Brown finding his groove in Illinois defense

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Oct. 10—CHAMPAIGN — The idea of Daniel Brown has been tantalizing since he arrived on campus at Illinois ahead of the 2024 football season.

Brown was one of the top junior college prospects in the country and ranked as the No. 1 outside linebacker in his class by 247Sports and ESPN. A top ranking he earned.

Brown was named a 2023 NJCAA First Team All-American after a stellar season with Hutchinson Community College in Kansas.

The Kansas City, Kan., native led the NJCAA with 18 sacks in 11 games, and his streak of at least one sack in 10 consecutive games was the second-longest in Hutchinson history.

All told, Brown racked up 51 tackles, 23 tackles for loss, 18 sacks, 13 quarterback hurries, two forced fumbles, two pass breakups and one fumble recovery for the Blue Dragons in 2023.

Expectations in Champaign were high for the 6-foot-1, 255-pound linebacker. Reality has played out differently.

Brown missed the first 11 games of the 2024 season with a back injury before playing in Illinois' regular-season finale and then the Citrus Bowl. He played a somewhat limited role in 2025, starting two of the nine games he played and totaling 11 tackles and one quarterback hurry.

Then came a defensive change for the Illini this past offseason and a slight position change for Brown that would put him in a primary role at linebacker under now-former defensive coordinator Bobby Hauck's scheme. Expectations that were subverted with another soft-tissue injury that cost Brown most of fall training camp and necessitated platelet-rich plasma therapy.

Brown missed the first three games of the season before making his 2026 debut at Ohio State. His return has given Illinois another option at linebacker. An option that could provide the disruption the Illini defense has sorely needed as Illinois (2-3, 0-2 Big Ten) gets ready to play at Michigan State (2-3, 0-2). Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday from Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Mich.

"He's so freaking talented," Illinois linebackers coach Archie McDaniel said. "He's so freaking strong. He's so freaking explosive. He can be a lot to deal with out there on the edge. He understands football. He lives in this building. When you have a veteran presence like that — especially when you look at having some younger guys who haven't played and some guys that don't have experience and presence DB brings — it's always a benefit for you."

Brown has acknowledged his injury setbacks. Moving forward is his preference — even if getting to 100 percent on a day-to-day basis is a process.

"I do have stuff still kind of lingering with me," Brown said, while declining to go into specifics about his latest injury issue this season. "I'm just trying to do what I can to help the team. I think I'm doing pretty well right now especially just being out there with my teammates. It feels great doing what I can do. I'm just continuing to lock in on my details."

Brown's first two tackles this season came last Saturday during the Illini's 24-17 home loss against Purdue. That included teaming up with Ismael Kante to drop Boilermakers running back Fame Ijeboi for a 9-yard loss. But Brown did admit he's still "getting in the groove of things" defensively after missing so much time.

That plays into McDaniel's message to all of the Illinois linebackers after he took over a combined room of the entire position group following Roger Cooper's elevation to defensive play caller. Consistency is what McDaniel wants from the linebackers above all else.

"We've got to do our jobs," he said. "But in order for them to do that, I have to make sure the way we're going about things — how I'm teaching things — they understand the what, they understand the how and they understand the why. As long as we understand those things, we have a chance to be pretty good one snap at a time. If you don't understand what you're doing and why you have to do it that way, then you create opportunities for mistakes."

Brown witnessed some of those mistakes from the sideline the first three weeks of the season. Missed tackles were commonplace. Communication breakdowns led to other errors.

But Brown has seen improvement, both before his return and since he got back on the field.

"I know there's been a lot of talk about the defense — especially toward the beginning," Brown said. "From the outside, me not being on the field, we got way better. MEs (mental errors) and DBOs (don't beat ourselves) were cut down a lot. This defense has really improved a lot. I'd say continuing to build up on stuff like that and continuing to harp on stuff like punching the ball out and getting turnovers and communicating with the whole defense, we're trying to keep on building with what we've got."

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