Kaleb Brown Battles Back EYEING Full-Strength Return for UAB

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 7, 2026

Kaleb Brown is making progress toward getting fully healthy, which is a good thing for the talented UAB receiver.

“Health-wise I'm progressing,” said the 5-foot-10, 200-pound Chicago native. “I'm a lot further than I thought I'd be at this point. But, yeah, getting around, running around, running routes on air, stuff like that. I’m feeling pretty good.”

While that is certainly good news for Brown and the Blazers offense, it appeared he was on his way to much more at this point. Brown was thought to be UAB’s best receiver and maybe even the Blazers top offensive skill player heading into spring practice. He is finishing a five-year path through college football that included stops at Ohio State and Iowa. He entered his second spring practice at UAB with hopes that his best football would come at the end of his journey.

“Yeah, I would, I would definitely agree to that 100 percent,” Brown said. “It's been a journey having to learn receiver over my college career and whatnot. I had always played running back. It's been a transition just learning how to look like a receiver I would say. I definitely felt, just before the injury, that was probably the best that I've been.”

That changed midway through spring drills when he suffered a lower body injury during practice. In some ways, his final season flashed through his mind.

“I thought it was bad,” Brown said. “It didn't look good at all. So, yeah, I just didn't know what to think, but I just knew I would have to do my time at some point. It was good that it wasn't more time.”

Brown faced a similar situation during his first season at UAB. Brown suffered a broken foot and ligament damage in his foot during the first spring practice session. The thought at the time was his return probably wouldn’t come until late in fall camp. However, he was back on the field from the start of fall camp, even though he wasn’t at full strength. Brown ended up with 17 catches for 255 yards and two touchdowns in nine games. That experience was beneficial the second time around.

“Just to have a visual of what it looked like to come back and be ready for camp, fall camp at least,” Brown said. “It was easier for me to be able to see that through. I felt a lot more confident. Obviously, when my injury happened it was super surprising. I didn't think that it'd be anything good at all. But, it happened to be something that I could kind of jump on (the rehab) early and (that) helped out a whole lot with the last injury too.”

Even with that experience, though, Brown said the toughest part of the healing process was the beginning.

“Thankfully I got a great community within this team as well,” Brown said. “They helped me out through that a lot. You know, just having to face the whole having to sit down. I was rolling and rolling and rolling in the spring and then it’s like calm down (and) stop completely. But, just getting over that hump, initially, was the most difficult.”

Getting back out there this summer, even in the limited role, has been huge for Brown. Obviously, he’s working on himself but he’s also trying to help strengthen the receiving corps.

“Congratulating guys, coaching them up when needed,” Brown said when asked what he has contributed in the early days of camp. “I'm one of the guys with a little bit more experience and I’ve kind of been through the system. I kind of know the ins and outs of it. I had to learn it for myself at a rapid motion. Just pass nuggets down and be able to just coach guys up, that was probably the main thing. Like just be a good presence there, moving the guys on.”