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Courtesy of Draft Guys
Donald Brown II (UConn – 4JR) 5’10” 210 Combine Invite: Yes In his first collegiate game, Brown gave a glimpse of a future that would come sooner, and then later, than expected. The redshirt freshman came in for the second half in a 52-7 thrashing of FCS (then DI-AA) Rhode Island in the season opener on 8/31/06. He would rush for 118 yards and two scores on just nine carries, including a 53-yard TD. Brown would only see a smattering of touches the next several games, as he deferred to Terry Caulley, who was on his way to setting the school’s career rushing record. However, the injury-prone Caulley suffered an ankle sprain in a loss to WVU midway through the season. Brown, a New Jersey native, got his first start the next game against an unbeaten, 15th-ranked Rutgers team on a nationally-televised Sunday night game. Brown responded by rushing for 199 yards and two third quarter TDs, including a 65-yard dash that pulled the Huskies within four points before a blocked punt return for a TD in the fourth quarter sealed the victory for the Scarlet Knights. After a bye week, Caulley returned, but Brown got the starting nod again against Pittsburgh. Brown carried the ball 43 times for 205 yards and two scores in a double-OT thriller. He scored the final TD in the second OT on an 11-yard run to make the score 45-44, and UConn would get their first Big East win of the season following it up with a successful two-point conversion. Caulley would break a finger during the game and need surgery to insert a pin, causing him to miss another game. Caulley’s continued injury problems and, more so, Brown’s 400+ yards in two games would secure the starting job for Brown the rest of the season. Brown would finish the season with 896 yards rushing, in just five starts, at a 5.6 ypc clip and be recognized with second-team All-Big East honors, the only freshman on the first or second teams. Brown appeared primed to explode with an opportunity to be the starter for the entire year in 2007, but he got off to a slow start as he tried to press too much to make things happen. Fellow 3SO RB Andre Dixon returned from a two-game suspension to start the season and easily went over 100 yards in his first game to help prevent an upset by Temple. Brown would still be looking for his first 100-yard day of the season when he sprained his left ankle in a win over Akron the fifth game of the season, the second game Dixon would rush for over 100 yards, while scoring both on the ground and through the air. Brown would sit out their first loss of the season, by one point, at Virginia the following week. Brown returned for the next game against Louisville, but was limited and had a costly fumble, returned 32 yards for a TD, on his five carries. Dixon would run for over 100 yards, including the game-winning TD in the fourth quarter. After that performance, HC Randy Edsall replaced Brown and made the Dixon the starter for a face-off with 11th-ranked South Florida. Dixon ran for a career-high 167 yards, adding another 42 on three receptions, to help the Huskies upset the Bulls and earn a national ranking (16th on the AP that week) for the first time in school history. For the second straight season, Rutgers would prove to be the catharsis of the season for Brown. Dixon got the start, but Brown came off the bench in the third quarter with a 33-yard TD run and added a 70-yard run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Brown finished with season highs of 24 carries and 154 yards on the ground. He would see just two carries for one yard in a big loss at Cincinnati the next game before ending the season averaging exactly 100 ypg over the final three games. With a strong second half, he finished with 821 rushing yards on the season, seven behind Dixon. Expectations for the 2008 season were for Brown and Dixon to continue splitting carries, but that abruptly changed when Dixon sprained his ankle in practice the week before the season opener. With Dixon out of the picture, Brown ran for 146 yards, the seventh 100-yard game of his career, and four TDs in an easy win over FCS Hofstra to start the season and the momentum for an incredible season continued to build quickly. Brown rushed for over 200 yards in wins at Temple and against Virginia, as Dixon struggled to return from his ankle injury. He scored his tenth TD of the season in the fourth game of the season, a game-winner over Baylor. He rushed for over 100 yards by halftime in the first five games of the season. He broke 1,000 yards in the sixth game at North Carolina in their first loss of the season. He rushed for over 100 yards in their first eight games of the season and in all but two of their 13 games. In the International Bowl, Brown put an exclamation point on his amazing season. He single-handedly kept the Huskies in the game in a first half where they had six fumble and lost five. Brown rushed for 207 in the first two quarters, including a 45-yard run for their first score on his 18th TD of the season and a career-long 75-yard run that set up a TD before halftime to pull the Huskies within three points. He finished with a career-high 261 yards and 2,083 for the season, becoming the 14th NCAA player to rush for over 2,000 yards. The nation’s leading rusher was the Big East Offensive POY, as well as a second-team AP and Walter Camp All-American. After saying he’d return for his final season of eligibility two weeks early, the 4JR reported he was turning pro after the bowl victory.
A fitness nut and workout warrior, Brown definitely passes the eyeball test with an ideal size and build for a running back at the next level. He has good lower body strength and excellent vision, combined with a vicious stiff-arm that Buffalo coach Turner Gill labeled “a pretty deadly weapon” among his compliments for Brown before he dismantled Gill’s Bulls in the International Bowl. Despite reportedly timed electronically with a 4.41 40 last spring and having broken several long runs in his career, Brown doesn’t look like he has elite speed (e.g. being caught from behind on his 75-yard run late in the first half of the International Bowl). Not a very efficient runner in the open field, some unnecessary movements. He could use a track coach to refine his running style. What he definitely has outstanding burst through the line once he picks his hole. And it was surprising when holes were there, because there was little passing threat to take the bulls-eye off of Brown. QB Tyler Lorenzen missed four games with a broken foot and the offense threw for a total of three TDs in the regular season. Brown is this year’s version of Matt Forte, a great physical package who came out of relative obscurity at a mid-major to post incredible numbers far beyond the solid, but unspectacular, production he had prior to his final season. With a solid Combine he looks like a solid second or third round pick.
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