North Carolina State University Athletics
Program Spotlight: Martrel Brown
11/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Tim Peeler
Raleigh, N.C. - Martrel Brown has had much harsher wake up calls. In fact, he got them just about every morning until he was 13 years old from his grandmother, Mary “Lizzie” Brown, as she yelled upstairs to the attic of the old three-story house she owned in downtown Maxton, N.C.
Brown lived in the house with eight cousins, aunts and uncles, all of whom found their way to Mrs. Brown’s home because she lived closer to the bus stop than any one else in the family.
And she had more room than anyone else, with three bedrooms and a converted loft attic that was plenty big enough to put five or six beds in the big, open room. It was just across the street from the hotel that Brown’s grandmother operated, managed and cleaned while all her pre-teen dependents were off at school.
It was a rugged life, one spent avoiding the trouble on the streets of the depressed Robeson County town of 2,660 people about 40 miles southwest of Fayetteville, where the median income is roughly half that of the average North Carolina household.
“There is a lot of trouble down there,” Brown said. “But my mom and my grandmother, they kept me out of the street. When it was time to come home, I came home. I respected my grandmother for all that she did to keep me and my cousins and my aunts and uncles. We all stayed with her while our mothers went off to work.
“She is my role model.”
To be sure, then, he’s had stiffer punishments than being benched, as he was earlier this football season by NC State football coach Tom O’Brien. It happened four games into the season when Brown, an elected co-captain, was taken out of the starting lineup in favor of sophomore Willie Young. Brown came off the bench against Louisville and Florida State, but played well enough to earn his starting job back, as Young was moved other defensive end spot.
“Being a team captain, the coaches expect a lot out of you,” said Brown, who led the Wolfpack with seven sacks last season, his first at defensive end after spending two years playing defensive tackle. “The first half of this season, I wasn’t giving them what they expected. I wasn’t playing up to the ability I knew I could play. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was thinking too much or thinking I had to do too much.
“Once they demoted me to second team, it was like a wake-up call. I decided I wasn’t going to get mad at nobody but myself. I was going to work hard and get better.”
O’Brien insists he wasn’t trying to send a message to Brown he was just trying to get the best football players on the field.
“The object, as a coach, is to get the best guys on the field and the guys who are performing the best,” O’Brien said. “He wasn’t performing the best. It wasn’t intended to be a wake-up call. We are just trying to get the best players on the field every week.”
Strangely enough, though, Brown quickly improved after his time on the bench. He played in both the Louisville and Florida State games, with eight total tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack. Then, against East Carolina, Brown had his best game of the year, with four tackles, a sack, a pass break-up and a fumble recovery that led to the Wolfpack’s third touchdown of the day.
“He hung in there, continued to work and he got an opportunity to fight his way back into the lineup,” O’Brien said. “He’s doing a great job right now for us.”
What Brown, who dreams one day of playing professional football, realized was that his time was running out. If he wanted to contribute, he needed to make some changes quickly to help out the team he was supposed to be leading.
“It made me look bad, and it made me want to work harder,” Brown said of his time out of the starting lineup.
Brown admits he’s no fan of hard chores the kind he and his roommates were expected to complete every day after they finished their homework. Stuff like raking leaves, mowing grass, cleaning up around the crowded house. But he knew first hand about the results of a little elbow grease.
Few players are recruited to play major Division I football from Purnell Swett High School, the Pembroke school where Brown was an outside linebacker. But Brown’s prep accomplishments drew the attention of former Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato’s staff. NC State was the only school to offer Brown, a first-team all-state selection as a senior, a full scholarship, though plenty of others were impressed after watching Brown record seven tackles, two sacks and a blocked punt in the 2002 Shrine Bowl.
After sitting out one season as a red-shirt at NC State, Brown played two seasons at defensive tackle, alongside a cadre of NFL picks. He played sparingly in 2004 and 05, but had plenty of opportunity to contribute last season after being moved to defensive end prior to the ’06 season. He had 49 total tackles in his first year as a starter, with eight tackles for loss, a team-high seven sacks and seven quarterback pressures.
He came into his senior season with great expectations of getting the notice of NFL scouts, just like Mario Williams, Manny Lawson, John McCargo and Tank Tyler did before him. It’s a dream that was borne while playing with the Maxton Bears in the fifth grade.
“If it is the Lord’s will, I would like to pursue playing in the NFL,” said Brown. “If that doesn’t work out, I would like to come back to college and be a graduate assistant. If I can’t make it, I would like to try to help other people make it.”
“I just pray for the chance.”
Brown does have a certain something in his vocal leadership and his ability to inspire others. In August, he was elected team captain along with tight end Marcus Stone and wide receiver John Dunlap. It was a surprise honor for Brown, a relative unknown outside the Wolfpack locker rooms. He thought the defensive representative would be someone like his roommate, senior tackle DeMario Pressley.
“I am a pretty low-key guy,” Brown said. “I don’t let too much get to me. I try to stay positive and humble in every situation.”
And that has brought Brown from the humble roots of Maxton to a successful football career and put him on the verge of earning a college degree. He anticipates graduating in December with a degree in Parks, Tourism and Recreation, something he considers an appropriate repayment to his mother and grandmother who kept him on the right path for so long.
Raleigh, N.C. - Martrel Brown has had much harsher wake up calls. In fact, he got them just about every morning until he was 13 years old from his grandmother, Mary “Lizzie” Brown, as she yelled upstairs to the attic of the old three-story house she owned in downtown Maxton, N.C.
Brown lived in the house with eight cousins, aunts and uncles, all of whom found their way to Mrs. Brown’s home because she lived closer to the bus stop than any one else in the family.
And she had more room than anyone else, with three bedrooms and a converted loft attic that was plenty big enough to put five or six beds in the big, open room. It was just across the street from the hotel that Brown’s grandmother operated, managed and cleaned while all her pre-teen dependents were off at school.
It was a rugged life, one spent avoiding the trouble on the streets of the depressed Robeson County town of 2,660 people about 40 miles southwest of Fayetteville, where the median income is roughly half that of the average North Carolina household.
“There is a lot of trouble down there,” Brown said. “But my mom and my grandmother, they kept me out of the street. When it was time to come home, I came home. I respected my grandmother for all that she did to keep me and my cousins and my aunts and uncles. We all stayed with her while our mothers went off to work.
“She is my role model.”
To be sure, then, he’s had stiffer punishments than being benched, as he was earlier this football season by NC State football coach Tom O’Brien. It happened four games into the season when Brown, an elected co-captain, was taken out of the starting lineup in favor of sophomore Willie Young. Brown came off the bench against Louisville and Florida State, but played well enough to earn his starting job back, as Young was moved other defensive end spot.
“Being a team captain, the coaches expect a lot out of you,” said Brown, who led the Wolfpack with seven sacks last season, his first at defensive end after spending two years playing defensive tackle. “The first half of this season, I wasn’t giving them what they expected. I wasn’t playing up to the ability I knew I could play. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was thinking too much or thinking I had to do too much.
“Once they demoted me to second team, it was like a wake-up call. I decided I wasn’t going to get mad at nobody but myself. I was going to work hard and get better.”
O’Brien insists he wasn’t trying to send a message to Brown he was just trying to get the best football players on the field.
“The object, as a coach, is to get the best guys on the field and the guys who are performing the best,” O’Brien said. “He wasn’t performing the best. It wasn’t intended to be a wake-up call. We are just trying to get the best players on the field every week.”
Strangely enough, though, Brown quickly improved after his time on the bench. He played in both the Louisville and Florida State games, with eight total tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack. Then, against East Carolina, Brown had his best game of the year, with four tackles, a sack, a pass break-up and a fumble recovery that led to the Wolfpack’s third touchdown of the day.
“He hung in there, continued to work and he got an opportunity to fight his way back into the lineup,” O’Brien said. “He’s doing a great job right now for us.”
What Brown, who dreams one day of playing professional football, realized was that his time was running out. If he wanted to contribute, he needed to make some changes quickly to help out the team he was supposed to be leading.
“It made me look bad, and it made me want to work harder,” Brown said of his time out of the starting lineup.
Brown admits he’s no fan of hard chores the kind he and his roommates were expected to complete every day after they finished their homework. Stuff like raking leaves, mowing grass, cleaning up around the crowded house. But he knew first hand about the results of a little elbow grease.
Few players are recruited to play major Division I football from Purnell Swett High School, the Pembroke school where Brown was an outside linebacker. But Brown’s prep accomplishments drew the attention of former Wolfpack head coach Chuck Amato’s staff. NC State was the only school to offer Brown, a first-team all-state selection as a senior, a full scholarship, though plenty of others were impressed after watching Brown record seven tackles, two sacks and a blocked punt in the 2002 Shrine Bowl.
After sitting out one season as a red-shirt at NC State, Brown played two seasons at defensive tackle, alongside a cadre of NFL picks. He played sparingly in 2004 and 05, but had plenty of opportunity to contribute last season after being moved to defensive end prior to the ’06 season. He had 49 total tackles in his first year as a starter, with eight tackles for loss, a team-high seven sacks and seven quarterback pressures.
He came into his senior season with great expectations of getting the notice of NFL scouts, just like Mario Williams, Manny Lawson, John McCargo and Tank Tyler did before him. It’s a dream that was borne while playing with the Maxton Bears in the fifth grade.
“If it is the Lord’s will, I would like to pursue playing in the NFL,” said Brown. “If that doesn’t work out, I would like to come back to college and be a graduate assistant. If I can’t make it, I would like to try to help other people make it.”
“I just pray for the chance.”
Brown does have a certain something in his vocal leadership and his ability to inspire others. In August, he was elected team captain along with tight end Marcus Stone and wide receiver John Dunlap. It was a surprise honor for Brown, a relative unknown outside the Wolfpack locker rooms. He thought the defensive representative would be someone like his roommate, senior tackle DeMario Pressley.
“I am a pretty low-key guy,” Brown said. “I don’t let too much get to me. I try to stay positive and humble in every situation.”
And that has brought Brown from the humble roots of Maxton to a successful football career and put him on the verge of earning a college degree. He anticipates graduating in December with a degree in Parks, Tourism and Recreation, something he considers an appropriate repayment to his mother and grandmother who kept him on the right path for so long.
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