A pre-season ankle injury to Dixon would cement Brown as the Huskies starting running back for the start of his junior season . It would be a position that he would not relinquish . Brown would begin the year with eight straight 100 yard games and would twice eclipse the 200 yard mark ( against Temple and Virginia ) . He arguably had his best performance in the second game of the year as he rushed for 214 yards on 36 carries and the game 's only touchdown against Temple , in a game played in a monsoon due to Tropical Storm Hannah . Included in his 214 yards was every one of Connecticut 's 25 yards in overtime . Brown rushed for 150 yards in the eighth game of the season at home in a 40 – 16 Connecticut victory over eventual Big East champion Cincinnati . These 150 yards increased his season total to 1,324 , which set a new Connecticut single-season record . The old tally of 1,262 had been set by Tory Taylor in 1995 . Brown needed only eight games to break Taylor 's record . Brown continued his record-breaking season in the tenth game at Syracuse . In that game , he rushed for 131 yards on 31 attempts . A 49-yard touchdown run in the second quarter would allow Brown to surpass Caulley as Connecticut 's all-time leading rusher . Brown would finish the regular season with 1,822 yards , which placed him first for rushing in the NCAA Division I FBS . His performance awarded him the Big East Offensive Player of the Year . On January 3 , 2009 , Brown was named Player of the Game in UConn 's 38 – 20 victory over the University at Buffalo in the 2009 International Bowl in Toronto . He finished the game with 261 yards rushing ( 208 in the first half ) and a touchdown . He finished the season with 2,083 rushing yards , becoming only the 14th player in FBS history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season . On January 8 , 2009 , Brown was named Eastern College Athletic Conference Player of the Year . Following the International Bowl , Brown announced his intention to enter the 2009 NFL Draft
Big East
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Donald Brown (running back)