Goal No. 1: COMMITMENT. To common goals and to being successful.
#1 Jayce Brown
True Junior | 6-0 | 179 lbs. | Fort Walton Beach, Florida
- Position: Wide Receiver
- Previous College: None
- Projection: Starter
- Status: On Scholarship
Jayce Brown (b. April 30, 2005) is an experienced, athletic wide receiver from Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, Florida who is majoring in kinesiology and is roommates with quarterback Avery Johnson:
Jayce is my guy, that’s my dog. We spend a lot of time together outside the facility. Our chemistry gels. When we step onto the field, I’m able to talk to him as a brother and understand where I want him to be on different
plays. It just makes us a more dangerous duo whenever we do step on the field.
Brown is on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award.
He is very good at route running, can catch in traffic and possesses deceptive acceleration.
Brown enters his junior campaign ranked fifth nationally with a career 17-yard average per reception (minimum 70 receptions), which ranks eighth in K-State history. He is the seventh-fastest player in school history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards, hitting the mark on just his 59th career catch.
This year, Brown needs 561 yards to enter the school’s top-10 list for career receiving yards, while he is 53 receptions and four touchdowns shy of the top 10 on those lists. He also has at least one reception in each of the last 21 games dating back to the middle of the 2023 season.
Brown did not redshirt in 2023 and instead played in 10 games with starts in each of the final six contests, totaling 437 receiving yards and three touchdowns on 27 catches.
His 16.2 yards per reception were the most among all true freshmen nationally during the 2023 season, while he tied for eighth in total receiving yards and 10th in receiving scores.
Brown tied for the third-most receiving touchdowns by a freshman in school history and the most by a true freshman (Tyler Lockett, 2011) as he built a connection with Avery Johnson.
He also produced the third-most receiving yards and tied for the fourth-most receptions by a freshman in school history, while both were the top marks by a true freshman.
Brown ranked second on the team with nine receptions of 20 or more yards, which equated to 33.3% of his overall catches. He set a career high with 96 yards at Kansas, including a career-long reception of 46 yards on the first offensive play of the game.
Brown also had 88 yards against TCU, which included a 43-yard reception and his first career touchdown catch.
He later had touchdown receptions at Texas and against NC State, the latter coming in the Pop-Tarts Bowl to put the game away. Finally, Brown set a career high with five catches each against Iowa State and NC State.
Last season, he played in every game with 12 starts, leading the team with 47 receptions for 823 yards and five touchdowns, and his 823 receiving yards were the most by a Wildcat since Tyler Lockett in 2014 and were the most in school history by a sophomore.
Brown also tied for third in school history among sophomores in receiving touchdowns and ranked fifth in receptions. He ranked 31st nationally and fourth in the Big 12 Conference by averaging 17.51 yards per catch.
Brown ranked eighth nationally and tops in the Big 12 in receiving average among players with at least 45 catches, and he tied for fourth nationally with seven receptions of at least 40 yards and eighth with four receptions of at least 50 yards, both the most by a K-State receiver since at least 2015.
He posted 25 receptions that went for at least 20 yards, which equated to 53.2% of his total catches, and had a banner day at Colorado, hauling in six receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns, all career highs.
Brown tallied the game-winning touchdown against the Buffaloes, a 50-yarder with 2:14 left in the game, and he had another 100-yard game at Iowa State, going for 106 yards on just three catches with two touchdowns.
He became the first Wildcat to record two receiving touchdowns in multiple games during a season since 2018 (when Isaiah Zuber did it against UTSA and Iowa State), hauled in a career-long touchdown reception of 65 yards at Iowa State, and narrowly missed another 100-yard game against Kansas when he had 98 yards on five catches.
Brown had 86 yards with a long of 61 yards at Houston, went for 78 yards with a long of 55 yards against Oklahoma State and tallied 71 yards (with a long of 44 yards) in the season opener against UT Martin.
He had five-catch games against UT Martin, Arizona State and Rutgers, the latter coming in the Rate Bowl.
Brown also rushed three times for 42 yards against the Scarlet Knights and ranked seventh on the team by playing on 687 offensive snaps.
He prepped under head coach Frank Beasley at Choctawhatchee, where he earned first-team all-state honors as a senior from FloridaHSFootball.com, in addition to first-team all-area honors, after hauling in 48 receptions for 925 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Brown also carded 10 interceptions as a prep player on the defensive side of the ball.
He helped to lead the Indians to the third round of the playoffs in 2022 and also competed in basketball, baseball, and track and field.
Brown selected K-State over offers from Air Force, Alcorn State, Arkansas State, Army, Charleston Southern, Charlotte, Georgia State, Middle Tennessee State, Navy, Tulane and Western Kentucky.
He also garnered recruiting interest from Alabama State, Dartmouth, Florida State, Memphis, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Florida, Tennessee and Wake Forest.
Brown’s main recruiters were coach Van Malone and former position coach Thad Ward.
His father, Don, was picked in the 1985 Major League Baseball Draft by the Cincinnati Reds.
One of Brown’s sisters, Brittany, played basketball at Florida State and currently plays professionally overseas, while another sister, Gabby, played basketball at East Tennessee State and West Florida.
