by Josh Maxson
Josh Brown didn?t grow up dreaming of playing football for Nebraska. He didn?t even grow up dreaming of playing football.

He spent the early years of his life playing soccer.

"I never thought I would play football," Brown said. "Growing up in Tulsa, I played soccer my whole life. My mom says she (started me in soccer) because I was so hyper, they needed something to calm me down.

"So every Saturday they would send me out on the field, and just let me run up and down. I had a lot of success there. I started when I was about four years old and played until I was about 15. Football wasn?t in my outlook until I started getting letters from Nebraska."

With a passion for soccer firmly ingrained, Brown wasn?t introduced to football until his seventh-grade year.

"I was hanging out with some of my buddies, and they put a football down in the middle of the field, and I kicked it all of the way to the end of the field," Brown said. "They asked me to try out and come play, and I ended up playing tight end and running back, kicking, returning punts and punting. It just kind of took off from there."

Brown moved to Foyil, Okla., a year later, and by his freshman year of high school, he had given up soccer.

"When I went to high school they moved me to running back," Brown said. "Kicking was always just fun to me. It was something that I always just did, something that I have always had the ability to do.

"Coach would back it up on Thursday to 60- and 65-yards and I would just hit them. People would always ask, ?How can you do that?? I still can?t tell you how I do it, it is just something I have always been able to do. Everybody has their own gifts, and I guess that is just mine."

Brown earned SuperPrep All-America honors as a place-kicker, hitting 8-of-16 field goals in high school, including a career-long 61-yarder in the state playoffs. He also amassed 1,891 yards as a running back, while scoring 51 touchdowns.

Brown?s career at Nebraska has been memorable, and he has seen his fare share of ups and downs.

From missed kicks to game-winning field goals, Brown?s four years in Lincoln have seemed like a roller coaster at times. But the senior views the 2002 season as an opportunity for him to step up not only on the football field, but as a team leader as well.

"I want to establish myself as a leader on this team," Brown said. "That was one of my goals going into spring. I want to stand out as a leader, as a person who wants to get the job done by working hard and doing things right."

Always looking to improve, Brown attended former Green Bay Packer punter Bill Renner?s kicking camp over the summer.

"I went to Pennsylvania and worked with some kickers and coaches there," Brown said.
"I really gained a perspective on how I need to view the ball. The things I learned out there are starting to come into play. I am really starting to be alert when I?m on the field. Before I would go out and try to block everything out and just stare at the ground, and make sure I went through my routine. Now I am really starting to see the whole picture and get a perspective on things."

The hard work is paying off for Brown, who has made a good impression on Kickers Coach Dan Young.

"I think Josh has matured a lot," Young said. "He has more of a steady attitude about things. He works hard and puts in a lot of time. He has always had that attitude about hard work. He really wants to be one of the best place-kickers that we have had at Nebraska, and he has put in a lot of time to be that. We are expecting a big year out of him."

Brown sat out the first game of the 2001 season, and when he returned, he was in a battle for his job. He played behind redshirt freshman Sandro DeAngelis in his first four games. Brown regained his starting spot in week five against Missouri.

"Coming into my junior year, I had a lot of things on my mind," Brown said. "It took a lot for me to really focus in and get the job done. But in the end, I was really satisfied with the way things went last year."

Along with the place-kicking duties, Brown also laid claim to the kickoff job that he lost due to a pulled groin.

"It was good to regain the kickoff job that I lost my freshman year," Brown said. "That was one of the things I really wanted to get back. I have always had the capability of doing it, and the leg strength to do it. It just seemed like I lost my kickoff for about a year there after my freshman season. I just couldn?t do it, the ball just wouldn?t go anywhere."

Brown hit 10-of-14 field goals in 2001, including a regular-season career long of 43 yards against Kansas. His NU best is a 51-yarder against Northwestern in the 2000 Alamo Bowl. He also converted 34-of-37 PATs last year, but broke a regular-season steak of 104 consecutive made PATs (117 including bowl games) when his third attempt against Iowa State hit the upright.

For his career, Brown has made 31-of-46 field goal attempts and 146-of-150 PATs. His 239 career points rank seventh all time at Nebraska and second among kickers.

A two-game stretch in 2000 might just epitomize Brown?s career as a Husker up to this point.

Brown calls a second-quarter missed field goal against Kansas State that year the low point of his NU career. The missed 28-yarder proved to be the difference in a 29-28 loss to the Wildcats.

"I just don?t think I kicked it hard enough," Brown said referring to the second-quarter kick. "If I had put more foot into it, it would have went through the uprights. That was the low point, when we lost by one point."

Brown wouldn?t have to wait long to redeem himself, as Big 12 rival Colorado ventured to Lincoln two weeks later. Brown would once again miss a second-quarter field goal, but with the game on the line, he made the kicks the team needed. Brown connected on a 20-yard field goal with 9:22 to play that tied the game at 24. After a one-yard plunge by CU?s Cortlen Johnson and a two-point conversion, the Huskers drove 47 yards in 47 seconds to set up Brown?s game-winning 29-yard field goal as time expired.

"I missed that early kick, but then I had the chance to come out and hit the kick that tied the ballgame," Brown said. "Then to have the opportunity to make history for my team and myself, that is something that is just kind of like make believe for me. You never think things are going to happen like that to you. That was just an absolutely remarkable moment for me at Nebraska."

The kick was the only time in the past 40 years that a Nebraska team had won a game on the final play.

The celebration that ensued is something that Brown will never forget.

"Having my teammates carry me off the field on their shoulders ? that was the ultimate," Brown said.

For Brown, the mental approach to kicking is just as important as the physical one. The physical gift of kicking has always come natural, but the mental side of it can be a whole other story.

"I think a lot of it has to do with confidence," Brown said. "Knowing that the coaches have confidence in me helps. Hearing that little bit of encouragement come from them goes a long way for someone who has to use his mind, as well as his body. Kicking is just a natural thing, it is just what I have always done. Your mind has to control a lot of what is going on. The big mental aspect for me is just going out there knowing that I can do it, and then just getting it done."

Brown?s road from soccer to football wouldn?t have been the same without Nebraska. The Huskers were the first school to show interest in the kicker from a little Class D school in northeast Oklahoma that played eight-man football. And in the end, NU was the place where he felt the most comfortable.

"Coming here and being around the people here, and going through what I?ve gone through has really made me who I am," Brown said. "I?m starting to get a grasp of who I?m going to become in life. Making the decision to come to Nebraska and play football was by far one of the most important decisions I?ve made in my life. I don?t think I could have picked a better place to go."

He is reminded of that decision every time he walks out of the locker room on game days and sees the Nebraska fans.

"It has been such a great experience," Brown said. "The fans have always been very generous to me personally and to the team as a whole. You can?t say enough about our fans, the way they support us both at home and on the road. Everywhere you go you hear about the Big Red. It has always been a good experience to walk out that tunnel and see all of the fans supporting us with the red."