Cornell Brown goes back to Pros

2008 LPD News

Hokie gets new opportunity in lucrative career

January 29, 2008

Cornell Brown recently signed a deal with the CFL Calgary Stampeders to coach the Defensive Line. He'll be leaving the Hokies this week for Alberta Canada to begin the new chapter of his outstanding career.

The Stampeders are in the middle of a restructuring period with new coaching and management. They're hopeful Cornell's experience can help improve a struggling defensive unit.

For more info, see the LPD Exclusive Interview

Cornell Brown bio:

• No. 1 prep player in Virginia following his senior year at Lynchburg's E.C. Glass High School
• Four seasons as starting DE - 1993-1997
• Started 10 games, including an Independence Bowl win against Indiana, as a true freshman in 1993
• Helped Tech to an overall 37-11 record
• 4 straight bowl games
• 2 Big East Championships
• 95 Big East Sack Leader
• 95 National Defensive Player of the Year
• 95 Big East Defensive Player of the Year
• 2nd All-time sack leader for the Hokies
• 1997 Sixth-round NFL draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens
• Played seven seasons with the Ravens
• 1 Super Bowl Championship ring
• 2007 Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame

Things changed dramatically during Brown's four seasons as a starting defensive end. During that span, he helped the Hokies to a 37-11 overall record, four-straight bowl games and a pair of BIG EAST Conference championships.

Brown started 10 games, including an Independence Bowl win against Indiana, as a true freshman in 1993. He played more snaps than any other defensive lineman on the team that season, finishing fifth in tackles with 57 and registering a team-high 24 quarterback pressures. His play earned him second-team freshman All-America honors from Football News.

After leading the team in sacks (11) and finishing fourth in tackles (84) as a sophomore, Brown became the most honored junior in Tech football history in 1995. That year, he led the BIG EAST in sacks with 14 and tied for third nationally in both sacks and total tackles for loss (25). He also had 103 tackles and an amazing 48 quarterback pressures as the Hokies capped a 10-2 season with their first BIG EAST championship and a Sugar Bowl win over Texas. Brown was a first-team All-America pick on five teams, making him the first Tech junior to earn consensus A-A honors. He was also named the National Defensive Player of the Year by Football News, the BIG EAST Football Conference Defensive Player of the Year and was one of the five finalists for the Football Writers' Association Defensive Player of the Year.

As a senior, Brown won first-team All-America honors from the Walter Camp Foundation and was one of four finalists for the Lombardi Award even though he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and missed two games during the second month of the season. He was also named second-team All-America by The Associated Press and was a first-team BIG EAST pick after helping Tech to a share of the conference title and a berth in the Orange Bowl. Brown's eight sacks during the season brought his career total to 36, which still ranks him second all-time at Tech behind Bruce Smith.

A sixth-round NFL draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens in 1997, Brown played seven seasons with the Ravens, earning a Super Bowl championship ring in the process. In 2000 he returned to Tech to finish his undergraduate degree and he is currently working to complete a master's in health promotion. Brown, who has coached in the NFL's European league the past three summers, lives in Blacksburg and is a graduate assistant football coach for the Hokies.

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