Sept. 4, 2021: 2023 four-star WR Anthony Brown (Springfield, OH) committed to the Gophers Saturday, giving them their first commitment for the ’23 recruiting class.
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Recruiting never sleeps. Only two days after Minnesota began its 2021 campaign, PJ Fleck has signed his first recruit for the 2023 class. Four-star WR Anthony Brown is quite the way to start said recruiting class. Brown, a 5-foot-10 WR chose the Gophers over a plethora of top offers such as Tennessee, Penn State and Michigan. 247sports ranks him as the No. 302 ranked overall player and the No. 41 ranked wide receiver nationwide in the class of 2023.
— Anthony Brown ⁷ (@anthonybrownn_) September 4, 2021
Who is Anthony Brown?:
Anthony Brown is a junior student-athlete who attends Springfield High School in Springfield, Ohio. Brown is the brother of current Gophers wide receiver Mike Brown-Stephens, and attends the same high school that his older brother graduated from. As a sophomore last season Anthony caught 40 passes for 829 yards and 12 touchdowns for Springfield. In his first game of 2021, he caught three balls for 82 yards and a touchdown all in the first quarter, before leaving the game due to an injury.
Brown is all you want in a Big Ten wide receiver — next-level athleticism, natural route running and prototypical size, he checks all of the boxes. He consistently made defenders look silly at the high school level as a sophomore, you can only imagine what he looks like as a junior. There is a reason why he is a four-star recruit, there are very few if any holes in Brown’s game.
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High School hudl highlights–> https://www.hudl.com/video/3/12877338/5fa9fadc38638d0d64b7b506
Instant Reaction:
You can’t really ask for a better inaugural commit to the 2023 recruiting class. PJ Fleck and the Gophers obviously had a slight advantage over other programs, with Anthony Brown’s brother currently on the roster, but being able to pull a four-star recruit away from programs like Michigan, Tennessee and Penn State should tell you all that you need to know about where this program stands nationwide. As for the player himself, Brown is a stud. There is zero reason why he cannot be a significant contributor early in his Minnesota career.
What is next?:
The 2023 recruiting class is obviously two years away from joining the program, so a lot can change before then. Brown is currently receiving interest from Ohio State and Notre Dame, but he has yet to officially get an offer. He has already stated that an offer from either school would not change anything and that he is 100% committed to Minnesota, but we all know how serious that can mean.
Minnesota’s 2022 recruiting class currently ranks No. 47 nationally with 13 total commitments. The ’21 class had 18 commitments, so I would imagine that the 2022 class is far from being completed. As for the 2023 class, the Gophers are obviously just getting started, but Anthony Brown’s commitment is a great start.