Football Across Minnesota: Twice as many defenders? Not a problem for this freshman

FOOTBALL ACROSS MINNESOTA | Week 7

De’Marion Brown posted the most rushing yards by a Gustavus Adolphus running back in a decade in his first college football game.

His 228 yards rushing against UW-Stevens Point that day also set a program record by a freshman, earning Brown a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week, a national honor.

As debuts go, Brown’s was spectacular and historic.

Perhaps surprising too, because Brown had never seen that many defensive players on a football field trying to tackle him. He was used to eluding about half that many defenders.

His freshman debut was Brown’s first game playing 11-man football. He had played six-man football since middle school growing up in Kilgore, Texas.

Yes, six.

He hadn’t experienced full 11-man football since giving it a brief try when he was 9 years old.

“It really wasn’t my thing,” Brown said. “I was more of a baseball guy.”

He attended Leverett’s Chapel High near Kilgore, a town of 13,000 in east Texas. Brown’s varsity coach, Matt Everett, said that Leverett’s Chapel was the first public school in East Texas to field a six-man program, starting in 2005.

Texas now has 154 schools that play six-man football, according to the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the state’s governing body for prep sports.

Brown’s team routinely had to travel two hours (and sometimes longer) on bus rides to road games.

In six-man football, the field is smaller at 80 yards long, 40 yards wide.

Teams use various formations on offense, but a common alignment is one that features a center, two receivers split out to each side, two running backs and a quarterback. Every player is eligible to catch a pass.

Also, the first player to receive the snap cannot advance the ball past the line of scrimmage. Two exchanges or touches are required before the ball can cross the line. Games often are wide-open shootouts with teams regularly scoring 80-plus points.

Brown played a position known as “spreadback.” He lined up wider in the backfield to catch a lateral or pitch, giving him the option to run or pass.

Brown once scored 15 touchdowns in a game – 10 rushing, two passing, two interception returns and one kickoff return. His 10 rushing touchdowns would have set a Texas state record had it occurred in a playoff game, a UIL requirement.

“Just pedal-to-the-metal adrenaline rush,” he said of his performance that day.

Brown was considering two options after high school – joining the Texas National Guard or enrolling in a trade school – until he was contacted by Gustavus assistant coach Derek Glynn, who had done his homework and loved what he saw on video.

Gustavus had already dipped into the six-man pool previously with receiver Matthew Carreon, a Houston native who finished second on the team in every receiving category as a senior last season.

Head coach Peter Haugen evaluated Brown as he would any other running back. He looked for athleticism, ball protection and instincts.

“He’s just very dynamic on the field,” Haugen said. “In De’Marion’s case, one of his elite skills is yards after contact. Those yards after contact were just exceptional.”

Training camp brought an adjustment as Brown had to learn a new style of football while navigating confined space.

“It’s kind of weird when you have a guard or a tackle pulling from the opposite side of where the play is going,” he said. “You have to wait for it. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same.”

With less space to operate, Brown forced himself to be more patient. In six-man, he only needed one block, and he was sprinting to the end zone.

“In 11-man, that’s definitely not the case,” he said. “You’ve got to slow yourself down, let the play develop and hit the hole. Everybody was telling me to be patient on this and just let the play develop, let it breathe. I started doing that and everything started working in my favor.”

Carreon’s adjustment as a receiver new to 11-man came in learning zone coverages after seeing man-to-man almost exclusively in high school.

“It’s really hard to run a zone with six guys,” he joked.

Brown started the season third on the depth chart, but Haugen said he brought his freshman to the first road game for a reason.

“We had seen things in fall camp and practices that were pointing to the fact that he is just a special talent,” Haugen said.

Brown showed it at Stevens Point after injuries created an opportunity for him. He rushed for 228 yards on 26 carries, and then followed that with 114 yards rushing and three touchdowns the next week against Augsburg.

His six touchdowns are a team high, despite Brown missing the past two games while recovering from a turf toe injury.

“He just loves the game so much that he’s eager to learn,” Haugen said. “And secondly, he’s just a bright young man.”

Brown set a life goal to visit every state at least twice. His first spin through Minnesota and a new brand of football is going awfully well.

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DIFFERENCE-MAKER

Matthew Paulson was trying to figure out a career path after graduating college. Coaching college football was one idea, but he knew that cracking that business takes some luck and a willingness to work cheap.

“One of the hardest things is starting out because there is no money,” he said. “We always say, it’s survival of the fittest. We’ll see who really wants it.”

Nobody understood that reality more than former St. Olaf assistant coach Doug Johnson, who died unexpectedly in June. Johnson coached sports across middle school, high school and Division III levels for five decades, joining the St. Olaf program in 2013 after a long stint at Woodbury High.

Johnson found a calling in mentoring young coaches. After his wife Michele died in 2014, Johnson opened his home to young St. Olaf assistant coaches to stay rent-free to remove that financial burden.

Johnson’s four-bedroom house has two spare bedrooms in the basement. Paulson is among the coaches who cycled through the home while trying to get their coaching career off the ground.

“Being able to live for free, oh my gosh, if that wasn’t available …” Paulson said.

The alternative, he said, was to find a different line of work.

Paulson stayed at Johnson’s house in 2016, along with two other assistant coaches and a player who had just graduated.

Paulson’s family lives in the Twin Cities so he worried about gas money if he had to drive to Northfield every day. He received a $1,000 stipend at the end of the season.

“Doug’s hospitality is the reason why I was able to make it into coaching,” said Paulson, who became St. Olaf’s offensive coordinator in 2022.

Paulson counted nine coaches who stayed with Johnson over the years. They consider themselves part of a unique coaching tree and often joke about creating T-shirts that say “Doug’s House Alumni” across the front.

Current tight ends coach Billy Raible belongs to that fraternity. Raible was a guest at the house this summer. Johnson’s children allowed Raible to continue living at the house after Doug’s death for the rest of this season.

“A number of us have said that without him, we might not be in the profession right now,” Raible said.

Johnson provided more than a free place to stay. He took the young coaches to dinner on his tab, often for Taco Tuesdays. He shared football history lessons in their late-night conversations.

“He liked having guys around who are passionate about football,” Paulson said. “We were kind of going through it together.”

Johnson played quarterback on St. Olaf’s undefeated 1970 team. Nearly 20 former teammates from that team attended a recent game and donated money to the football program in Johnson’s honor.

“He cared so much about St. Olaf and football especially,” Raible said. “He wanted to do whatever he could to help the team and help the school.”

And help young coaches get started in a profession that he loved.

. . .

WEEKEND REWIND

The five best things we saw on social media this weekend:

“They just got the better advantage today. Got to give them kudos. But we definitely hurt ourselves in plenty of ways that y’all probably can’t see. But out there on that field we missed plenty of opportunities. We’ve just got to be better.”

— Justin Jefferson after the Vikings lost their first game of the season, 31-29 to the Detroit Lions.

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UP NEXT

Prep playoffs. Section play starts Tuesday for all classes other than Class 6A, which hosts its first round Friday. The journey to U.S. Bank Stadium for the Prep Bowl begins for everyone.

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DAILY DELIVERY + FAM

Each week this season, my colleague Michael Rand and I will review a few FAM topics together and post our chat to YouTube. This week, we talked about Gustavus running back De’Marion Brown. Watch our video right here.

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A FAM FINAL WORD

The Vikings didn’t make enough plays — or limit mistakes — on offense or defense to remain undefeated Sunday. The schedule provides little time to regroup with a Thursday night game at the Los Angeles Rams. A quick turnaround for a road game is never ideal, but the Vikings get to respond to their first loss of the season.

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Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. I’ll publish this column on Tuesday mornings. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. Thanks again — Chip (@chipscoggins on X; email me at chip.scoggins@startribune.com)

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Want more Football Across Minnesota? Chip’s previous columns are here: