The University of Hawaii football team practices on a grass field that is 8 feet above the rest of the lower campus.
It is on the high ground where quarterback Dru Brown hones his craft physically and accepts responsibility metaphorically.
“As the quarterback, when you do well, it’s not all you,” Brown said. “When you do bad, it’s good to take responsibility. It’s just the nature of the position because the quarterback has the ball every play. It’s healthy for me to take the blame and try to fix the mistakes because it all starts with me.”
Brown, who transferred from College of San Mateo in June, is 2-1 as a UH starter. He has led the Rainbow Warriors to 18 touchdowns and five field goals on 45 possessions. He has not been intercepted in 112 consecutive passes.
But Brown also has lost a fumble in each of the past four games, including a turnover that set up UNLV’s game-winning field goal this past Saturday. Head coach Nick Rolovich is supportive of Brown, saying he lost a fumble but not the game against UNLV.
But Brown said: “On that last drive, ball security should be my first priority. I’m working on it every day. It’s not like I’m neglecting it. I’ll take all the hatred. I’ll take all the blame. (Losing a fumble is) just unacceptable.”
Brown did not lose a fumble last year, his lone season in junior college. But Brown acknowledged his athletic ability enabled him to “get away with a lot of things” on keepers and scrambles.
“It’s different than high school and junior college,” Brown said of NCAA Division I competition. “Basically, everyone across from me on defense is on scholarship as well. … Everyone is athletic. Everyone is fast. Everyone is big. The major priority as you go up in levels, coach Stutz (Craig Stutzmann) always tells me, is (defenses) really emphasize taking the ball away.”
Brown said he has worked on his grip of the football when running. “I don’t try to fumble the ball,” he said. “I do my best. It hasn’t shown yet, but I think I’m improving, and hopefully I’ll be able to cut those out for good and not turn the ball over and have a much higher chance of winning.”
Brown has mastered other phases. He has shown patience in extending plays with roll outs and, if receivers are blanketed, throwing away passes.
“I’ve just tried to cut out all those stupid throws,” Brown said. “I’ve learned to live to play another down when it comes to throwing the ball.”
When faced with a heavy pass rush, he is starting to step into the pocket — instead of scrambling away from the protection — and using the wall of blockers as a safe room.
“I definitely need to sit in there and let things develop,” Brown said.
He also is adjusting to life in the spotlight.
“There’s no professional team out here,” Brown said. “Everyone is really looking at you and how you’re doing. It definitely hurt knowing (the fans) came out to watch (the game against UNLV) and we lost, which was unfortunate. But we’ll learn from it, and we’ll get better from it. I hope they don’t write us off yet.”
