Alabama A&M quarterback Quad Brown, the ‘Unc’ of HBCU football, believes he has more left to prove
Now in his eighth season of college football, he says: “I’m fulfilling my purpose. I’m going to continue to do that until God tells me, ‘All right, it’s time to put the football down'”
When Alabama A&M quarterback Cornelious “Quad” Brown IV took his first college snaps, more than a third of his current teammates were in elementary school, NIL didn’t exist and the transfer portal was still in its infancy.
Brown, 26, is in his eighth season of college football. He has faced adversity, skepticism and plenty of questions about why he’s still playing when most of his peers in the 2019 recruiting class — such as the Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels — have gone on to the NFL or otherwise graduated and entered the workforce.
Brown, whose teammates affectionately call him “Unc,” has seen the criticism on social media. But after being granted a medical waiver in April to play football this season, he believes he is not done yet.
“I don’t care what those people got to say, because at the end of the day, they can say what they want, but they still have to face me, and you still have to line up and play against me,” Brown said.
“I’m fulfilling my purpose. I’m going to continue to do that until God tells me, ‘All right, it’s time to put the football down.’”
Brown is looking to make the most of his last chance to play college football.
Four games into the Bulldogs’ season, Brown has thrown for 1,111 yards and eight touchdowns while completing 67.4% of his passes. Alabama A&M (3-1) will face Florida A&M (1-3) on Saturday in the Bulldogs’ first Southwestern Athletic Conference matchup of the season.
Although this is his eighth season on paper, Brown hasn’t spent eight years on the field.
As a true freshman at Georgia State in 2019, he appeared in just four games, allowing him to preserve his redshirt status. He broke out in 2020 as Georgia State’s starter, throwing for 2,278 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushing for 301 yards and seven more touchdowns. He capped his season by leading Georgia State to a LendingTree Bowl victory over Western Kentucky, earning MVP honors.
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The following year, Brown appeared in five games for the Panthers in a reduced role. Seeking more playing time, he transferred to the University of Tennessee at Martin for the 2022 season, playing in seven games but never quite finding his footing.
Brown landed at Alabama A&M in 2023 but played in only two games due to injury. He put together his most complete season as a Bulldog in 2024, throwing for 1,666 yards and 12 touchdowns over 11 games while rushing for 147 yards and another touchdown.
Four games into last season, Brown tore ligaments in his ankle that required surgery, bringing a premature end to what he initially thought would be his final year of college football.
“I always take things for what they are. … I knew I was going to face some physical adversity at some point because we all do — football’s a violent, physical game,” Brown said. “So when I [got hurt], I’m like, ‘OK, dang man!’ I’ve never played a football season where you don’t get bumped up and bruised. So I said, ‘OK, well, the adversity came a little early this year.’”
His slew of truncated seasons — 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 — are central to why Brown is still playing in 2026.
The NCAA’s COVID-19 eligibility waiver gave him and every other athlete impacted by the pandemic an additional season beyond the traditional eligibility framework, which previously limited athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period. After navigating the transfers from Georgia State and UT Martin and two season-ending injuries, Brown had appeared in a total of 43 games, less than four full seasons of college football. (The college football regular season is 12 games per year.) As of June, Division I rules now allow student-athletes five seasons of competition over a five-year period.
“I don’t think [critics] understand the fact that I’ve only played two full seasons of football,” Brown said. “I don’t think they understand … I’m doing this to put myself in a position to have success in the future.
“God has really gifted me with some talents, and I have an opportunity to play football at the next level in the National Football League. … I’m not going to quit on that.”
After the 2025 season, as Brown rehabilitated from surgery, he wondered whether the NCAA would grant him a medical waiver, allowing him to return for an eighth season.
Brown said his family steadied him as the circumstances around his football career kept changing. His father, in particular, kept reminding Brown of the vision he had for him long before the setbacks began — that his son was capable of playing pro football.
The elder Brown’s own experience as a Division I basketball player at Arkansas State influenced his guidance.
“Adversity is a part of playing high-level sports, and one of the things that I did for him was telling him as he was growing up that he’s gonna have to be able to deal with the adversity that comes with the game,” Cornelious Brown III said.
Brown credited his father’s encouragement with keeping him upbeat amid the uncertainty.
“He’s never lost confidence in the vision that I had for myself and the vision that he’s had for me,” Brown said. “Of course it’s easy to believe whenever the Saints, Packers, and Vikings [scouts] are coming to practice. But you know, whenever I’m on the surgery table, he asked me, ‘Do I believe?’ … He has always believed for me.”
In April, the NCAA granted Brown a medical hardship waiver, allowing him to compete during the 2026 season.
The uncertainty surrounding Brown’s eligibility forced Alabama A&M to prepare for life without him.
The Bulldogs brought in transfer quarterbacks Bekkem Kritza and Mac Armstrong, and also returned two quarterbacks who had been on the roster the previous season, loading their quarterback room with additional talent while waiting for the NCAA’s decision.
Alabama A&M passing game coordinator Jason Mai said Brown handled the situation maturely, embracing the opportunity to compete for the starting job while simultaneously helping the other quarterbacks.
“He said, ‘Coach, if I get the opportunity to play again, I’m going to step in and I’m going to compete with those guys as if it’s not my [starting] job, and if I do come out on top, then I’m going to develop those guys.’ He’s done that,” Mai said. “Since January, he’s gone in and made it a point to kind of help [our quarterback room] develop, so that when he leaves somebody else can be ready to step in that void.”
According to Mai, Brown’s leadership extends beyond the quarterback room. Throughout the offseason and during preseason workouts, Brown organized player-only meetings to help encourage his teammates. Off the field, he invites them over to his apartment for haircuts.
“When he talks, the guys listen. At the end of every practice, he comes out and he gets up in front of the team and he leads them to the breakdown,” Mai said. “He is a very vocal leader and does a really good job of trying to hold guys accountable. But at the same time, he’s young enough to where they enjoy hanging out with him.”
Junior offensive lineman Elias Cloy was a high school freshman when Brown began his college career in 2019. He said Brown’s experience has helped accelerate his own development, as well as the development of the younger players on the roster.
“He can get everyone on the same page like that, and he can control the room like he has been doing it for years,” Cloy said. “Even on the field, he’s gotten better and better since I’ve been here. I’ve seen him grow, and honestly he’s helped me get through some growing pains of my development. He has that effect on people.
“His leadership isn’t like just yelling at you until you get it right. He will be hard on you sometimes, but he builds you up.”
Brown’s connection to Alabama A&M runs deep. He grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, less than two hours away from campus, and his sister and grandparents attended the university.
In his four years at Alabama A&M, Brown has earned a Master of Business Administration. He said the historically Black university has given him the freedom to be himself.
“Just in my four seasons here, just seeing how far the program has come, especially after Coach [Sam] Shade got here, is just amazing,” Brown said. “The light that’s shined on HBCU football and the pride that these HBCU fans have — I really never understood what it was until I got here.”
Brown said he has grown both on and off the field over his long collegiate career.
His judgment has improved, and off-the-field distractions no longer appeal to him, he said. Brown also recalled feeling the need to force big plays as a young starting quarterback; now he’s more patient in the pocket and focuses on reading the defense.
He said it’s an advantage his years playing and observing from the sideline have given him.
“On the field, you know, there’s not a defense that I haven’t seen,” he said. “I know how to read through every play that we run because I’ve run it for three different universities. … There’s nothing that a defense coordinator can throw at me that can fool me.”
Cloy said he appreciates Brown’s approach to the game.
“There have been ups and downs in his career and even mine, but he knows how to get back up on his two feet every time with a smile,” Cloy said. “He has a lot of hate coming his way, especially now, but he just shrugs it off and plays his game like the way he does.”
Brown’s list of goals for his final season is as long as his career has been. He wants to earn first-team All-SWAC honors while breaking Alabama A&M passing records. But his biggest goals are to lead the Bulldogs to a 10-win season, earn the conference title and finish the season at the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta.
Those goals now have a starting point: Alabama A&M’s first SWAC matchup of the season Saturday. Everything he wants to accomplish begins with navigating the conference schedule and putting the Bulldogs in position to compete for the SWAC championship.
“[This season] has been great because we’re so much better than we were the year before,” Brown said. “If we just continue to take things day by day, we’ll walk into our goals without even having to think about them.”