Donald Brown

Donald Eugene Brown II (born April 11, 1987) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Indianapolis Colts.

He finished the year with 896 yards and 9 touchdowns (2 receiving), which was good enough to award him with a 2nd team All Big East nomination.

Brown began his sophomore season with heightened expectations brought on by his very successful rookie campaign.

However, nagging injuries combined with the emergence of fellow sophomore Andre Dixon would hamper his sophomore season.

He would finish the year with 821 yards and 8 touchdowns, which was good for second on the team, behind Dixon.

Twice, Brown ran for 100 yards in a game (against Rutgers and West Virginia) and just missed two more by rushing for 99 yards against Duke and Syracuse.

A pre-season ankle injury to Dixon would cement Brown as the Huskies starting running back for the start of his junior season.

It would be a position that he would not relinquish.

Brown would begin the year with eight straight 100 yard games and would twice eclipse the 200 yard mark (against Temple and Virginia).

He arguably had his best performance in the second game of the year as he rushed for 214 yards on 36 carries and the game's only touchdown against Temple, in a game played in a monsoon due to Tropical Storm Hannah.

Included in his 214 yards was every one of Connecticut's 25 yards in overtime.

Brown rushed for 150 yards in the eighth game of the season at home in a 40–16 Connecticut victory over eventual Big East champion Cincinnati.

These 150 yards increased his season total to 1,324, which set a new Connecticut single-season record.

The old tally of 1,262 had been set by Tory Taylor in 1995.

Brown needed only eight games to break Taylor's record.

Brown continued his record-breaking season in the tenth game at Syracuse.

In that game, he rushed for 131 yards on 31 attempts.

A 49-yard touchdown run in the second quarter would allow Brown to surpass Caulley as Connecticut's all-time leading rusher.

Brown would finish the regular season with 1,822 yards, which placed him first for rushing in the NCAA Division I FBS.

His performance awarded him the Big East Offensive Player of the Year.

He picked Connecticut over Wisconsin on December 8, 2004.

Considered a three-star recruit by Rivals.com, Brown was listed as the No. 53 running back prospect in the nation in 2005.

Brown signed a national letter of intent to enroll at UConn on February 2, 2005.

He would conclude his collegiate career as the all-time leading rusher for Connecticut with 3,800 yards.

Brown entered his redshirt freshman season in 2006 as a kickoff returner and second string running back behind senior captain and incumbent starter, Terry Caulley.

Brown showed flashes of his running ability in the first game of the year, when he rushed for 118 yards on only 9 carries, including a 53-yard touchdown run, against Rhode Island.

He would play primarily on special teams for the first half of the year.

However, when Caulley went down with an injury before Connecticut's game against Rutgers on October 29, Brown was asked to make his first career start at running back.

He made the most of this opportunity, as he rushed for 199 yards on 28 carries and 2 touchdowns.

This performance proved to be too good to ignore, as he was awarded the starting job for the rest of the season.

Brown had his best outing of his freshman campaign in the next game when he rushed for 205 yards on 43 carries with 3 touchdowns (1 receiving) in Connecticut's 46–45 double overtime win over Pittsburgh.

Brown would average 134 yards per game in the five Big East games that he started.

He played college football for the UConn Huskies, becoming the school's all-time leading rusher and earning first-team All-American honors in 2008.

He was selected by the Colts in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft.

Brown was a member of the Colts for five seasons and spent his last two seasons with the San Diego Chargers.

Brown attended Red Bank Catholic High School in Red Bank, New Jersey, where he played football and ran track.

During his senior season, Brown rushed for 2,032 yards and 27 touchdowns.

In track, Brown was timed at 11.3 seconds in the 100 meters and 23.2 seconds in the 200 meters.

After rushing for over 2,000 yards in his junior year, Brown decided to forgo his senior year to enter the 2009 NFL Draft.

On January 3, 2009, Brown was named Player of the Game in UConn's 38–20 victory over the University at Buffalo in the 2009 International Bowl in Toronto.