Jamarious Brown is a defensive tackle. On Saturday in Nashville he lined up once as a tight end, went up over a Vanderbilt linebacker and caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Trinidad Chambliss — the first touchdown of his college career, on a 15-play, 63-yard drive in the second quarter of Ole Miss’s 52-17 win.
He had not been lobbying for the play. “I haven’t really been asking for them to run it, but they just told me whenever my time come, just be ready. And I was ready.”
The celebration came first
Brown and fellow defensive tackle Will Echoles had a routine ready. It was about five minutes old.
What’s crazy is we made a celebration like five minutes before we did it. They called us from the bench and was like, “We finna go jumbo.” And they was like, “We think it’s semi-pass.” And I was like, okay, if we score, then this is what we gonna do.
Chambliss said afterward he had no idea it was coming. “It was awesome. I didn’t even know they had that.”
The catch
The guy was in front of me. And then it just floated. It came right in my hand. I jumped. It just came right in my hand. And I was just like, wow. I just got my first touchdown.
Chambliss described the same throw from the other end: Vanderbilt had the play covered, so he put it up and trusted Brown to go get it. “It was either JB was going to make a nice catch like he did, or it was going to be an incomplete pass. And JB went up and got it.”
Not his first time with the ball
Pete Golding said the offensive staff had been running these big-man plays against his defense in practice, and that Brown was “a hell of an athlete in high school — Wildcat quarterback, tight end.” Brown confirmed it.
I was pretty solid as a football player back in high school. I was a defensive lineman, but my coach utilized me as like Wildcat quarterback, tight end and stuff like that.
The other side of the ball
The touchdown will be the highlight. The tape might be better. Brown played 15 defensive snaps and posted a 77.0 overall grade from Pro Football Focus — the best on the Ole Miss defense — with two tackles, two stops and a 76.4 against the run. He also dropped Vanderbilt running back Makhilyn Young for a loss in the first half.
Asked about the defensive response after giving up 52 points and 302 rushing yards at Florida, he kept it short. “We just went to work, put our head down, went to work. Tough loss, but we just put our head down and went to work. Next game up.”
Could Saturday be a turning point? “Yes, sir.” The work, he said, is to fix what showed up on tape, “adjust it and just keep on applying it.”
On Suntarine Perkins
Brown was not the only defender to score a first career touchdown. Suntarine Perkins returned a fumble five yards for one in the same quarter.
Seeing my brothers do good is always one of the most exciting feelings for me, because we blood, sweat and tears throughout the summer and stuff. So when I see them do good, it just brings me joy.
Ole Miss is 4-1, 2-1 in the SEC. Next up: Missouri at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Saturday, Oct. 17, at 2:30 p.m. CT. Hotty Toddy 🦈
Quotes from the Ole Miss postgame press conferences, Oct. 10, 2026. Grades via Pro Football Focus; team and individual totals via Ole Miss Athletics. Photo: Jamarious Brown, October 10, 2026, at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.