Canaan Brown
Position: LB/DE
Hometown (School): Clearwater, FL (Clearwater Central Catholic)
Height/Weight: 6'3" 220 lbs
Committed to Virginia: 05/29/13
Lead Recruiter: Vincent Brown
Canaan Brown is a wildcard in this recruiting class. He was under the radar as a recruit, and he committed pretty much as soon as he got an offer from the Hoos. He had no other DI options at that point and didn't really give anybody else a chance to jump on him. ESPN rated him as a 3 star recruit, while the other services all give him 2 stars.
Here is Brown's highlight reel. I believe this is mostly from his junior season.
You'll notice that Brown's is basically in the backfield on every one of these plays. That is his strength. He's got a pretty quick first step and excels off the edge. He's a bit like DaQuan Romero was coming in, although Romero was far more advanced technique-wise. While Romero enrolled in January and played as a true freshman, Brown will need a redshirt year.
Brown's first season will be spent largely in the weight room. He needs to add strength and size and see if he can hold enough weight to be a DE. That is the where the staff would ultimately like him to end up. He can be an asset as a pass rusher off the edge if he can get up to 250 or so pounds. Right now, he isn't strong enough to fight with blockers and is far too raw to play LB.
If Brown isn't able to keep on enough weight (or if the weight slows him down too much), he'll have to learn to play LB. He could still be used in a role similar to what Max Valles was this year, as a situational pass rushing LB. However, Valles is far more explosive than Brown is at this point.
Brown will almost definitely redshirt, as he develops his body and his game.
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