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PENN STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2017

Cam Brown

University Park, Pennsylvania

Q. Wanted to ask you about how much Jason Cabinda has taught you about the linebacker position, how much he means as a leader to this team?
CAM BROWN: Jason, can't tell you enough about him. He's taught me a lot, especially going through last year, as he saw, I guess that I'm going to have a bigger role this year, he really mentored me a little bit more and showing that, first of all, taking care of your body is a big thing with him, his big body change.

He just showed me the love to compete, and loving to compete and finding that love in everything you do when it comes to football: Lifting, how your diet is and everything like that. He means a lot to the defense. And the fact of how he leads off the field, especially during workouts, you think he's a great leader during the season. In workouts and things like that, he pushes everybody. He makes you feel bad when you don't do good and he makes you feel good when you do good. He's a great leader.

Q. What did you guys learn last week as a defense facing two quarterbacks where each one was in half the game that have totally different styles?
CAM BROWN: We learn that pretty much as a defense, we have to prepare properly like we did and adjust to the different schemes of that defense. Coach Pryor definitely got us prepared for that, and all the defensive coaches, mentally and scheme-wise. It wasn't too bad transitioning.

Q. We've heard from a lot of your teammates about the difference in preparation from last year and years past; going from a freshman to now your sophomore year, what differences have you taken in preparation or what are you doing off the field different compared to last season?
CAM BROWN: Definitely film study. Last year, I didn't really watch film as much as I should have. I was preparing as if I was going to be a starter more so in the meeting rooms and things like that, paying attention to coaches.

But now going on to my own and asking Coach Pryor questions and talking with the older guys about what they see and what they feel we should adjust to, and even giving suggestions to certain things on the defense.

Q. Is this more like middle of the week, just kind of on your own and in your room, or where are these extra sessions coming into play during the week?
CAM BROWN: Early in the week, actually, like Sundays, Monday mornings, I'm in there studying, texting Manny and Jason about certain plays and things like that, just seeing how they feel about certain things.

Q. Coach talked earlier about team speed on defense. Is that something you guys pride yourselves on, and how much do you think that helps you during games?
CAM BROWN: Yeah, we definitely do pride ourselves on our speed. We worked on it all off-season with Coach Galt just trying to be faster. You can see it in Jason. He's slimmed down and he's moving a lot better. We're all moving better trying to be quick and explosive, because that's what the game is going to. So we definitely want to emphasize that.

Q. Going back to kind of the preparation element of your game, I'm just curious, one of your cousins, Andre Davis, played nine years in the NFL. Has he given you any tips about how he prepared and what are conversations you've had, if any?
CAM BROWN: Honestly, I haven't really talked to him much. We're really distant cousins. His side of the family didn't really talk to our side of the family, type thing. I kind of just looked up to him playing when I was younger, more so than that. I mean, really, that's the reason I became a Patriots fan honestly. But no, we never really had any conversations recently.

Q. When you look at special teams and kind of the results we're seeing this year, what's different for you as far as your role in special teams last year compared to this year? Because they use you all over the place.
CAM BROWN: My role hasn't really changed much. I'm out there to run as fast as I can and try to make plays but honestly it's kind of trying to help the younger guys; not younger, but the red-shirt freshmen and the freshmen try to understand the roles on kickoff and tell them, pretty much it is a key to getting on the field early, like it was for me. It's more so a role of just trying to be a leader for them and trying to lead on the field at the same time.

Q. Can you talk about Nick Scott's role on the special teams? He's kind of like maybe an unheralded guy, but he means a lot to you guys, doesn't he?
CAM BROWN: Yeah, Nick means a lot. He brings energy to special teams all the time. We thrive on Nick's energy. Sometimes you look at him on the field and he's just laughing and giggling for no reason.

So we kind of thrive off of that and it brings the energy, because not everybody wants to do special teams all the time. Like we know it's not the most glorious thing but Nick definitely makes it a little bit better for us.

Q. Would you call him a sparkplug?
CAM BROWN: Yeah, you could definitely call him that.

Q. What did you weigh when you got here and what do you weigh now? You talked about how Jason wanted to trim down to get quicker. Is there an um every limit where you want to be to maintain your speed?
CAM BROWN: I was 202 when I first got here officially and now I'm fluctuating between 218 and 220 still. Other than that, with my weight goal -- my weight goal is about 230 before I leave here. That's my real goal. I feel like I should still be able to move at that size and I should be able to be physical.

But with Jason, he's definitely shown me that you don't really need the weight to bring the thump. With him losing that, it shows that weight isn't really a crazy factor in the game.

Q. How have you gone about doing that, to get your weight up to that point and how much will you continue in the off-season?
CAM BROWN: Definitely my meal plan. Just eating in the mornings, eating breakfast. That was my biggest problem I think. I love sleeping, so I don't really like waking up early enough to eat breakfast, but that's become my regimen, and eating more consistently throughout the day, little snacks, like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and things like that.

Q. If we haven't seen a freshman by this point we probably won't, unless something crazy happens. What can you tell us about the true freshmen behind the scenes that we are not seeing?
CAM BROWN: Honestly they are working hard. They are working hard to learn the defense. They understand with a lot of seniors leaving next year that they have a role to step into; especially with Ellis because he's in my room, I see him. He's taking notes, asking questions and film and all those types of things. He's doing all the right things that you could ask for a freshman that's going to come in and play next year hopefully.

Q. I want to know, how exciting was it to play your freshman year and the season that you guys did, and what you learned from those leaders, because now even though you're only a sophomore, you're leading some of these younger guys. What was the biggest learning lesson that you took away from those veterans last year that you've been helping with the younger teammates this year?
CAM BROWN: Honestly for me, being different, the different role I'm playing this year, has not really affected my viewpoint on the team or anything like that. It was a big -- it made me happy, I guess, to play. I mean, not everybody gets to play as a true freshman and having an impact, it meant a lot. But at the same time, it was just a learning experience for me.

With the older guys looking down at me, I'm trying to bestow the same energy and keeping a positive attitude on the younger guys now.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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