Washington State’s Daquawn Brown Needs to Stay ‘Turnt Up’ for Defense

Before I get into my whole deal about Daquawn Brown, I want to throw out the tweet I put out from my phone on Saturday during the pregame while sitting in Martin Stadium, waiting for kickoff.

Literally every time I looked over to see “Cheetah” with his position group, he was either huddled getting the student section riled up, or huddled around his teammates with his arms around a bobbing/weaving/chanting group, or leading the charge in some sort of primal dance and speech with his teammates huddled around him.

Literally, the kid just LOVES playing college football!

He’s one of the most intriguing and fun guys to watch, not just on this team, but in the entire nation. His excitement is infectious and his attitude rubs off on his teammates and the crowd.

Daquawn Brown is what college football is all about.

Now, there are those that caution that he needs to tone it down, as he is really aggressive during post-play activities when it comes to… let’s call it ‘chatting’ with the opposition. Several times this season he’s gone far enough to draw an official 20 yards or more away from his position to break up the conversation and/or taunt, whatever have you. Most fans that are worried about it are saying “shut up and play” or “let your play do the talking”, or something of the sort.

While it may drives some fans crazy and draw a penalty or two in conference play as refs crack down on post-play interactions that they will deem ‘baiting’, what our fans have to realize is that THIS is Mr. Brown. It’s been his attitude since he started playing and we’ve seen nothing different from game one last season.

You’ll remember how fired up the kid was at USC and honestly his fearless swagger rubbed off noticeably on his teammates, who ‘swaggered’ their way to a 10-7 victory that nobody saw coming. It’s players like this that change the attitude of an entire unit and indeed, an entire team. On the offense the Cougs also have this kid named Gabe Marks that does the same thing. Good teams have these guys all over the field.

But better than all of that, if you’ll notice, is the fact that these players produce on the field! Marks was last season’s leading receiver, while Brown so far leads the team in tackles (27) and pass breakups (6) in 2014. He’s all over the field and plays with an incredible amount of passion and brilliance in-between the whistle. Now, on the subject of production, if we were talking about Tracy Clark I’d say get your game-on first, but we’re not.

So while fans are all over the caution-button, I say just relax and enjoy the energy this kid brings to the game. The whole “let your play do the talking” thing just doesn’t apply to these kinds of players, because they feed off of their own created challenge of backing up the talk and the team in turn feeds off of their energy. Have you seen this guy named Richard Sherman? Patrick Peterson? Remember Tyrann Mathieu at LSU?

Better yet, watch some Pac-12 games folks. There are kids like this all over the conference and just because we’re Washington State doesn’t mean that we need to be the “better man” on the field or whatever you want to call it. In fact I would say that it’s more important that we have an intimidation-free attitude than other teams if we want to compete with the big boys.

I’m sick of being the whipping boy, watching the team that just quietly goes about their business while getting smacked around. I wish there were more Daquawn’s (and Gabe Marks’) on this team to be quite honest. He needs to stay ‘turnt up’ and there are plenty of Cougs that need to get more of his energy and confidence in their own play.

The last kid that played like Cheetah at Washington State University was a corner by the name of Jason David, one of the best defensive backs this program has ever seen. All of 5’9″ (on his toes), David was a relentless talker, using it to frustrate his opponents, but he backed it up every step of the way to the NFL. Marcus Trufant was somewhat similar, though he was a bit quieter than those either David or Brown.

It’s what the position calls for if you’re to be exceptional at it and there are plenty of CBs these past several years that were too afraid to get physical and get after their opponents.

At any rate if Daquawn draws a couple penalties against the Ducks this weekend but helps his team ‘swag’ their way past a great Oregon team, we’re not going to care. Let em know D!