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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 1, 2002
Former Hernando High standout Dee Brown had a big game for Central Florida on Saturday. Bigger games soon might follow.
Brown, the second-team fullback, was pressed into service as UCF lost three running backs to injuries in Saturday's 48-17 win against Liberty.
The 5-foot-11, 235-pound sophomore caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from QB Ryan Schneider with 5:55 left in the second quarter to put the Knights up 28-3. He added an 11-yard touchdown run with 6:11 remaining in the third quarter to pad the lead to 41-3. Brown finished with five rushes for 44 yards and four receptions for 66 yards. He also fumbled in the fourth quarter.
Brown and Andreal Curry would have played anyway as the game turned into a rout, but the loss of tailbacks Alex Haynes and backup Keith Williams to high ankle sprains and fullback Sean Gaudion to a hip pointer forced them into action sooner.
UCF has a bye week, then returns to Mid-American Conference action Oct. 12 at Western Michigan. If those backs are unable to return, the coaching staff once again will turn to Curry and Brown, son of the late Jerome Brown, the former Hernando High, University of Miami and Philadelphia Eagles great.
RUSH TO JUDGMENT: The run vexes Florida A&M, on offense and defense.
In Saturday's 37-24 win against Tennessee State at the Georgia Dome, the Rattlers defense gave up 209 rushing yards against the Tigers, and 183 of those yards came in the first half. Tennessee State had to abandon the run in the second half after falling behind 30-10 at halftime.
"There are things that we can do to stop the run," FAMU coach Billy Joe told the Tallahassee Democrat. "We did not crowd the line of scrimmage. We thought (Tennessee State) had good receivers and a quarterback that has a good arm. We were playing the pass more so than the run in this game."
But it's not an isolated case. FAMU's defense entered the game giving up an average of 174 rushing yards.
Running had proved difficult for the Rattlers as well entering the game. The team mustered 2.8 yards a carry Saturday.
Backup quarterback Reggie Hayes, playing for the injured Casey Printers, is still the team's leading rusher, after carrying the ball 14 times for 62 yards. Rashard Pompey ran four times for 20 yards and Devin Richardson rushed 15 times for 20 yards.
ALL TOGETHER NOW: Bethune-Cookman coach Alvin Wyatt said goodbye to 16 players in the offseason for the good of the team. He dismissed the group for academic and disciplinary reasons during the summer.
Well, a 5-0 start sure is good.
"This team is like a family more than ever," ex-Tampa Catholic quarterback Allen Suber told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. "We have bonded spiritually to overcome the adversity of preseason."
B-CC won 49-7 against previously unbeaten Norfolk State at Municipal Stadium on Saturday. The team is developing a knack for finding contributors everywhere and for overcoming its miscues. When Norfolk State's Anthony Owens took the opening kickoff past the 50, redshirt freshman kicker Jon Miller chased Owens and knocked him out of bounds.
"I had to do it for the team," Miller told the News-Journal.
The team noticed. "I thought we'd be down 7-0, but Miller showed us he's more than a kicker," Wyatt told the News-Journal. "That man is a football player."
Then there was Jay Rogers' third-quarter fumble. Suber scooped it up in the backfield and sprinted 62 yards to the 2.
Plays like that, Suber said, show the Wildcats don't miss anybody. "They say we lost a lot on paper," Suber told the News-Journal. "This is not a paper team. We're proving it with every win."
-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.