shut down my whole side of the field.
“I’m trying to be in that leader position among the DBs, making sure everybody is doing their job and has their assignments.”
Brown and new cornerbacks coach Sam Carter like the mix of talent and potential in their position group. Arkansas added Arkansas State graduate transfer Jerry Jacobs, who is on the staff’s board as a corner, Myles Slusher, a 4-star from Broken Arrow, Okla., and Khari Johnson and Nick Turner of Massachusetts and Louisiana, respectively.
“He developed his skillset. He also is mature,” Odom said of Slusher, who committed to Arkansas at around 11:45 p.m. on the eve of the early signing day in December. “He’s got a great competitive spirit. His football IQ, I’m really impressed with that. He had really great coaching at Broken Arrow High School. You can tell that.
“He’s very advanced in his thoughts and understanding of coverage.”
The Razorbacks return Brown as well as Jarques McClellion (34 tackles, 4 PBUs, INT in 2019), Bishop, who returned a Colorado State fumble 25 yards for a touchdown, and Devin Bush, considered a gem in Arkansas’ 2019 class who played in four games last season but did not record any statistics.
Brown says Arkansas is fairly young in the secondary, but the young players are capable of getting the job done. Carter agrees.
“I think we have everything we need here,” Carter said. “I’m excited to get in the room with the guys. The kids believe in me. I believe in them.”
This story originally appeared in the 2020 Hawgs Illustrated football preview