Ivy League linebacker Andrew Knapp commits to Brown over Rhode Island, Cornell

Brown kept a local Ivy pipeline open with a commitment that says as much about roster building as it does about one linebacker. Andrew Knapp, a rising defender from Buckingham Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, chose the Bears on May 29, giving Brown a versatile front-seven piece with production, academic fit and regional upside.

The timing mattered. Brown’s offer arrived May 23 after Knapp spoke with offensive line coach Eddy Morrissey, and by then Brown had already emerged as the school Knapp wanted. He picked the Bears over Rhode Island and Cornell, then doubled down on the fit by pointing to the staff’s bond, the family atmosphere and the chance to leave Providence with an Ivy League degree that still carries weight after football.

Knapp’s own words on the commitment made the after-football pitch impossible to miss. Brown head coach James Perry met with him in person to finalize the decision, and Knapp said Perry and the staff also laid out the school’s connections and job opportunities beyond football. That matters in Ivy recruiting, where roster construction is about more than who can run the fastest 40. Brown has to win players who can handle the classroom, contribute on special teams and develop into real defensive pieces. Knapp looks built for that path.

The film and the box score back it up. Last season Knapp posted 53 tackles, four sacks, three pass breakups and a forced fumble, earning All-NEPSAC Class B first-team honors. Hudl lists him as a Class of 2027 middle linebacker and tight end, and that two-way label hints at the kind of player Brown is getting: not a one-trick prospect, but someone who can affect the game from multiple alignments and grow into more as the college game slows down for him.

His high school program has become its own proof of concept. BB&N finished 6-3 in 2025, marking its 21st straight season without a losing record, and fell to Tabor Academy 42-21 in the NEPSAC John Papas Bowl. The Knights’ history page says the program has reached 12 NEPSAC Bowl Championships since 2004, won six bowl games, captured four ISL titles and sent more than 125 players on to college programs. Brown did not just land a linebacker from a winning program. It landed one from a pipeline that has already shown it can produce college-ready players.

For Brown, that is the quiet kind of recruiting win that can ripple through an Ivy roster. Knapp gives the Bears a developmental defender with production, range and a clear academic fit, the exact type of pickup that tends to show up later as a difference-maker in conference play.