HOW THEY’RE DOING : Trophy Can Wait for Derek Brown

Nebraska sophomore Derek Brown rarely thumbs through a newspaper, but he regularly searches USA Today on Monday mornings for names in the Heisman Trophy watch, only to find . . .

His own?

Brown, a Cornhusker I-back and a former Servite High School standout, thinks a run at the Heisman is a year or two premature. After all, no sophomore has won the Heisman Trophy, and only 10 juniors have earned college football’s highest honor.

“I’m more surprised than anybody to see that I’m a candidate,” Brown said. “I doubt that I’ll win it as a sophomore. I haven’t been here long enough and I haven’t done enough yet. But it’s nice to see that someone’s considering me.”

Brown’s name fell off most Heisman lists after Nebraska’s nationally televised, 36-21, loss to Washington two weeks ago.

Still, he continues compiling yardage at a record rate, just as he did at Servite, where he ran for more than 2,400 yards and was named Southern California’s top high school player as a senior in 1988.

After sitting out the 1989 season because he failed to meet Proposition 48 requirements, Brown improved his grades, regained his eligibility and added nine pounds through hours of work in the weight room.

As a part-time starter last season, he rushed for 389 yards and five touchdowns.

This season, he has come off the bench and is well ahead of the pace for a 1,000-yard season.

“When I first came here, I didn’t expect to play much,” Brown said. “But I sort of expected to be in this position entering this year.

“A lot of people have been asking, ‘Where’s Derek?’ and ‘What’s he up to?’ and I’m ready to answer those questions. I would be glad to carry the ball 30 times a game. I’d be glad to block 50 times in a row.

“People will finally get a chance to see what I can do.”

They have already received an early glimpse. He has rushed for 100 yards or more in each of Nebraska’s four nonconference games this season, becoming the first Cornhusker I-back to do so since Jarvis Redwine in 1980.

Brown has 531 yards and four touchdowns in 84 carries, including a 100-yard, two-touchdown performance against Washington, which has one of the nation’s best defenses. He ranks ninth in the nation in rushing with a 132-yard average, and is 17th nationally in all purpose yards (146.5).

He needs only 822 yards to break the school’s sophomore rushing record set in 1977 by I.M. Hipp.

“The thing I like about Derek is just the way he competes,” said Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, whose stable of running backs has included Mike Rozier, Roger Craig and Keith Jones. “He really goes after it, never shies away, and he’s a winner. The kind of games we have played the last two weeks (Washington and Arizona State) really helps you sort out the competitors. Derek’s definitely one of them.”

Brown knows the exposure he gets as a sophomore could set up a Heisman run next season. The school’s media relation’s department already is billing him as an All-America candidate, even setting up a phone number where fans can call for weekly statistical updates and interviews with him.

And every big run Brown breaks--such as the 50-yarder where he blew past Georgia Tech’s Ken Swilling in last year’s Citrus Bowl loss--attracts more and more footage on the highlight films.

He started the Washington game with a highlight reel special--a 27-yard touchdown run off a pitch to the left side. Brown was mauled by his teammates in the end zone. He shook his fist into the television camera.

The celebration didn’t extend past halftime.

Washington’s defense began to figure out Nebraska’s predictable offense. The Huskers had no passing game to complement their running attack, and Washington began to key on Brown.

One of the most punishing hits Brown took came in the third quarter. On a third-and-two play, Brown, 5 feet 9 and 185 pounds, dived over right tackle with enough momentum to get the first down. But he was stopped short by Washington linebacker Chico Fraley, who sent him flying backward over a pile of players.

“It was brutal,” Brown said. “Somebody got me on the backside, then Fraley got me going over the top. I have a lot of respect for that defense.

“I think we played hard up to the third quarter. But some of us didn’t have it in us. I felt great after the game, though. I could’ve played another game.”

Brown and the Huskers rebounded last weekend at Arizona State. Brown had 135 yards in 25 carries, including a 34-yard run that set up Nebraska’s first touchdown. He was named the Big Eight’s offensive player of the week for his efforts.

“The thing with us,” Brown said, “is that we have to keep going after the Washington loss. We can’t change direction, we have to finish this season out. We have a lot of championship games ahead of us.”

Brown, a part-time starter as a freshman, took over the spot full time this year because of injuries and attrition.

Although he was a consensus first-team, All-Big Eight preseason selection, Brown was a backup to junior Scotty Baldwin. Brown had held the starting job throughout spring until Baldwin edged him just before the season.

“Losing the No. 1 spot was something you have to deal with,” Brown said. “To me, the first and second spots are the same in this offense. It wasn’t as though I really had the No. 1 spot to begin with.”

A great outside runner in high school, Brown has learned to run off-tackle in college.

“He has to be able to take the hits as well as give them out,” said Frank Solich, Nebraska running backs coach. “That’s one thing that separates the great I-backs from the good ones.”

Brown had moved to the top of the depth chart last spring when Leodis Flowers, the starter, left the team after a dispute with coaches.

“When Leodis left, everyone said I was No. 1,” Brown said. “But it came down to who had the best fall practice. I wasn’t that great, and Scotty deserved it.”

But Baldwin severly sprained his ankle early in Nebraska’s season-opening victory against Utah State and will be sidelined a few more weeks. Brown replaced him, rushing for a career-high 175 yards in 31 carries.

Afterward, Brown shrugged and told reporters: “I didn’t have a very good game today.”

Maybe it was the weather that left the normally easygoing Brown in a somewhat foul mood. The Utah State game had been delayed 20 minutes because of a thunderstorm, something Brown didn’t see much of while growing up in La Palma.

Dark clouds covered the stadium early in the second half. Lightning cracked across the sky, and the rain fell so hard Brown couldn’t see the end zone. The temperature had dropped 20 degrees since kickoff.

“I had never seen anything like it,” Brown said. “One minute it was nice, the next minute it was pouring. There were all these fans dressed in red, and they were running around going crazy.

“The weatherman had said it was supposed to be 90 degrees out there. I think he was a little wrong.”

The Midwest’s unpredictable weather hasn’t been the only adjustment for Brown since he moved to Nebraska.

His schoolwork, which took a back seat to football in high school, is now a priority.

Although he was ineligible, Brown enrolled at Nebraska on his own, paying for his own classes while working for a local plumber. He and tight end Johnny Mitchell, also academically ineligible, worked, trained and studied together. Now, they’re both starters.

“It would have been so much tougher if Johnny wouldn’t have been there, too,” Brown said. “He had to go through the same things I did. We would get up early to go to work, finish about 3:30 and then go lift together.”

Brown and Mitchell passed their entrance exams in January, 1990, and were declared eligible for the 1990 season. Brown, who said he has a B average, will declare a business major next semester.

“I think I’d like to own my own business someday,” he said. “But it might have to wait because I want to play in the NFL first.

“But I’m going to get my degree no matter what. Even if I leave after my junior year for the NFL, I’ll come back and finish it.”

Nebraska strength coach Boyd Epley, who encouraged Brown to train and stay in school, said Brown set an example for athletes who have struggled with Proposition 48 requirements.

“He had a rocky time and that stressed him in a lot of ways,” Epley said. “But I never saw that in the weight room. He put it all behind him. You have to admire a guy for going through all that adversity, but he’s still got a few roads ahead of him.”

One of those roads will take him down the aisle.

Brown was engaged last spring to Nebraska student Amy Trout. The couple met on Valentine’s Day two years ago through Brown’s former roommate, Cedric McDonald.

“I went to the mall with Cedric and we ran into her,” Brown said. “I paid her no mind at first. But she kept coming over and visiting us, and we started going out as good friends.”

They began spending more time together last year.

“Then things got serious,” Brown said.

Although the couple hasn’t set a wedding date, Brown has assured his bride-to-be of one thing.

“It won’t be during football season,” he said.

Derek Brown’s 1991 Season at Nebraska

Opponent Carries Yards TDs Score Utah State 23 175 0 59-28, Nebraska Colorado State 15 121 2 71-14, Nebraska Washington 21 100 2 36-21, Washington Arizona State 25 135 0 18-9, Nebraska Totals 84 531 4