CARDINALS

Dominique Brown competitive on and off field

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj

Will Gardner knows the system pretty well by now.

If there’s music bumping and a lot of yelling in his shared dorm room with running back Dominique Brown, then Brown’s winning whatever video game he’s playing.

If it’s quiet?

“You know he’s beat,” Gardner said.

Brown isn’t necessarily the team’s best video-game player — tight end Keith Towbridge and receiver Kai De La Cruz are his biggest rivals — but nobody makes the gaming experience more intense than the University of Louisville’s starting tailback.

The competitive nature of Brown’s video gaming keeps him sharp when it comes to football, he said. After taking the reins of the running back position in the second half of last season, there’s hope in the U of L program that Brown begins 2014 similarly to how he finished last year.

Brown, a 6-foot-2, 233-pound redshirt senior from Cincinnati, will continue this season as the main running back for the Cards. He ran for 825 yards and eight touchdowns last season, but he has more help in the backfield this fall.

Former Auburn star Michael Dyer, freshman LJ Scott and a pair of returning backups, Corvin Lamb and Brandon Radcliff, all provide pop from the tailback spot.

“They’re all big, fast and strong, but it’s just about them using their talent and being consistent on each play,” running backs coach Kolby Smith said.

Brown, though, will be the starter, and he will be the goal-line back. Offshore gambling site Bovada recently gave Brown the fifth-highest odds to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

For the month of August, his biggest goal is keeping his pad level down, with a lower center of gravity. That allows him to run with power and use his entire body, which looks more like a linebacker than a running back.

“It’s a work in progress,” Brown explained. “It’s nothing that’s going to happen overnight. It’s going to take all the practices.”

Back off the field, it’s the video games in his spare time that keep Brown sharp. He watched Gardner and former U of L quarterback Teddy Bridgewater in awe last fall when they’d play NCAA Football 14.

“They know all the checks,” Brown said. “They know if you’re blitzing and all that stuff. That’s pretty legit.”

But because EA Sports didn’t make its college football game this year, Brown’s attention’s gone elsewhere with his PlayStation 4.

He keeps a markerboard on the wall in his and Gardner’s room, and he’s likened their place “Dom’s Castle” or “Dom’s Dungeon.”

Brown plays on a 65-inch television, and he said the gaming switches between NBA 2K, Madden NFL Football, FIFA Soccer and different variations of Major League Baseball games.

Asked for his biggest rivals aside from De La Cruz and Towbridge, Brown rattles off a whole list of Cardinals: linebacker James Burgess, guard John Miller, tackle Ryan Mack, receiver DeVante Parker and more.

“There’s always someone in the room,” Gardner said. “They’re always in there yelling and screaming. If it’s 12 o’clock at night and somebody’s in the room, you might as well get up because you’re not going to be able to sleep. They’re in there going at it with a video game.”

That’s how Brown keeps his trash talk fresh and his mind focused on something. It seemed to help on the field last year, especially against South Florida and Houston, his two 100-yard-rushing performances.

And if nothing else, it keeps the bond between the quarterback and the running back tight.

“He talks a lot but you just have to give it right back to him,” Gardner said.

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).