Malverne's Josiah Brown will make long-awaited return to the football field with LIU
Malverne's Josiah Brown stands on the sidelines with crutches in the second half after injuring his knee earlier in a game against visiting Cold Spring Harbor on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Credit: Howard Simmons
Josiah Brown’s long-awaited college football debut, and his first game action in nearly three years, is set to happen on Thursday.
The former Malverne and Holy Trinity High School standout will play that first game with “LONG ISLAND” written across his chest.
Brown, a 6-foot, 180-pound wide receiver, transferred to LIU from Penn State in the offseason. The redshirt sophomore and the Sharks will begin their season at North Dakota on Thursday, 1,049 days after Brown tore the ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee on Oct. 13, 2023, during his senior season at Malverne.
“Obviously, I take every opportunity to be on the field as a blessing,” he told Newsday. “I never take anything for granted. I know what’s at stake every time I step on the field, so I’m just excited to be back on it.”
Brown was a four-star recruit coming out of Malverne. He was the No. 365 player nationally and No. 2 player in New York in the Class of 2024, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
He redshirted his true freshman season at Penn State, then missed all of 2025 with an undisclosed injury before entering the transfer portal in January. Former Penn State coach James Franklin — who witnessed Brown’s October 2023 injury moments after landing in Malverne via helicopter — was fired last October. Penn State hired former Iowa State coach Matt Campbell.
To be sidelined as long as he was frustrated Brown, but it also taught him lessons.
“It’s a humbling experience, of course, but I also took it with a grain of salt,” he said. “I learned a lot, and I feel like I became a better overall player.”
Brown said he feels healthy now, and LIU coach Ron Cooper said he was fully cleared recently. “He’ll be a big-time force for us on this level,” Cooper said.
Cooper noted that he wants Brown to get into a rhythm the first couple of weeks of the season and likely will be on a snap count.
And when that snap count is gone?
“I expect him to be a dynamic kick returner, receiver, and hard to handle in this conference,” Cooper said.
For Brown, coming home also means being surrounded by familiar faces. Kahmal Roy — Brown’s coach at Holy Trinity for three years — is LIU’s wide receivers coach. Roy also was his youth football coach.
It’s “great to be around him again,” Brown said.
Cooper, 64, enters his fifth year as LIU’s head coach. He previously coached at several major programs, most recently as an analyst for Alabama (2021) and a defensive backs coach for Arkansas (2018-19) and Texas A&M (2017).
He recognized that Brown’s talent level coming out of high school was “extremely high,” which was why he was heavily recruited by programs such as Penn State and Georgia.
He isn’t closing the door on Brown eventually making the jump back to a power conference, either.
“My deal with him is I want him to play great, and then if he has an opportunity to get back to where he was, he can get back,” Cooper said. “But it takes a year of greatness in order for that to happen. I want him to play great for us and make us the best football team we can be.”
Despite the long wait to return, Brown said he doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder.
“I’m just hoping to be the best version of me,” he said. “I’m not even looking at any certain stats. Obviously, I want to have a good year statistically. Obviously, that’s on every receiver’s mind.
“But the main thing is just being the best version of me.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
