Donnell Brown trotted onto the forest green turf at Ohio Stadium, seeing, hearing and feeling an environment nothing like he’d ever experienced before.
The stadium was filled with nearly 105,000 fans, a slight uptick from the usual 1,500 attendees at St. Francis (Pa.) home games, where Brown spent his previous four seasons of college football.
“When I was at St. Francis, I never visualized myself actually [playing Ohio State],” Brown said. “I felt like I was watching on TV.”
Brown certainly didn’t play like a bystander.
On a third-and-16 in the first quarter, Brown bounced off an Ohio State lineman, grabbed quarterback Kyle McCord by his right shoulder pad and flung him to the ground.