When Trenton Brown signed with Florida last winter, he expected to make a contribution equal to his size.
But seven games into his college career, he remained on the sideline, watching his teammates surrender sack after drive-killing sack.
“It was kind of frustrating,” Brown said.
But against Georgia on Saturday, Brown finally got a chance to make a big impact.
The junior transfer out of Georgia Military College made his first Division I start against the Bulldogs and drew praise from his coaches and teammates.
“He did a good job in the game,” offensive coordinator Brent Pease said. “There’s a couple things we’ve got to clean up. I think he’s good now that he’s had some of those been-in-a-game situations. I think he’ll get better.”
Brown started at right tackle in redshirt sophomore Tyler Moore’s place while Moore moved to left tackle, replacing injured sophomore D.J. Humphries (knee). The new offensive-line combination surrendered four sacks against Georgia but looked better against the pass rush than it had in previous weeks.
“They gave me time,” quarterback Tyler Murphy said. “They were able to open up some holes for the running backs. I thought they played well.”
Brown’s strength on the line is his sheer size. The 6-foot-8, 360-pound lineman has the mass to block any blitzing defender. Brown said he inherited the size from his family.
“My dad is 6-7, and my mom’s dad is 6-7,” he said. “I’ve heard that you get your size from your mom’s side of the family, so I guess I would have kind of nice size either way.”
Brown almost utilized his height in another sport. Before focusing on football, he said he played basketball well enough to garner scholarship offers from mid-major Division I schools such as Jacksonville State, Old Dominion and South Carolina State.
“If I dropped about 60 pounds, I could still get after it,” he said. “I’ve still got the game.
“Before I gained that, I could windmill (dunk). When I was 285, I could windmill.”
But the weight he added between his freshman year of college — when he weighed in at a slim 290 pounds, according to Rivals.com — and when he enrolled at Florida in May is what allowed him to succeed on the line.
Brown attributed his growth at Georgia Military College to one meal in particular — Zaxby’s chicken-finger plate.
“We’d eat Zaxby’s like two times a day,” he said. “The cafeteria wasn’t the best.”
Although Brown is a force on the line, Florida’s staff is having him slow down. He said he wants to slim down to 340 pounds — limiting his Zaxby’s intake to the occasional salad.
Moore said Brown is surprisingly athletic at his current size, and he can make plays against the best players the Gators throw at him during practice.
“I saw him take down Dante Fowler on the pass rush,” Moore said. “(Fowler is), if not this year, next year, (an) All-American defensive end, and he made him look like he was a high-school kid.”
UF needs all the help it can get on the line. Florida has already struggled against strong defensive players such as Miami’s Tyriq McCord, Missouri’s Michael Sam and Georgia’s Ray Drew. The Gators still have All-American Gamecocks lineman Jadeveon Clowney looming.
But with Brown on the line, the Gators received a big, potentially NFL-bound boost.
“He showed little clips of being what he can be, which I’d say at least a third-round pick in the NFL, if not higher if he can continue to play, continue to develop the way he is,” Moore said.
“He’s a big guy and has great reach and everything. So he can be something special if he keeps working.”
Follow Adam Lichtenstein on Twitter @alichtenstein24.
Florida right tackle Trenton Brown (74) blocks Georgia defensive lineman Garrison Smith (56) during the Gators’ 23-20 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday at EverBank Field in Jacksonville.
