MIAMI - Chris Brown was sitting at home watching his normal ESPN programming when he saw teammate DeMarco Murray, the man in front of him on the depth chart, and his own mug shot flash across the screen.
While SportsCenter is usually reserved for highlights, this segment made Brown feel like Texas' defensive line was in his living room, hitting him right in the gut.
Murray would miss the BCS National Championship Game with a partial rupture of his left hamstring. That's when Brown, a junior, realized the injury his teammate sustained in the Big 12 Championship Game was more serious than originally thought and gave Murray a call.
Even on the sidelines during the championship game, Brown was talking to Murray, saying how he would be back for the soon-to-be-announced matchup with the Gators.
"It was kind of devastating to the team," Brown said. "I know it was really hurting for him."
Painful for him and the team, as replacing a coaches' All-Big 12 First Team selection is easier said than done.
"We've had a ton of people go down this year," senior receiver Manny Johnson said. "Every time somebody goes down, we have someone step up right behind them. You can just tell that (Brown) knew he was going to have to step his game up."
It's not like Brown has gone unnoticed. He and Murray have rushed for more than 1,000 yards each, but now Brown doesn't have Murray, who ran for 14 touchdowns, providing additional firepower to the Sooners offense.
"I've been in situations like this all my career here at OU," Brown said. "I'm not even worried about it."
Maybe Brown shouldn't be concerned. In his freshman year in 2006, after leading rushers Adrian Peterson and Allen Patrick got hurt, Brown was forced to start two games. In those two games, he totaled 253 yards and three scores on the ground.
The Gators probably don't like seeing those numbers.
"Not getting attention is nothing new to me," Brown said. "All my life, I've had to work for what I wanted. If you know me or not, it really doesn't matter. To me, it's all the same."
Even if he doesn't care, it's hard for even the fair-weather fan to forget about Brown when he's rushed for 1,110 yards and 20 touchdowns this year.
"A lot of guys may think that we just throw the ball because Sam (Bradford) won the Heisman," Brown said. "But we run the ball. … We're probably one of the more balanced teams running, passing the ball."
He's not kidding. Granted, it helps when you run a no-huddle offense and your team has run more than 1,000 plays this year. Still, the Sooners have had 84 more rushing attempts this year than passing attempts.
Now it's time to see if they can stay that balanced with Murray on the sidelines.
