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Q&A: Cal Linebacker Gerran Brown

With Devante Downs' injury, Justin Wilcox noted that it'd be a collective effort to replace him. After Downs went down early in the third quarter against Washington State, linebackers Jordan Kunaszyk and Gerran Brown played most of the rest of the way, with Kunaszyk earning Walter Camp and Pac-12 defensive player of the week awards, while Brown had a collection of firsts, first sack, first fumble recovery, and first touchdown in college. Brown is listed as the starter at the Will, Downs' position, but Wilcox noted that Brown's preparation hasn't changed even with the likely starting job.

"Gerran’s been the same every week, I don’t see a change, and that’s a good thing." Wilcox said, "Since spring, he’s worked extremely hard, he pays attention, he asks really good questions in meetings, he’s an instinctive player, so I don’t think it’s going to be different than any other week for him. He’s gonna have more opportunities now, unfortunately that Devante’s out, but it’s not like we’re asking Gerran to be something else. He’s done a really good job since we’ve been here, we just need him to keep doing that."

After Brown's play a week ago and role in a couple key plays (Brown's fumble recover TD and the final tip drill INT), we had a Q&A with the redshirt sophomore linebacker from Santa Ana.

READ: How Gerran Brown got to Cal, With an Assist from Malik McMorris

Just to start, on your touchdown celebration, were you doing the John Cena 'You can't see me move,' and was it a spur of the moment thing?

Yeah I was doing the John Cena. That's just always been, I loved John Cena when I was a kid, him and Rey Mysterio, it's kinda hard to do the 619 out here, so I decided I was gonna do the 'you can't see me'

How long had it been since you'd scored a touchdown?

Since my senior year of high school, so a couple of years.

Can you walk me through what happened on that play from your perspective?

We were just twisting up front, he got through cleanly, I kinda saw the edge get crumbled down, so I went back out there. Right as I got there, Jordan was there and the ball is popped out, all I had to do was scoop and score.

What did you see on the tip drill interception at the end that you were a part of?

I didn't really see anything, I just turned around and saw Derron Brown break it up, it was a great play by Derron. He ends up hitting it, and out of nowhere, I was going for the ball, before I knew it, it was in my hands, and then it was in Q's (Quentin Tartabull) hands. I don't really remember that play much, it was so quick.

How was the reaction when the inside linebackers found out that Devante would be out for the year?

Yeah, it's a big bummer, Devante's the stronghold of our defense if not the whole team. He's one of the best players we have and it's a bummer to see him get hurt, he was having a great year, setting himself up for high hopes going into March and April for draft time, but as a group, we kinda have to take it upon ourselves. No one's gonna be Devante, no one's going to be producing at the level as he was, but we've got to as a group. That's our goal now, to continue producing at the level he was.

We'd heard Devante has been assuming more of a coach role, has Devante been coaching you up a bit more specifically since you're playing his position?

Yeah, he's always there to help, just the little things that he sees and I don't or the things that I can help, with alignment, and the experience he's had, he's played four years of college football, this is my first and so I'm always going to be listening to him. He's helpful with really in the moment things.

Being that it's your first year playing, how comfortable are you getting?

I'm super comfortable, you know, first game I would say the only play I really felt it was the kickoff. Ever since then, it's the same game I've been playing my whole life. It's the same game, and that's what I tell myself in moments when, like when offenses start going quick or we kinda get gashed on a drive, but at the end of the day, it's the same game. It's a little bit quicker, but that's how you adjust, and I feel like I've been adjusting well to that.

Moving on to Arizona, what has been the main point impressed on you on dealing with Tate and their run game?

They're gonna be a physical team, it's gonna be a tough game, we're gonna be downhill. He can get loose, he's really fast, really good in space, but I think (Brandon) McIlwain did a good job this week during scout, giving us that look, just running around. We've got to tackle, first person there, and then second and third continue to get that ball out, we need some takeaways.

Do you see their line coming straight at you, as a bigger, physical group?

They like to come downhill, they're read zones, they're not really staying on their blocks as much, so they're coming off to the linebackers a lot, but we have our gameplan in, we feel like it's going to work against them, and we're ready to stop the run again.

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