Power in the Blood! VB3 Follows in the Family Footsteps

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“…It was always one school. Florida’s always the school I came back to. Like, even when I didn’t want to.  I  just came back to it.” – 5-star wide receiver Vernell Brown III talking about how the Florida Gators landed his commitment with Zach Abloverdi of Gators Online.

Blood, it turns out, still means something when it comes to the Brown family in Gainesville, Florida. Wide receiver Vernell Brown III (5-11, 173, Orlando, FL Jones) isn’t just your typical legacy recruit. There aren’t many whose Florida football roots run deeper. His dad Vernell Jr., grandfather Vernell Sr., and uncles Val and Johnell were all Gators, too. All the Browns before VB3 were fine football players, but this one is special. Very, very special.

At Orlando Jones a year ago, VB3 was electric, hauling in 70 passes for 1,404 yards and 12 touchdowns. He scored another four touchdowns as he wound up with more than 2,000 all-purpose yards. He’s so good that some recruiting analysts claim there isn’t a better receiver in the country once he has the football in his hands.

When it came time to make the call for where he’s going to be playing college football, Billy Napier and the Florida Gators won out, but not without Ohio State, Florida State and Miami doing their best to convince him otherwise. Some of the final decision had to do with Billy Gonzales, the Florida wide receivers coach who was also coaching Gator wide receivers back when dad Vernell Brown Jr. was labeled “the face of Florida football” in 2005 by then head coach Urban Meyer. Some of it had to do with where VB3 plans to live once he has hung up his cleats. He grew up in Florida and has no intention of living anywhere else once his playing days have come and gone.

But the biggest reason of all is family. And maybe the biggest family reason is Vernell Brown Jr, whose scholarship to Florida as part of the recruiting class of 2000 was secured by a phone call between Gainesville High School legendary coach Jim Niblack and Steve Spurrier. Spurrier was concerned about Vernell Jr.’s size, then about 5-8 and maybe 140 or so pounds.

At Ryan’s Steakhouse one day at lunch, Niblack recalled the conversation.

“I said go ahead and sign him,” Niblack said. “Just give him a chance and he’ll find a place to play. And if he can’t play, come see me. I’ll write you a check for whatever the scholarship ends up costing you.”

Spurrier took Niblack's word for it, signed Vernell Brown Jr. and kept the Brown family legacy alive.

In 2005, his fifth and final year playing for the Gators, Vernell Brown Jr. became a stud in Chuck Heater’s secondary. He broke up six passes, picked off three and had a habit of putting opposing receivers on the ground. He was a sure tackler.

But what made Vernell Brown Jr. so special had everything to do with leadership. Three incidences tell you everything you need to know about Vernell Brown Jr. while at the same time telling you exactly why Vernell Brown III will be a Gator.

November 12, 2005. The Gators had just lost to South Carolina and, of all people, Steve Spurrier in Columbia. Vernell Jr. hadn’t been able to play. He was on crutches, having suffered a broken leg against Vanderbilt a week earlier, but he was such a valuable leader that he made the trip to Columbia. When the Gators returned from Columbia there was a come to Jesus team meeting. Flanked by Jeremy Mincey and Jarvis Herring, Vernell Brown Jr. basically told the Gators that either they were 100 percent behind Urban Meyer or else don’t let the door hit them in the butts on the way out. That team meeting became the turning point for Meyer. Without that meeting there is no recruiting class that includes Tebow, Percy, BSpikes and other studs. Without that meeting there is no national championship in 2006.

Two weeks later, it was senior day at The Swamp. No. 19 Florida vs. No. 23 Florida State. The Seminoles had already clinched their division in the ACC and they would go on to beat Virginia Tech a week later for the league championship, but they wanted the state championship, too. A win would almost certainly result in Percy Harvin signing with FSU and would divert Tim Tebow and Brandon Spikes to Alabama.

One by one Florida’s seniors were announced, greeted at the 20-yard line by Meyer. Lance Butler, Randy Hand, Mike Degory, Jeremy Mincey, Jarvis Herring … there was some nastiness on the part of FSU fans and players alike when Todd McCullough’s name was announced. Todd disliked FSU as much as FSU disliked Todd.

One name remained to be called. Vernell Brown Jr., the littlest Gator of all when it came to physical size but the Gator with the biggest heart. They said he was 5-8, but nobody really believed it. They said he was 165 pounds. Maybe with his helmet, pads and shoes on.

Heart? Must have weighed 50 pounds.

As Vernell hobbled toward Meyer, the crowd erupted, a deafening roar heard up and down University Avenue, capable of blowing the roof off had The Swamp been domed. At the 20, Meyer bear hugged Vernell and the entire crowd at The Swamp could feel the emotion. The hug lasted only 8-10 seconds but it seemed like an eternity. Tears flowed freely throughout the old stadium.

Taking Vernell’s place on the field that day was freshman Avery Atkins, whose job was to cover FSU’s 6-6 wide receiver Greg Carr. Vernell spent the day coaching up Avery and the kid responded. Carr caught only one pass, a 45-yarder that probably would have gone incomplete or intercepted if the over the top safety help had arrived in time. Avery picked off a pass late in the second quarter, as the Florida defense dominated the Seminoles and the Gators won convincingly, 34-7.

In an emotion-packed locker room after the game, Avery Atkins broke down in tears explaining how much Vernell Brown meant to him, the big brother he never had. In the locker room recruits such as Tim Tebow, Brandon James, Brandon Spikes, Marcus Gilbert and Riley Cooper were listening. In the next three weeks, they would all be Gators as would Percy Harvin. They would go on to win two national championships.

On January 2, 2006, less than two months since he broke his leg, Vernell Brown Jr. was on the field for the Outback Bowl against Iowa. In the second quarter, Vernell broke on a pass, picked it off and then sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown as the Gators knocked off the Hawkeyes, 31-24. The Gators finished Meyer’s first season on the job with a 9-3 record plus momentum that carried over into the next season.

If you simply go by what’s in the record books, Vernell Brown Jr. had a very good senior season at the University of Florida. What the record books will never show you is the impact he had on the entire football program, especially as a senior when the Gators needed some glue to hold them together. Vernell Brown Jr. was that glue. You can’t put a pricetag on that, nor can any record book do it justice.

Now, 18 years later Vernell Brown Jr.’s son has committed to play football for the Gators. VB3 is unquestionably the most talented of all the Browns who have played for Florida. That’s not to say the others weren’t good because they were. Just that Vernell Brown III is the best.

At Florida, where older sister Kendall was a freshman long jumper for Mike Holloway’s NCAA runner-up national champion track team, VB3 becomes the latest significant addition to a wide receiver room talented enough to become one of the best, if not the best, in the entire country. In the 2025 class, the Gators already have a commitment from 4-star Joshua Moore (6-4, 210, Pembroke Pines, FL West Broward). Florida’s 2023 recruiting class featured Eugene Wilson III, who will be one of the most dangerous wide receivers in the SEC as a sophomore this year, and Aidan Mizell and Andy Jean, redshirt 4-stars who will be on the field a lot in 2024. The Gators added a pair of serious speedsters for 2024 in 4-stars TJ Abrams and Tank Hawkins.

The puzzle that Billy Napier is far from complete, but Sunday he added a significant piece and with it strengthened the wide receiver room. Vernell Brown III, if he has the same work ethic as his dad and all the Browns before him, will make his presence felt early and often at the University of Florida.

It’s in blood that is colored orange and blue.