From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
Case Western Reserve University senior defensive end Cameron Brown (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) was named to the American Football Coaches Association Division III Coaches' All-America Second Team, becoming the fourth player in program history to earn the honor from the organization.
This is the second-straight season that a Spartan player has been named an AFCA All-American, after center Gage Blair was selected to the team in 2017. Other past AFCA All-America honorees from CWRU include defensive back Bobby Bott in 2008 and quarterback Dan Whalen in 2009.
He is the 50th All-American overall in program history, and the first CWRU defensive lineman to earn All-America recognition since Derek Messmer in 1996.
Brown was named to the D3football.com All-South Region First Team earlier in the offseason, and was also chosen as the top defensive player in both the Presidents' Athletic Conference and the University Athletic Association in 2018. He is the first Spartan to be named the PAC Defensive Player of the Year since CWRU rejoined the league as a football affiliate member in 2014. Brown also claimed his second-straight All-PAC First Team honor and third-consecutive All-PAC award overall, while earning All-UAA First Team honors for the third-straight season.
Brown finished the year with a school record 15.0 sacks, while his 1.5 sacks per game were the second-most among Division III players. The team co-captain totaled 49 tackles (28 solo), including 18 for a loss, while hurrying the quarterback a team-high seven times, intercepting one pass and returning it for a touchdown, forcing three fumbles and breaking up a pair of passes. Brown was named to the D3football.com Team of the Week twice, was a three-time PAC Athlete of the Week selection, and a three-time UAA Athlete of the Week pick in 2018.
Individual game highlights for Brown include his 4.5 sack performance against Saint Vincent College on October 13, the most in a single-game by any Division III player during the 2018 season, and a three-sack performance at Bethany College on October 27th, during which he also forced a fumble and registered a pick-six. He had at least one sack in eight of the team's 10 games, and multiple sacks on four occasions.
The AFCA has selected an All-America team every year since 1945 starting with a single 11-player squad until 1967. From 1967 through 1971, two teams – University Division and College Division – were selected. In 1972, the College Division was split into College I and College II, while in 1996, the College I and College II teams were renamed Division II and Division III, respectively.
The AFCA's Division III All-America Selection Committee is made up of three head coaches from each of the AFCA's eight districts, one of whom serves as a district chairman, along with another head coach who serves as the chairman of the selection committee. The coaches in each district are responsible for ranking the top players in their respective districts prior to a conference call between the district chairmen and the committee chairman on which the team is chosen.