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UCA QB shows off his skills
BY NICK WALKER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Central Arkansas quarterback Nathan Brown never got the chance to play in a nationally televised game in his four seasons in Conway.
He’ll get that chance tonight as a quarterback for the North team in the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Brown and Arkansas Razorbacks center Jonathan Luigs are scheduled to play in the all-star game at 6 p.m. today in Mobile, Ala. The game will be televised on the NFL Network.
“To be honest with you, I haven’t really thought about that,” Brown said of the game being on TV. “We’ve really just been working on getting our timing down with the receivers and the line. I haven’t had much time to think about anything but football.”
It might seem strange to the casual fan to have two quarterbacks from Texas and a quar- terback from Russellville playing for the North team. It was even stranger the first couple of times they went under center, Brown said.
“They had to get used to [Texas Tech’s] Graham Harrell, [Sam Houston State’s] Rhett Bomar and me calling under center,” Brown said. “That’s a lot of accent going on right there. Some of the guys from up North had to get used to a little bit of Southern drawl.”
Brown is trying to overcome the stigma attached to playing at a small school.
He’s not letting that affect him at the Senior Bowl, though.
“I got some good advice from a lot of people,” Brown said. “Some of the best advice I got was to not look over my shoulder. They told me to just be a football player like I’ve been all my life.”
The big-name signal callers are definitely not in the Gulf Coast this weekend.
Junior quarterbacks Mark Sanchez from Southern California and Matthew Stafford from Georgia aren’t eligible to play in the seniors-only event, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of eyes focused on Mobile this weekend.
“Any day, there’s 600 to 800 NFL people wandering around,” Brown said. “You have Bill Parcells and Jerry Jones and all these big NFL types out there. Any time you have a setting like that, it’s hard to explain how phenomenal something like this is.”
Stafford and Sanchez are expected to be the first two quarterbacks selected in the 2009 NFL Draft in April, but someone in the next three is likely to come from the North squad.
NFL scout Chris Landry said the reviews of Brown were mixed.
“Brown got better as the week went along, but struggled to adjust to the speed and was consistently late on his throws,” Landry said.
An NFL scout, who asked not to be named, said he had Bomar rated the highest of the six quarterbacks in Mobile, followed closely by Brown. Alabama’s John Parker Wilson, Clemson’s Cullen Harper and West Virginia’s Pat White are on the South team.
Bomar and Brown are two of the eight Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division IAA) players on Senior Bowl rosters. The two have played against each other twice in Southland Conference games.
“Rhett and I have developed a friendship over the past two years, so it’s nice to be out here working with him,” Brown said. “It’s kind of neat that two Southland quarterbacks are in the Senior Bowl.”
Brown said he’s getting used to all the media attention, although he points out it’s worse for the more well-known players.
“I’m somebody that not a lot of people have heard of or are really interested in talking to,” Brown said. “At the same time, I’m an unknown. When you’ve got guys like Graham Harrell and Pat White and all those Southern Cal guys, those are the people that the media flock to. I’m OK with that.”
Besides, Brown points out that getting the media’s attention isn’t his goal.
“I’m trying to show someone in the NFL why they should hire me for a job,” Brown said.
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They also mentioned Pippen. 
Bomar looks good. Quick passes that snap in the receivers hands. Harrel(sp?) looks smooth too. Brown looks like he doesn't care anymore or has his mind somewhere else. On the footwork drillls, Nate kinda stepped back at a slow pace while Bomar moved his feet in a quick motion and set them for a quick pass. The announcer said it was a footwork drill and it looked like Nathan didn't know or just didn't care. It also looks like the receivers just wait for the ball to come to them instead of wanting to get it. I guess Nate isn't used to that. Just my opinion. Practice is still on. 
