Encore season?
WVU running back Leddie Brown looks to follow up on 1,000-yard year.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Over the past several months, Leddie Brown has grown to notice the small behavioral changes that come whenever he mentions his name. Facial expressions brighten. Eyebrows raise. Voices heighten in pitch.
Even as a football player at the flagship university in a state with no professional sports, Brown was used to a degree of anonymity as a West Virginia football player. The helmet he wears during games largely conceals his identity and at 5foot-11 and a slender 216 pounds, it’s only so obvious that, yeah, this guy is a star athlete.
After topping 1,000 rushing yards last season, though, things began to change. At first glance, people around campus didn’t necessarily recognize him. But once he introduced himself as “Leddie”? Well, that changed things a bit.
Oh, you’re on the football team!
Entering the 2021 season, Brown is out to show many more people who he is and what he can do.
Brown enjoyed a breakthrough junior campaign in 2020, rushing for 1,010 yards in 10 games and earning a spot on the all-Big 12 first team, where he shared a backfield with conference offensive player of the year Breece Hall of Iowa State. Now, he’s hoping to build on that promise while serving as the face of an offense that returns a majority of its starters.
“This is something I dreamed of,” Brown said Wednesday. “It’s coming true. I prepared myself for it. I asked for it and now I have it. I feel pretty good about it.”
Brown finished second in the Big 12 and 14th among all Football Bowl Subdivision players last season in rushing yards. Of the 13 FBS players who had more yards, eight played in more games (the Mountaineers’ home game against Oklahoma was postponed and eventually canceled). In the process, he became West Virginia’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2017. He wasn’t merely accruing high yardage outputs; he was efficient doing so, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. He was leaned on heavily to produce, as well. His 199 carries were the most from a Mountaineers running back since Wendell Smallwood in 2015.
His emergence was a sharp break from what he had been previously in his career. In his first two years at the school, he had rushed for 813 total yards. As a sophomore in 2019, and as the team’s leader in rushing attempts, he ran for just 413 yards and 3.4 yards per carry.
“Last year was a statement year,” Brown said. “Going into the season, nobody thought we were going to run the ball as much as we did. We did it. We made a point.”
Brown’s progression included a more involved role in the team’s passing game, with 31 receptions, up from 17 the previous year. It’s a number upon which he hopes to build this season. He’ll study film of NFL running backs with running backs coach Chad Scott, who will show the senior some of the finer details and traits those players exhibit, trying to provide Brown with a blueprint for what he could ideally become.
With the season opener against Maryland less than a month away, the results of that work have been evident to those around the program.
“I like LB coming out of the backfield and catching the ball,” said linebacker Exree Loe. “He’s a consistent guy. I don’t even think he’s dropped a ball in camp so far. He’s got some sure hands.”
“I think he’s special,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said last month at Big 12 media days. “His video showed that last year.”
Even as he wore a black hoodie with the word ‘CARRY’ stitched in bold white letters across the front, Brown spoke at length about diversifying his game. In addition to his work catching passes, he has worked some during fall training camp as a kick returner.
“I think I could give [wide receiver] Winston [Wright Jr.] a little run for his money,” Brown said while flashing a smile. “But that’s his spot. He’s doing a great job at it. I’m just there to learn.”
It’s an effort that serves a dual purpose. A multi-purpose threat out of the backfield and on special teams could help West Virginia continue its improvement — it went 5-7 in 2019, Neal Brown’s first year, to 6-4 last season — while showcasing Brown’s versatility to NFL scouts and front offices.
For now, though, he’s simply looking to live up to his name, which has a story of its own. Brown’s paternal uncle, also named Leddie Brown, was a Philadelphia police officer who was riding his police motorcycle to a Thanksgiving Day parade in 1997 when a vehicle ran a stop sign and struck him. He was transported to a local hospital, where he died 15 days later at age 30. Two years later, the nephew he never got to meet was born and was given his name.
Though he didn’t reach the same heights or visibility, Brown’s uncle also was a football player and, based on the stories he has heard over the years, a pretty good one, too. If team success and NFL dreams aren’t enough to push Brown, the name so many around Morgantown have learned over the past 12 months provides plenty of motivation.
“I’m just glad I got to carry on his name with pride and do something he dreamed of,” Brown said.