Jacurri Brown can’t help but feel a sense of freedom.
He is free to be himself.
He is free to test the limits of his game.
He is free to be the leader he has wanted to be.
And probably the biggest freedom of all is the freedom to be the starter.
It hasn’t been easy for the Rice Owls’ fifth-year senior quarterback, who transferred this year, to be any of those things in a career that started out as a four-star recruit of the Miami Hurricanes and then later moved on to Central Florida (UCF). But now at Rice, Brown has finally found a program where he can test all of the outer limits.
“It’s going great. It’s great to be in a situation where I was the starter after spring, so that I can kind of get the reps with the guys that I need to get the reps with to solidify myself as a leader,” Brown said in a recent conversation with The Defender. “I think that was the biggest thing that I didn’t get to do at any other school that I was at, for sure.”
He is getting to do it all and then some as the signal caller in Scott Abell’s Gun Choice offense that marries triple-option and old school uptempo read-zone. It’s the first time in Brown’s career that he feels like his coaching staff is truly committed to him, his teammates have total belief in him, and that the job is truly his.
“It was really important,” Brown said of the opportunity to be the bonafide starter for the Owls. “I was at a lot of places where I was good, I was operating at a higher clip, but it was just like certain things that you cannot control. Doing all of the things that I can control on and off the field, and sometimes the ball doesn’t fall your way.
“Even if you get opportunities, sometimes the ball doesn’t fall your way.”
Still, Brown joined Rice this offseason as an experienced college quarterback, having played in 21 games and taken 462 snaps during two-year stints at both Miami and UCF. He had amassed 1,727 yards of offense while throwing for 906 yards and six touchdowns and rushing for 821 yards and eight touchdowns on 137 career carries.
But the instability of playing in four different systems under four different offensive coordinators at both schools, combined with the politics often associated with such changes, meant Brown’s opportunities were limited.
“Each year of changing OC’s, the philosophy of that room changed,” said Brown, who is 6-foot-4 and 227 pounds. “They might want a guy who is this, or they might have recruited a guy before and brought him in, or they might have paid a guy so they want to play him, or things like that. Sometimes that’s how things go, and you can’t control that.
“The biggest thing is put a trophy on that podium. I don’t think they’ve had a trophy since 2014. So whether it’s the American Athletic Conference or a bowl game, that’s what I want for the team. That’s one of our goals.”
Jacurri Brown, Rice quarterback
“I think the things that I can control are how much I got better, how much attention to detail I had, and how much I cared for the team and for everybody around me in the program, no matter what program I was at.”
Now Brown is in his fifth different system in as many years of college football, and this change may seem the most drastic yet for a natural running quarterback who had learned to be more of a traditional pocket passer under his previous offensive coordinators. But in researching Brown upon finding him in the transfer portal, Abell saw a player who made things happen with his legs and an athlete who had played some option football in high school.
So far through two games with the Owls, Brown leads the team in rushing with 130 yards on 29 carries (4.5 yards per carry) while completing an efficient 11-of-18 passes for 82 yards and one touchdown.
“He did some of it in his high school tape,” said Abell, whose team is 1-1 on the season after blowing out Houston Christian University in the season opener and then getting blistered 52-0 this past weekend at Notre Dame. “You have to go way back there, and we do. Our homework takes us way back to that film.
“But you saw his ability and his desire to be a dynamic runner in every system, whether it was Miami or whether it was Central Florida. He had the desire, like `I’m going to be a dominant threat when I run the football.’”
As much as Abell was impressed by Brown’s prowess on the playing field, he was even more excited about the young man he is. Abell could tell how much the opportunity to start meant to Brown.
“The option threat, we can teach him that. I feel like I know it as well anybody in the country. We can bring him up to speed on that, which we have. But he has caught on. The fact that we were able to add on so many nuances to our triple in game one says everything you can to know about how quickly he has picked it up.”
Scott Abell, Rice head coach
“I think it brings back his desire and love for football,” Abell said. “I think that is the reason we landed him. He wanted to be somewhere that wanted him. He wanted to be somewhere that had a plan for him. We have both of those things.
“That told me everything I needed to know. He didn’t come in saying, `How much are you going to pay me?’ Those negotiations happened, but that wasn’t what was driving him. What was driving him was `What’s my opportunity to play? Do I fit your vision?’ And we had a true desire for him to come win that job.
“Our vision for him isn’t just, ‘You fit our system,’ but, ‘You will help us grow,’ as well.”
While Brown was looking for a place he could come in and start, he was also looking for a school that could help set him up for life after football. Brown, who is pursuing a master’s degree in Global Affairs after earning his bachelor’s degree in Criminology at UCF, aspires to work for Lockheed Martin as a defense contractor once he is done playing.
The reality of what an advanced degree from Rice can mean for his future isn’t lost on Brown.
“I was in a situation where I kind of needed to play now wherever it was,” he said. “Then the biggest thing was life after ball. I set myself up for the education you can have at Rice. It’s a prestigious education, things that people would die for, and some work their whole life to try to get into Rice.
“I also have an opportunity to be involved in a program that hasn’t been as well in the past, and I can come in and leave my mark on it. I think that is a great thing to be able to come in and step into a role where I am the guy and I can make my own history here.”
Of course, there are some major differences for Brown, going from two Power 4 programs to a mid-major program, but he has found more positives than negatives.
“I think here, the attention to detail, the care, and being at Rice, the IQ of guys is way higher,” said Brown, who was elected by his teammates as captain this summer. “I get here, and I’m learning stuff from younger guys about math and chemistry and stuff off the field like how to manage my money. We have a couple of financial guys on the team, brokers, and stuff like that.
“Then, there is more of a family feel in the building. I think a lot of the higher programs it’s more like a business, and it’s kind of guys coming in and out of the building. Coach Abell wants to build something by recruiting classes and developing players. I think that’s the biggest thing.”
