The former four-star recruit had 30 offers coming out of high school
Former Pitt defensive end Naquan Brown entered the NCAA transfer portal on Jan. 12, and on Wednesday evening, he announced that be would head closer to home to play at the FCS level for Norfolk State.
Let’s work Spartan Nation! #RiseUp #HBCU pic.twitter.com/X6hbmzbHVd
— Naquan Brown™ (@quanbrown_4) February 2, 2022
Brown came to Pitt in 2021 as a consensus four-star recruit out of Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He initially committed to LSU in July 2020 before flipping to Pitt in December of the same year. However, Brown did not see the field as a true freshman during the 2021 season, and he made the decision to move on to a different program.
At the high school level, Brown came up with 12 sacks during his junior year in 2019. He then saw his senior season canceled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but he still managed to accrue a total of 30 offers from programs around the nation. That included 21 offers from Power Five programs, including the two in Brown’s home state.
In Norfolk, Brown will join forces with former Pitt commit Trevion Stevenson, who followed a similar path, as he made the decision to leave North Carolina and enter the transfer portal on Jan. 13 before committing to Norfolk State on Jan. 15. Stevenson also hails from Virginia and had 41 scholarship offers when he was a senior at Phoebus High School in 2020.
The addition of Brown and Stevenson could greatly benefit a Norfolk State team that went 6-5 last season and ranked 88th in scoring defense at the FCS level, conceding 30.7 points per game. With that said, the program faces an uphill battle in regaining relevance, as it last reached the FCS playoffs in 2011.