Hollywood: Full Throttle

Full Throttle is the name of a high-speed, thrill-seeking roller coaster ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain near Valencia, Calif. Appropriately, one of its ride operators used to be Oklahoma junior wide receiver Marquise Brown, a high-speed, thrill-seeker now wearing crimson and cream.

Brown's physical stature also adds to the intrigue of his employment. Had the ride been for football players only, the diminutive Brown might not have been allowed on “Full Throttle,” falling short of the required height standing next to a shameful sign that reads: "You must be THIS tall to ride."

Two of the biggest curiosities about Brown are his (actual) height and weight. But on the football field, he has become huge.

Brown (center) in his Pop Warner days.

Brown was 5 years old when his mother, Shannon James, allowed him to play tackle football. He started out playing quarterback, then running back. "The older I got, people always kept getting bigger," Brown explained. "So I moved to wide receiver."

Poor grades prevented Brown from playing competitive football in ninth and 10th grades. Brown returned to the field as a high school junior and said he "started to see I was pretty good." As a senior, he transferred to a private school and "had a pretty good year."

Though some Power Five Conference schools showed an early interest in recruiting, Brown once again suffered the consequences of poor academics, taking the ACT so late there were no major college scholarships available. He was offered to walk on at some FBS schools, but instead chose to play at a Southern California community college located significantly closer to Hollywood, Calif. (27 miles), than to his hometown of Hollywood, Fla. (2,752 miles).

Trying to make ends meet, Brown had no car and walked 25 minutes each way to work at the amusement park prior to the 2016 season at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. He often showed up at practice still wearing his Magic Mountain shirt from work.

Brown quickly turned heads as a freshman, leading the team with 50 receptions for 754 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also returned 13 kickoffs for 402 yards (30.9 yards per) and one touchdown, and had nine punt returns for 182 yards (20.2 yards per) and another score.

Touted as the No. 3 juco wide receiver by 247Sports and ESPN, Brown said he chose the Sooners over USC, Oregon, TCU and West Virginia.

"You see Oklahoma, that's big-time football. Once I came here on a visit, I just knew this was the place I wanted to be."
? Marquise Brown

"You see Oklahoma (showing an interest in you), that's big-time football," Brown said. "Once I came here on a visit, I just knew this was the place I wanted to be."

Despite starting just eight games last season, Brown hauled in 57 passes for 1,095 yards (eighth in single-season school history) and seven touchdowns while averaging 19.2 yards per catch.

Brown committed to play for the Sooners after the 2016 Bedlam game. Coincidentally, his breakout game came at last year's OU-Oklahoma State matchup in Stillwater with nine receptions for a school-record 265 yards and two lengthy touchdowns of 84 and 77 yards.

However, the fleet-footed Brown still can't outrun the constant references to his body measurements. "It fuels me a lot," he said. "Here, they (the doubters) take it as, 'You can't take hits' or whatever. God willing, I have never broke anything. I'm still here."

Brown has been small his entire life. Born two weeks early, he weighed 5 pounds, 6 ounces at birth.

In high school, he weighed around 130. In junior college, he reached 140. Upon his January 2017 arrival in Norman, Brown was listed at 148 on the team's first spring practice roster. Word soon spread Brown had ballooned up to 157.

Roughly 2? months before retiring and handing the reins to offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, OU head coach Bob Stoops said he was unconcerned about Brown's weight. "I don't really care," Stoops said in late March last year. "He may have gained a couple (pounds). He might be in the 150s now, but we won't ask him to kick out any linebackers. We'll ask him to get behind a lot of people, and he can really go."

Brown is listed at 5-foot-10 and 168 pounds in this year's OU media guide and claimed he weighed 171 when practice started. To Brown, this lack of size is no big deal.

"I know I'm small," Brown said. "I don't need a scale to tell me I'm small. It never held me back. I was always good. A receiver who was bigger than me, I could always produce the same or produce more."

"He has a chip on his shoulder every time he steps on the field and that allows him to play at such a high level and play even bigger than he is."
? Dennis Simmons

Bennie Wylie is in his first season as OU's strength and conditioning coach. Among his duties are to make Brown bigger, stronger and, yes, even faster.

"He's fast. There's no question," Wylie said of Brown. "God made him that way. There's nothing I can do to make him any faster. You look at the size and you say, 'How can we make this guy durable? How can we make him last? How can we help him do what he does even better?' That was honestly the first goal. Let's build him up."

Last May, Brown returned home and worked out with his distant cousin, Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro receiver Antonio Brown, who also is from South Florida.

Antonio convinced Marquise to hit the beach in an effort to improve his speed. Brown said he ran 30 minutes on the beach in one direction and 30 minutes back, every day.

Riley has said Brown indeed has gotten faster, primarily thanks to his speed management.

"Everybody wants to get open, but the more important thing is you've got to get open at the right time, and he understands that," OU outside receivers coach Dennis Simmons said of Brown. "He knows how to speed it up when it needs to be sped up as far as creating separation for himself and he knows how to dial it back when he needs to as well."

Nicknamed "Jet" back home at a young age, Brown also goes by "Hollywood," stemming from his hometown roots in Florida. The moniker also encapsulates Brown's penchant for taking center stage with his blazing speed, an evolving set of receiver skills, plus the golden grill of teeth he's not afraid to show - all while somehow possessing a captivating personality of being flashy, yet humble.

"Where I'm from," Brown has said of his golden grin, "it's just a fashion statement."

Brown's latest fashion statement came at Saturday's season opener when he led the Sooners with six catches for 133 yards, including a 65-yard touchdown ? all before intermission ? in a 63-14 romp over Florida Atlantic.

Both pregame and postgame, Brown wore a Fred Biletnikoff (No. 25) Oakland Raiders jersey. In honor of the NFL and College Football Hall of Famer from Florida State, the Biletnikoff Award is presented annually to college football's top receiver. "It's motivation," Brown explained of wearing the jersey.

Brown's passion for the game was motivated by another jersey. He fell in love with football the minute his mother dressed him in a Dan Marino Miami Dolphins uniform for Halloween. Brown was hooked. "I used to wear it every day," Brown said of his No. 13 jersey.

Brown's body mass continues to climb thanks to his determination in the weight room, where he bench presses 315 pounds (nearly twice his own weight) and squats almost 400. "He's not going to limit himself to say, 'OK, just because I weigh this much I should only do this,' and it's the same thing on the football field," Simmons said.

Strength and conditioning coaches are notoriously demanding, yet Wylie speaks glowingly of Brown.

"There's no resistance," Wylie said of Brown following instructions, "because this is important to him. He wants to fall in line with those great wide receivers who have played here with an eye at the next level as well."

On the field, Brown certainly doesn't fall short on courage.

"This is a tough kid now," Wylie said. "I mean, he is tough. Just the things he's had to endure, it makes you fight harder. It makes you scrap and not leave any stone unturned. The game of football is important to him. Being around his teammates is important. Winning is important and you see all those things, based on all the people who have helped him grow up and get to this level. He understands. He gets it. I love working with him because he is going to perform at a high level every opportunity that we get.

"I've had some great wide receivers who were told they were too small and those guys are all wired the same way. You can't tell him (Brown) he's not 6-2, 200 pounds. I mean, that's how he plays. He plays with that mentality that gives you that fight, that scrappiness, that intangible, that 'it' everybody talks about. He's a little irritated, I'll say, every time he steps on the field. He has a chip on his shoulder every time he steps on the field and that allows him to play at such a high level and play even bigger than he is."

As fast as Brown is, coaches and teammates believe the best is yet to come.

"His speed is effortless," Wylie said. "Deion Sanders is one of the fastest human beings I've ever seen live. Those guys in that level and in that range, it's just effortless. I've almost never seen him (Brown) run at top speed because there's always something else... They always have another gear. Always. I promise you, there's something else."

Players Mentioned

Marquise Brown

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics