Warriors hoping a ‘simpler’ approach with Brown works
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
UH starting quarterback Dru Brown ran through practice drills during the Warriors’ training on Tuesday. He looks up to another “D.B.” that plays for the Saints.
Want to gauge people’s honesty? Ask how tall they are.
“I’m like 5-11 1⁄2, maybe 3⁄4,” Dru Brown, the University of Hawaii’s new starting quarterback, says with a smile. “I don’t say 6 feet. I embrace it.”
Most guys who are that close will just go with the magic number, the one that generally differentiates between tall and short for the general population of men.
But Dave and Terri Brown have always told their son to stay humble, or he will be humbled.
At 6-even, Brown still wouldn’t be considered tall for a college football quarterback. But he’d be the same height as the NFL star with the same initials and similar first name.
“He’s definitely a player I look up to since we’re of similar stature and he’s played pretty well during a long career,” Brown said of Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints quarterback.
What’s the story behind the spelling of “Dru?”
“My parents wanted something simple, but a little different,” he says.
That’s also the impression Brown has made in his less than three months at UH — “simple” as in focused and not overly flamboyant and “a little different” in that his knack for gaining yards as a runner is a wrinkle previous starter Ikaika Woolsey didn’t provide as often in UH’s 1-3 opening to the season.
The Rainbow Warriors also hope “simple” translates into not trying to do too much and making crucial mistakes as Brown starts for the first time Saturday as Hawaii hosts Nevada in the Mountain West Conference opener for both teams. Head coach Nick Rolovich has lauded Brown for consistency, including steady absorption of the offense.
“If you correct him, he gets it. You only have to tell him once,” quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Craig Stutzmann says. “He’s a quiet guy, not the kind you have to ever tell to stop talking. He can be a funny kid, but he’s cerebral and humble. He’s mature for his age.
“He ran the ball well in the Arizona game,” Stutzmann adds, noting Brown’s 33 yards and touchdown in the 47-28 loss at Tucson in which Brown consistently moved the offense in the second half.
Brown is a sophomore who played at College of San Mateo (Calif.) last year. He said going the JC route due to lack of Division I offers turned out to be a positive.
“Big-time. There’s a lot of stereotypes, like you’re not smart enough,” says Brown, who qualified academically for four-year schools. “But in a way, it’s smarter. In football it helped. And it changed my perspective because of what a lot of guys were going through. It makes you feel like your own situation isn’t so bad. Some guys were going around from house-to-house. One teammate had just been released from prison. But they were all great guys.”
Brown says Los Gatos High School, from where he graduated in 2015, “was pretty much all white,” but his ethnically diverse JC team “kind of felt like here, a lot of Polynesian and African-American teammates.”
Brown, who aspires to major in business, is “dialed in,” Stutzmann says.
“He’s a football junkie, he’s always in the weight room, and all he does other than that is school.”
Stutzmann then repeats the next question before answering it.
“What sets him apart from the other quarterbacks?
“I think we’ll see this week.”
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.
17 responses to “Warriors hoping a ‘simpler’ approach with Brown works”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
When UH first recruited Brown from san Mateo JC i went and looked at his videos of his games on hudl..I told my friends after watching Brown that this is the new QB for us and would soon be our starter. It wasnt hard to see that he simply was a better athlete all round and something else he had…a situational awareness…he instantly would know when to pack it in and take off. He rarely took a loss. He also had good moves when he ran. So, here we are now with Brown starting, which in my view should have come a little sooner. Better late than never.
But what about Aaron Zwahlen? top ten QB in the nation and elite 11 according to espn…why is he not even getting a shot?? check him out this guy is good. https://youtu.be/tGnLxOjsvK4
Too bad he has not been given an opportunity (yet) to play under the lights. Maybe he’ll transfer.
Has it ever entered your mind that he’s just not that good?
No. Besides, Rolo previously said that he planned to put Aaron in the Arizona game, but didn’t because Dru was playing so well. Apparently Rolo thinks enough of Aaron to have planned to insert him in the game. I’ve also seen Aaron in the spring, and for a while, he looked like he would come out of spring as No. 1. He does not have the wheels that Dru has. So I think he should transfer to another school where his style/skills fits their offense. Rolo likes his quarterbacks to be able to run. That’s what he has come away with from his time at Nevada.
Very simple answer for you and I hope it’simple enough for you to comprehend (although I doubt that). The UH coaches who see him EVERY DAY don’t think he’s good enough yet to be the top dog.
What is checking out some ancient stuff going to do any good for anyone at this point? The fact is, no matter how much you want to spin it otherwise, the coach, right now, don’t think he’s good enough to get much action.
My point is maybe he did something to get demoted I saw a youtube video with all the coaches praising him during spring, and now nothing. He has an awkward throw but so did colt brennan. Your telling me the best QBs never sat??look at rolo himself. He was much better than timmy chang..Coaches make mistakes. Give the touted guy a shot in my opinion what do we have to lose and we need to get guys like him reps for the future of UH FB.
Good luck to Dru and the rest of bows.
Hopefully they don’t dial it down too much to make the offense look like what Chow was running with mostly draw plays and punts.
Not taking away anything from Dru Brown, but yes, it is a big mystery why Aaron Zwahlen has not excelled at this point given his HS performance background, age/maturity since he went on a mission, and redshirt year learning the system. I will assume he has reasonable intelligence/judgement, looks like he is big and strong enough, has a reasonably quick passing release, plus appears to be an adequate runner, so what is it? I wouldn’t be surprised that he transfers after this year, wondering if he is getting a fair chance?
Cole McDonald on the other hand looks like a specimen and has both passing and running talent, plus has been mentioned in the media as impressive running the scout team.
Why is it a mystery? Coaches have seen him in prctice and deemed him not ready for prime time. Is that so hard to understand? Who gives a s….t what he looked like years ago? He got a scholarship from Chow based on that and even Chow didn’t think he was ready. So stop with this nonsense about how great he was.
I dont think putting Brown before Zwahlen is a mystery at all. First, he has Junior College experience as a starter and JC programs in Calif. can be very high calber. Zwahlen on the other hand has no college snaps to his credit….not to mention that he hasnt played a down since high school. In addition to this is Browns obvious athletic ability…hes already better than IW and Woolsey has some years as a ranking QB in D 1 ball! Thats a big reason right there. Zwahlen simply hasnt earned his stripes yet.
Simple, complex — whatevah. The main thing is execution. All the planning in the world is for nothing if the guys can’t execute. All it takes is one guy out of whack to deflate the efforts of the entire team. If, on every down, every player will think, play smart, not make any mistakes, then we’ll have a football team. Go Bows!
I hope they are doing something with UH’s major problem, Defense. All of the FBS teams that UH has played against scored the most points this season against UH. Defense is going to win games. Its like, “Drive for show, put for dough.” Trying to score 50+ points to make up for the 50 pts that the defense is giving up is near impossible. Cutting the points given up to half would make a bigger difference than tweaks in offense.
In Dru we trust. Go get ‘um Dru, no scared ‘um and let’s have some fun out there. Let’s pack the house and show the boys we back ‘um up 100%. Go ‘Bows.
Time for young Rolo to climb out of his shell and be innovative and make quick adjustments in all three phases of the game. Coaching will need to be in full play in this contest. Nevada is a middle-of-the-pack blue-collar MWC team. Hawaii will have to play four solid quarters to win this scrap.