THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 20, 1994 TAG: 9410200504
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
They used to play football together endlessly in the back yard. Just the two of them. Sometimes they'd go until nightfall or until someone scored 100 points. Or both.
``They spent all their time back there,'' Oglessa Brown says of her two sons, Reuben and Cornell.
When Virginia Tech hosts Pittsburgh on Saturday, the Brown brothers will go head-to-head in a real game for the first time. When Pitt left tackle Reuben looks across the line at a Virginia Tech defensive end he wants to pancake block into the turf, most often he'll be looking into the eyes of baby brother Cornell.
Brother, can you spare a block?
And in the stands, Oglessa and Reuben Brown Sr. will well up with both pride and angst at every snap that pits one son against the other.
``I'm going to feel like I need to be standing down there to say, `No dirty play here,' '' says Oglessa, who works the graveyard shift sorting mail in the Lynchburg post office.
Says Reuben Sr., a machinist who has been separated from his wife for eight years: ``I can't lose one way or the other, but that's a hard thing to deal with.''
Last season, neither the family nor the brothers had to deal with it. Reuben played left tackle, while Cornell played left end, which meant they never lined up against each other in the Pitt-Tech game.
But this season, Cornell, a sophomore, is playing both ends of the line as Virginia Tech tries to put its best lineman on the side where he has the best chance to make a play.
Roughly half the time Cornell will be on the right side, chinstrap-to-chinstrap with Reuben.
This is not just brother vs. brother. It's blue chipper vs. blue chipper.
Pitt's Reuben, 23, is 6-foot-4, 295 pounds and has been called the best offensive lineman in the Big East this season by several coaches. Tech's Cornell, 19, is 6-2, 230 and leads the Big East in sacks (10) and is second in both tackles for loss (7) and fumbles caused (3).
Who will win this sibling rivalry? Depends on what side of the ball you line up on.
``Obviously I will,'' Reuben says. ``I've been around longer. I just know a little bit more. He thinks he can spin around me and use fast moves, but I just tell him I've got something for everything he can do.
``I want him to make the rest of the guys in the Big East look bad and make me look good.''
Cornell has a different prediction.
``Definitely I do, hopefully,'' he says.
Whoever does, the loser is going to have to listen to a dumpsterful of trash talking. Cornell can hear it now.
``It will be, `You'll always be the baby brother,' '' Cornell says.
The only other thing that comes close to Saturday's matchup between the brothers is the few times they were pitted against each other on the practice field at Lynchburg's E.C. Glass High when Reuben was a senior and Cornell a freshman. Most of his time in high school, Cornell lived in Reuben's immense shadow.
``He was holding me and I was fussing, `Why don't you stop holding me?' '' Cornell says. ``He was like, `Just shut up and play and stop crying.' ''
The Brown brothers have been excitedly talking about Saturday's matchup for months. They are trying to line up about 75 tickets so family members, friends, teachers, their minister and their high school coach can attend the game at Lane Stadium.
Reuben says he gets ``emotional'' with pride thinking about his baby brother and how well he plays the game. Cornell says he has ``a lot of love'' for Reuben and is proud that some regard his big brother as the best lineman in college football.
They talk once a week, usually on Wednesday. When they get together at Christmas or during the summer, they fish, watch cartoons, party and play video games together. The summer before his senior year in high school, Cornell spent four weeks living with Reuben at his Pittsburgh apartment.
Saturday, they'll be a house divided, with family members on both sides of the field.
Older sister Donetia will be rooting for Cornell - ``because he's the baby,'' she says - while mother Oglessa will root for the team that's behind.
And for no injuries.
``That would be awful if something like that happens,'' Cornell says. ``That's one of the downfalls of playing against my brother.''
In one breath, Reuben says he won't take it easy on Cornell ``even if I'm destroying him.'' But in the next, he sounds as intimidating as Mr. Rogers.
``I care about him, and I'm concerned about him,'' Reuben says.
Saturday, he'll try not to care when he stares across the line into Cornell's eyes and imagines it as just another backyard brawl. Only this time, nearly 50,000 people will be watching. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
PAUL AIKEN/Staff
Virginia Tech's Cornell Brown, above, has always played in the
shadow of big brother Reuben, who now stars at offensive tackle for
Pittsburgh. But Cornell, a defensive end, is catching up: He has
racked up a Big East-leading 10 sacks this year.
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
Reuben Brown
by CNB