Brown Out?

Brown Coach Phil Estes has his work cut out for him in 2007 (CREDIT: Brown University Athletics)


Brown says it has broken ground on two FieldTurf practice fields that it says will be the best practice facilities in the Ivies. But Brown Stadium is still natural grass, making it and Yale Bowl as the only non-turf stadiums in the league, (Cornell is still using a form of Astroturf, but I think there are plans to get rid of it sometime soon).

The Brown website portrays this as a reward for the success of the team. Indeed, the Bears have gone from perennial cellar-dwellers to perennial contenders since the mid-90's. However, I think this is going to be another tough year for Brown. I thought that overall, Brown was the weakest team in the Ivies in 2006. This, after I thought they would repeat as champions no less, so you know how much what I think is worth.

In my defense, I thought that linebacker and eventual NFL draft choice Zak DeOssie would crank it up for his senior year and I was also sure that QB Joe DiGiacomo would stop playing like a wild frosh and lead the team to victory after victory. I was only half right. DeOssie did have a great 2006 season, but DiGiacomo seemed to regress, costing his team with lots of really untimely interceptions. The Brown running game seemed to show some flashes of brilliance in the early going, but eventually it was obvious the Bears weren't going to even come close to replacing Nick Hartigan.

Brown's incoming freshmen class doesn't really jump out and grab me either. They did pick up some nice-sized offensive linemen, but I thought the glaring need for an impact running back was left unfilled. And offensive linemen just don't tend to make an impact until junior or even senior year.

Phil Estes is a good head coach, and is mostly responsible for turning that program around for an extended time... but there is something missing there. Consistency in big games has been one problem. Last year, Brown beat Penn in OT at Franklin Field, and probably should have beaten co-champion Yale, but lost at Dartmouth in OT and Columbia at home to finish out the season.

And the biggest hurdle for this Brown team for years has been the week 2 game against Harvard that tends to put them behind the 8-ball for the rest of the season. This year's game is at Harvard Stadium, and I don't think Brown will do much better against the Crimson this time around.

Estes seems to be able to pull a decent QB and wide receiver out of his hat every two seasons or so. And with parity staring us in the face in Ivies in a way we haven't seen since the late 90's, anything can happen. But all things are not equal in sports, and it's going to take a lot to convince me that Brown won't be a last place team in 2007.