University of Connecticut Athletics
Football's Brown and Fuller Named All-BIG EAST
12/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
STORRS, Conn. (December 6, 2006) - University of Connecticut freshman tailback Donald Brown II (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.) and senior defensive tackle Rhema Fuller (Cocoa, Fla.) were named to the football All-BIG EAST second team on Wednesday in a vote of the league’s coaches.
Brown, the first UConn freshman to ever earn All-BIG EAST accolades, averaged 134.6 yards per game rushing in his five BIG EAST starts, eclipsing the 100-yard plateau three times and the 200-yard plateau once. For the season he broke the 100-yard barrier four times, the most by a UConn freshman since Terry Caulley’s seven in 2002. In all, he gained 896 yards on 161 carries, an impressive 5.6 yard average, with seven scores. He also caught 13 passes for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Brown’s first career start came on Oct. 29 at No. 15 Rutgers on national television and just 20 miles from his hometown. He ran for 199 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries against the nation’s 12th ranked rushing defense. It was the first 100-yard rushing game against the Scarlet Knights in over two years. In his second start, Brown carried the ball 43 times for 205 yards and three all-purpose touchdowns in UConn’s 46-45 double overtime win over Pittsburgh at Rentschler Field. The 43 carries rank second in BIG EAST history and are the most by any player nationally since current New England Patriot Laurence Maroney ran the ball 46 times for 217 yards for Minnesota against Purdue on Sept. 24, 2005. Brown’s 205-yard effort against the Panthers is the second-best by a freshman nationally in 2006, trailing only Wisconsin’s P.J. Hill’s 257-yard performance against Northwestern on Oct. 7. The game marked UConn’s 14th 200-yard rushing game and its first since Chris Bellamy ran for 212 against Kent State on Oct. 18, 2003. It was UConn’s best effort on the ground by a freshman since Tory Taylor scampered for 256 against Boston University on Nov. 4, 1995.
Brown is the only freshman on either the All-BIG EAST first or second teams.
Also a member of the 2005 All-BIG EAST second team, Fuller proved to be a model student-athlete in 2006 as, in addition to his fine play in the trenches, he became the school’s first ever finalist for the Draddy Trophy, presented by the National Football Foundation to the college football player who best combines football ability, academic achievement and community service. As a finalist, Fuller was named a National Scholar Athlete Award recipient by the NFF and earns an $18,000 post-graduate scholarship.
Fuller started all 12 games this year, one of just a handful of Huskies to do so in an injury-plagued season. Fuller recorded career-highs with his 37 stops and 3.5 sacks while his 7.5 tackles for loss was just one assist shy of his high of eight set in 2004. For his career, Fuller made a total of 115 tackles, 22 of them for a loss including 7.5 sacks. he appeared in 49 games and started each of the final 35 contests of his UConn career.
