According to his old coaches, Trent Brown has always been a really big deal

Bert Williams, the head football coach at Georgia Military College, remembered where he was when he made the earth shake.

In a 2011 practice, he lined up defensive tackle Daniel McCullers against offensive lineman — and future Patriot — Trent Brown. McCullers, who would go on to play for Tennessee and the Steelers, was 6-foot-7 and 390 pounds. Brown was 6-foot-8 and 370 pounds.

“(McCullers) nickname was ’Shade Tree.’ He was bigger than Trent — he was 6-foot-7 and about 400 pounds. We couldn’t even get an accurate reading on the scale he was so big,” Williams said. “Anyway, Daniel was a defensive tackle, and Trent was a tackle on the edge. He was always out there against faster guys, but I told him, ‘You’re going to have to train yourself to take on bigger guys from time to time.’ So I gave him reps against Daniel.

“And when you put 6-foot-8 and 370 pounds against 6-foot-7 and 390 pounds, I tell you … it was like something out of a movie. The earth shook.”


“We're in Florida,” recalled former Gators offensive line coach Mike Summers. “And we get a lot of these pop-up thunderstorms. Everyone, when they would hear the thunder roll, would huddle around Trent because they figured lightning would strike him before it would strike the rest of us.”

Stories like that dot Brown’s career, the sort of Paul Bunyanesque tales of legend that have followed him to Foxborough. But those stories only tell part of the tale when it comes to the 25-year-old, who was acquired by the Patriots this past spring.

Brown arrived in New England just in time -- the departure of veteran left tackle Nate Solder in free agency created a void. For the Patriots, he's exceeded expectations.