{"id":139323,"date":"2025-09-12T19:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139323\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T19:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T19:43:08","slug":"hogan-brown-fitting-in-nicely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/139323\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: Brown Fitting in Nicely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Brown was at home in Birmingham, Alabama on August 5 when the phone rang. The running back had left the Edmonton Elks, where he had been on the practice roster, to return south of the Mason-Dixon line to tend to a personal matter.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the line was John Murphy, the senior advisor to the general manager of the Toronto Argonauts. He let the running back know that the Argos had acquired his playing rights<\/a> from the Elks for a paltry conditional 8th round pick in next year\u2019s CFL Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got home, I was just seeing what the next option was,\u201d Brown told Argonauts.ca. \u201cThe next thing I know my phone rings and it\u2019s Toronto. Talking to John he said, \u2018We want you here, we traded for you. Come on up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was something that Brown hadn\u2019t felt in a while, a feeling of being wanted.<\/p>\n

A native of Warrior, Alabama, a short drive up I-65 from Birmingham, he stayed home to play his college ball at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he was a superstar. Brown finished his career as UAB\u2019s career leader in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns, and most 100-yard games.<\/p>\n

In his final two seasons with the Blazers, he\u2019d rush for 2,556 yards. He was named All-Conference USA three times, and twice was named the championship game MVP, rushing for 156 and 149 yards in those two games.<\/p>\n

Sadly, success at the college level doesn\u2019t always translate to the pros. He spent three seasons on the Carolina Panthers practice squad, then a training camp with the Atlanta Falcons. The 26-year-old signed with Hamilton in January of this year but was released and signed with Edmonton.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now in an organization that\u2019s genuinely happy to have him here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s anything I could ever ask for,\u201d he said of his experience in Toronto. \u201cJust getting back and playing ball. They\u2019re giving me the opportunity, it\u2019s a blessing. I was in the league (NFL) for almost four years kind of chasing my tail. I got up here and they\u2019re giving me as much as I can handle, I\u2019m blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Argos feel the same way. Brown is the fifth running back to start a game for the team this season, joining Deonta McMahon, Miyan Williams, Khalan Laborn, and Kevin Brown. Though there have been flashes, the running game was almost non-existent, at least until the last two games with the Alabamian as the starter. He\u2019s rushed for 175 yards in those outings, adding 98 receiving yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s given us a downhill element to our run game,\u201d head coach Ryan Dinwiddie told Argonauts.ca. \u201cHe\u2019s done a really good job in the pass game; when stuff does break down, we\u2019ve found him on checkdowns, he\u2019s moving the chains on second and long. For him to make an impact this early is pretty impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revolving door at the position has made it tough to establish a running game. When the word \u201ccohesion\u201d is used in football parlance, the two positions that quickly come to mind are the offensive line and the defensive secondary because if those units aren\u2019t working as one, the result can be disastrous.<\/p>\n

The same can be said with so many changes at running back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different,\u201d Dinwiddie explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not comforting for anybody. Spencer has done a good job of understanding (pass) protections, and that\u2019s always the most important thing. We\u2019ve got to run it downhill, and you see him kick through some tackles. I feel more comfortable as a play caller calling runs on second and short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown is pragmatic about his indoctrination into a new style of football for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is football,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can throw me the ball, you can hand me the ball, I can block for you, as long as I\u2019m out there it all fits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As for Saturday\u2019s game, it\u2019s against Edmonton, the team that traded Brown just five weeks ago. He says there\u2019s no revenge factor involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just another game. I\u2019ve got nothing but love for those guys, they were going to give me an opportunity. Things didn\u2019t work out. It will be good to see those guys again and play against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Toronto itself, Brown hasn\u2019t had a lot of time to check out his new home as he\u2019s been too busy studying the playbook. There is, however, one aspect of the city he\u2019s been quick to pick up on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traffic is crazy, I do know that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds like he\u2019s fitting in just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Brown was at home in Birmingham, Alabama on August 5 when the phone rang. The running back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-139323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}