CHAMPAIGN — Sydney Brown can’t walk down the street on the University of Illinois campus with his twin brother, Chase Brown, without hearing it. Locally, everyone appreciates the potentially historic season by the Illinois running back.
“We’ll be walking down the street and people will be yelling ‘Heisman!’ at him,” said Sydney, an Illinois senior safety and Illini star in his own right.
After Chase Brown’s most productive game of the season — 44 touches for 235 yards and a touchdown in the No. 24 Illini’s 26-14 win over Minnesota — the Illini running back is receiving plenty of national recognition.
Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde stated Brown’s growing Heisman candidacy. CBS, during its marquee broadcast of No. 3 Alabama and No. 6 Tennessee, highlighted Brown with a graphic of its Nissan Heisman Watch.
Brown’s production deserves the attention. Through seven games, he leads the country with 1,096 rushing yards and 1,203 yards from scrimmage. He’s already surpassed his rushing total from last season (1,005 rushing yards) when he received All-Big Ten Third Team honors.
“Heisman him. Give it to him!” said Illinois quarterback Tommy DeVito, who passed for 252 yards and a touchdown. “There’s a lot of season left. He’s going to continue to be Chase Brown. That’s the biggest thing is not let any of the outside noise get to him and just be the same person through and through.”
That doesn’t seem to be an issue. Brown admitted the Heisman talk is “cool” and said running for 180 yards against the nation’s No. 1 total defense entering Saturday was more a sign of the strength of the Illini offensive line.
“It’s what people are talking about right now. It’s kind of a buzz,” Brown said. “But in my mind, I want to get my body back and be the best I can be for Nebraska.”
In a resurgent season for Illinois (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten), Brown has accounted for 41.3% of the Illini’s yards from scrimmage while touching the ball on 38.4% of the Illini’s plays. Brown again was an absolute workhorse for Illinois on Saturday. He had 44 touches, two more plays than Minnesota ran the entire game.
“I know 41 carries is a lot, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win games,” said Brown, who rushed for 180 yards and caught a 40-yard touchdown reception. “If that’s carrying the ball 41 times, I’ll do that.”
Of course, that means Brown felt every bit of those 40-plus hits, though it’s easier to take after a win.
“I feel a lot better than I did against Indiana [after a loss],” Brown said. “It hurts, but I just got to take my recovery to a whole new level and come back stronger, use this bye week to get my body back and come back explosive against Nebraska. …Tub. Tub again. I’ll live in the training room for the next two weeks here.
Bielema would like to lessen the load on Brown but said he’s been wary of Brown’s burden by resting him during the offseason and during practice. Bielema didn’t let Brown take a hit from last season’s finale to this season’s opener against Wyoming.
Bielema has a history of high-usage, Heisman-caliber backs. Wisconsin running back great Montee Ball was a Heisman finalist under Bielema in 2011, and Melvin Gordon — whom Bielema recruited to Wisconsin — was the Heisman runner-up in 2014.
“When you have a back that can play at a level he can play at, backs have a limited lifespan,” Bielema said. “Every play that they have the ball usually ends in a collision, and one thing I’ve learned — and I see my back’s that I’ve had in the past — these guys play eight, nine, ten years in the league. And I think other programs, they treat em’ like meat squad. They don’t take care of em’ in practice, they don’t take care of em’ in their training, and the byproduct is they have a shorter career. Chase understands that. He takes incredibly good care of his body.”
Granted, Brown winning the Heisman is a long shot. The award often goes to the top quarterback in the country or a running back or wide receiver of a team competing for a national championship. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud is an overwhelming favorite (-125) for the award right now, with Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker and USC quarterback Caleb Williams among the other favorites.
Heck, Brown didn’t even have the best odds among Big Ten running backs for the Heisman. Michigan’s Blake Corum, who has 901 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns for the No. 5 Wolverines — nine more rushing touchdowns than Brown — has the best odds (+1200) among non-quarterbacks, according to FanDuel.
But Brown certainly is in the running for consideration and votes if he continues this pace. If he receives a Heisman vote — voters vote for a top-three — he’d be the first Illini to do so since Kurt Kittner, who finished 12th in the Heisman vote in 2001. Bielema, always with an eye toward marketing, will lobby for his star.
“I’ve been reaching out to the people I can,” Bielema said. “I tell this to scouts and to media that grab me; if I was here, in my opinion, with Chase’s whole career, like if we came in three years ago when he came in here, I think he would be right in the thick of the Heisman race as we speak. It’s just, he’s kinda been late to the party. He got a little bit of pub last year then has kinda been on the scene but if there’s a better player in college football, that has had an effect on his program, I’d like to know who it is. Like I get it, there’s a lot of preseason rankings that players and teams that had a lot of hype before the season but I reached out to [the people in] my phone and my contacts about how special this young man is.”
The Doak Walker Award is more likely for Brown, and he currently is ahead of the pace of 2021 Doak Walker winner Kenneth Walker III, who through seven games last season had 997 rushing yards, 25 receiving yards and 10 total touchdowns. Corum currently is Brown’s top competition, but Brown has a chance to continue to make his case with three of the worst rushing defenses left on the schedule: Michigan State, Northwestern and Nebraska.
“Just for him to even be in that conversation shows just how special he is and how special he’s been playing,” Illinois wide receiver Isaiah Williams said. “Biggest thing is I hope he keeps it going forward. The rest of us just want to do our job so he can continue do that.”
Most importantly, Brown is having the type of special season to put Illinois in the running for games in December. Illinois clinched a bowl bid — just its second since 2015 — and leads the Big Ten West with five games before the Big Ten Championship Game.
He is just the third running back in Illinois history to rush for 1,000 yards twice in a career. He is on pace to top Mikel LeShoure’s single-season rushing record (1,697) and could shatter it if Illinois plays two postseason games. On Saturday, Brown (2,622 rushing yards at Illinois) moved past Howard Griffith, Rashard Mendenhall, Pierre Thomas, Juice Williams, LeShoure and Josh Ferguson on Illinois’ all-time rushing list — and is on pace to finish his career as the No. 2 all-time leading rusher in program history behind Robert Holcombe (4,105). And he’s done that despite playing just 27 games at Illinois.
Brown is not only raising his own profile this season. He’s raising the Illini program’s profile and the rest of his team’s level of play to another level. Postseason honors — whether it’s Heisman votes, the Doak Walker Award or All-America honors — and walk-by Heisman chants go to such difference-makers.
“It pushes me to be a better player,” Sydney Brown said. “I know it pushes guys around us to keep going. It’s cool to rally around somebody that works as hard as he does and finally getting the success with it.”
