Brown showboat backs up his talk

He preens.

He showboats.

He's arrogant.

So say his opponents.

As the old adage goes, however, it ain't braggin' if you can back it up.

And Brown wide receiver Chas Gessner can most definitely back it up.

Heading into this Saturday's game with the Penn football team, Gessner has racked up 809 yards -- with an average of 15 yards per catch and a monster 161.8 per game -- and has notched eight touchdowns.

Those kinds of numbers add up to one immutable fact -- for the moment, Gessner is statistically the top receiver in the country.

Which means that this Saturday in Providence, R.I., it will be job one of the Penn defense to shut down the 6-foot-5, 200-pound, powerhouse of a wideout.

And given the fact that the Quakers have given up a mere 37 points this year over five games -- that's less than eight per contest -- it should be a matchup to remember.

Penn linebacker Travis Belden hopes so.

In an interview a little over a month ago, the man nicknamed "Maximus" by his teammates for his on-field demeanor said that if he had "one more hit in his life, it would probably be on [Gessner]."

Belden elaborated on his earlier comments.

"I don't really like the way he plays," he said. "He plays definitely with a little arrogant attitude.... He's kind of one of those guys you'd like to shut up. He talks a lot and you'd like to shut him up.

"I don't hate the guy, and I'm sure he's a nice kid, but on the field, I'd definitely like to shut him down."

Belden might get his chance, but the men to whom Gessner will be a primary responsibility will be the Penn secondary.

One of Gessner's most obvious advantages will be his height. He is taller than any of the members of the Penn secondary -- indeed, Gessner is taller than all but a handful of the entire Quakers team.

"His greatest attribute is his height," Penn defensive back Kunle Williams said. "I think that's why he's getting a lot of catches."

Williams, however, isn't worried.

"He's a good athlete, but we have a lot of good athletes on our team as well," he said. "It should be a good game."

Penn defensive back Stephen Faulk feels that it is impossible to truly stop a force like Gessner and that the Quakers should concentrate on severely limiting any damage the Hyattsville, Md., native might do.

"I don't think we're going to stop him," Faulk said. "He's going to make catches and he's going to get some yards. But the big thing is, keep him out of the end zone and stop him from making big plays. You know, just contain him.

"He's the No. 1 receiver in the nation. You don't stop guys like that."

Some of Division I-AA's best teams have found that out the hard way.

Gessner torched Harvard for 217 yards in a 27-20 Brown loss on Sept. 29, almost setting a school record for receiving yards in a single game. A week later, he shattered that record with 263 yards in a heartbreaking, last-second, 42-38 loss to I-AA powerhouse Rhode Island. In the process, he was named Ivy League Player of the Week and the National I-AA Offensive Player of the Week.

Despite this, the Quakers will not change much in the way they approach the Brown offense.

"We've got a couple special defenses for him," Belden said. "But we're not going to totally change our game plan over one guy. We've been doing some great things this year playing some great defense. The last thing we want to do is get away from what we've been doing well."

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