Rivals Rundown Standout Player

We wanted to find a player this week that has really performed above and beyond anyones expectations in their first two games of the 2013 season.  While there were plenty of candidates there was only one that caught our eye and to be honest the reason this player is going to be our very first Rivals Rundown Standout Player of the Season, is because we completely overlooked them in our preseason.  In fact we overlooked their team too, one that we like, albeit extremely early, to make some waves in their last year in the ACC.  Our first player is: C.J. Brown, Senior QB of the Maryland Terrapins.

 C.J. came on our radar last week as we randomly checked ESPN’s QBR for College QB’s after the first week of the season.  We were surprised to see C.J. as the number one QB and then we saw his stat line for last weeks game:

Passing- 20 of 23 for 281 yards and 3 TD’s, no INT’s
Rushing- 11 for 105 yards and 2 TD’s QBR= 98.1

Now we understand that this was against Florida International but for whatever reason C.J. got no play nationally for what is impressive no matter who they were playing.  So after last week C.J. was on our radar, which brings us to his second performance of 2013 against Old Dominion.  Now, Old Dominion is in a transition year making the move to FBS and they by now means have the talent level as Maryland but let’s check our C.J.’s stat line:

Passing- 14 of 22 for 275 yards and 2 TD’s, no INT’s
Rushing- 4 for 30 yards and 2 TD’s
QBR= 95.3

Week two was a minor step back but C.J. still had a solid passer rating and accounted for 4 TD’s, 9 for the season.  So let’s look at C.J. a little closer and check out what we might expect in the coming weeks from this Rivals Rundown Standout Player.

Brown came to Maryland in 2009 as a three star prospect (Rivals.com) from Seneca Valley Senior High School in Cranberry Township, PA.   After a redshirt season in 2009, he played four play against Morgan State in 2010 before a broken collarbone ended his season.  In 2011 he had a breakout game against Clemson where he set Maryland’s single game rushing record by a QB recording 162 yards, a record which had stood since 1950.  So how did we miss this guy, well in 2012 he missed the entire season with an ACL injury and that brings us to 2013.  With a match-ups against UConn and West Virginia on deck for the Terps we’ll be watching to see what Brown can do.  If Brown and the Terps can win those two, setting the stage for a game at Florida State, look for the National Media to start talking about C.J. Brown vs. the Freshman Winston down in Tallahassee.  We’ll be cheering for that to happen and see if C.J. Brown can steal the show.

(Stats from ESPN.com and Wikipedia)

(Photo via CSNBaltimore.com)