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DE Malik Brown was the centerpiece of the 2013 Syracuse Orange football recruiting class...until he wasn't. Brown had verbally-committed to SU before Doug Marrone jumped ship to the Buffalo Bills. That hurt Malik's heart and no PowerPoint presentation was going to be able to mend it.
On signing day, Brown flipped to the Tennessee Volunteers. Before he left, he cited contract law in his reasoning.
"If you know anything about contracts, after you commit to a contract and the contract changes, that contract is now void. So that’s why today I will be decommitting from Syracuse and signing with the University of Tennessee."
Brown also revealed that he had measured all of his suitors using some kind of makeshift point system and, well, point don't lie.
Malik Brown's point system finished like this: Tennessee 242, Syracuse 202, South Florida 156.
— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) February 6, 2013
The points system failed Malik in the end, however, as he has now decided to transfer from Tennessee. Brown spent most of his redshirt freshman season dealing with a hand injury as well as an insurmountable DE depth chart.
So, considering Syracuse was not only his original choice but also finished second on his personal point system, does that mean Malik might finally come around to play for the Orange? It's possible, says Malik himself.
...after an injury-plagued redshirt freshman season with the Volunteers, Brown decided to transfer from Tennessee, and said that he isn't ruling out Syracuse as a destination.
"Yeah," Brown wrote in a text message when asked about the possibility."I'm looking at every option available."
Other schools that offered Brown the first time around include USF, Cincinnati, Illinois, Mississippi State and Purdue, though there has been no word on whose in play this time around.
Obviously, Brown would have to sit out the upcoming season wherever he goes, but SU is in no position to turn away capable defensive end prospects. Considering how we've gotten pretty good at putting defensive linemen in the NFL Draft in recent years, perhaps we'll end up sliding up that point system in the end after all.
