The first decade of the 21st century saw UConn Football take a huge leap from the world of Division I-AA (FCS) to I-A (FBS) college football.....A move to the Big East and a chance at great opportunity. Randy Edsall built his teams that were stingy on defense and a balanced offense...All that started up front to give talented running backs room to run. Terry Caulley, Cornell Brockington, Chris Bellamy, Andre Dixon and Jordan Todman just to name a few. Todman was an All American in 2010, we'll profile him soon, but this blog is about the best running back to play the game at UConn, Donald Brown...
Donald was a football and track star at Red Bank Catholic High School....Over 2,000y rushing, 27 TD's on the gridiron...an 11.3 time in the 100 and 23.2 in the 200...He was listed as a three star recruit. It came down to Wisconsin or UConn..He chose to play for Randy Edsall and RB Coach Terry Richardson in Storrs...Richardson himself was a standout RB at Syracuse and had already made Caulley, Brockington and Bellamy into top notch running backs...Brown was next in line, along with another New Jersey Tailback in Andre Dixon...
After redshirting the 2005 season, Brown began 2006 as a kick returner and backup to Terry Caulley..In the Opener against Rhode Island, Brown ran the ball 9 times for 118y and a TD...a 53y jaunt like he was shot out of a cannon...In late October before the annual showdown with Rutgers, Caulley's injury woes cut short a fabulous career, and Brown became the starter. 199y and 2 TD's in a tough loss to the #15 team in the country. A week later against Pitt, even better...43 carries for 205y and 3 TD (1 receiving) in the epic 46-45 2OT) win ...His 2nd running TD in OT made it 45-44, DJ Hernandez' keeper for 2 won it in the most exciting game of the season..Brown finished with 4, 100 yards rushing games, 896y for the season and 7 rushing TD's. It earned him 2nd Team All Big East Honors...
In 2007, nagging injuries and the emergence of Andre Dixon made for a formidable duo at RB for the Huskies. Brown and Dixon combining for nearly 1,700y on the ground..Brown with a pair of 100y games that season in which the Huskies started 8-1 and earned it's first AP Top 25 ranking...A season high 154 in a 38-19 rout of Rutgers at home, then 129 as the bright spot of an otherwise forgetful loss at West Virginia that gave the Mountaineers the league's BCS Berth...Brown again over 800y and 8 rushing TD's..He was held to 72 in the Bowl loss to Wake Forest in Charlotte as part of a successful 9-4 season.
Dixon was dealing with the injury bug when 2008 began...and Brown would take off..11, 100y rushing games, including the first 8 of the season. After a 4 rushing TD game in the opener against Hofstra, Brown keyed the 12-9 OT win at Temple in a driving rainstorm..214y and the game winning score in OT....a week later against Virginia, another 206y as the Huskies started 5-0..150 in the win over Baylor and another 190 in the win at Louisville...There would be some agonizing losses in 2008, but Brown kept chugging away as the bright spot. 150 more against Cincinnati, 131 at Syracuse and 189 against a talented Pittsburgh Team....UConn finished 8-4 and played Buffalo in the International Bowl in Toronto. "The Donald" could not be stopped...a 261y rushing day that put him over 2,000 for the season. First UConn RB to accomplish that. He added a 45y TD run and another big jaunt of 75 as UConn overcame 5 fumbles in the first half and won 38-20. Brown named the Game MVP. That season, Donald Brown set school records for yards rushed in a season (2,083), carries (367), yards per game (160.2) and 100y rushing games (11) He not only was named the Team MVP and Big East Offensive Player of the Year, Brown was the first UConn Player in the FBS Era to earn All American Status..First Team by the Sporting News, Second Team AP and Walter Camp...
Donald Brown left UConn after three seasons at UConn to declare for the NFL Draft, where at the time, he would be the Huskies first, 1st round pick at #27 by the Indianapolis Colts...He spent 5 years in Indy, three more in San Diego and one on the Patriots Practice squad before his release in 2016....
In those three seasons playing at UConn, Brown left with school records in carries (698) ,rushing yards (3800) and 100 yard games (17)..Second in Yards per carry (5.4), yards per game (102.7) and rushing TD's (33) .
Today Donald and wife Mallory, a former James Madison Field Hockey player, are the parents of two boys...He lives in San Diego, CA and with the International Justice Mission as Director of Team Freedom Partnerships: Pro Athletes ending Slavery.
Donald Brown, a classy young man on and off the field....A Husky All American and definately a UConn Legend...