By Allen Wallace
National Recruiting Editor
Posted Jul 7, 2008
Marlon Brown's top ten list reads like a who's who of college football and it's no accident. "I care about football history and I care about tradition," Brown said. "I want a school that is known for winning." Besides tradition, Brown says the most important decision factor is going to be the coaches. "I just want to play for great coaches. I don't care about their coaching style. For me..."
Marlon Brown, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound five-star wide receiver from Harding High School in Memphis, Tenn., continues to deny a favorite from among approximately 35 scholarship offers.
"At the beginning of August I'll narrow it down to five or six schools," Brown said. "I don't think I'll commit until Signing Day though. I really want to take my time and get a good feeling for all of these schools."
Although he denies a leader, Brown does have a top 10 list and this is the order in which he stated his choices…
USC,
UCLA,
Stanford,
Oklahoma,
Notre Dame,
Ohio State,
LSU,
Georgia,
Tennessee and
Florida.
Brown, Scout.com's No. 3 wide receiver nationwide, was recently in California for the USC Rising Stars camp. "It was a real good time," he said. "I liked the camp a lot. It was great being there and competing.
"USC has a nice weight room and the facilities are pretty good," Brown said. "Plus, I just really love their tradition and the fan support they have. The Coliseum is amazing and I have a really good relationship with (wide receivers) coach
John Morton.
"I call coach Morton all the time and I just like how real he is," he said. "I never feel like he's telling me something that isn't true."
While visiting the Trojans, Brown decided to check out cross-town rival, UCLA, as well. "UCLA is really nice," he said. "I loved the campus and the place is beautiful. The weather in California is great."
Brown says that the thing he likes most about the Bruins is offensive coordinator
Norm Chow. "He's coach Chow," Brown said. "He's a great offensive coordinator. Everyone knows he's one of the best in the country."
The other California school on Brown's list is Stanford and he visited Palo Alto for a May junior day. "It's an amazing thing that they are trying to do there," he said. "The school has great academics and they want to be great at football too."
Brown says the schools that are recruiting him the hardest are USC, Florida and Tennessee. "They e-mail me regularly and keep in contact the most," he said.
"I'm going to try and visit Florida this summer too, but the others will have to be official visits in the fall," he said.
One of those visits will likely be to Georgia, who he admits he's most looking forward to seeing play next season. "They have a good program and a young team and it'll be interesting to see how they do. They did pretty well last year, but they should be even better this season."
Brown's top ten list reads like a who's who of college football and it's no accident. "I care about football history and I care about tradition," he said. "I want a school that is known for winning.
"All of my schools have really good tradition," Brown said. "Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Ohio State, LSU…they are all great programs with great reputations." Besides tradition, Brown says the most important decision factor is going to be the coaches. "I just want to play for great coaches," he said. "I don't care about their coaching style. For me, a great coach is someone who will help make a good player become a great player." Brown wants