“I threw the ball to him a lot,” said Brown.

The former QB is Richmond’s leading receiver (16 catches for 227 yards and two touchdowns) through the Spiders’ 2-3 start (0-2 CAA). Brown returned to his Millbrook days as a passer in last Saturday’s 20-7 loss to Elon. He threw three times, with one completion (26 yards to quarterback Beau English), an incompletion, and an interception.

“During warm-ups before we start practice, the receivers are always throwing back-and-forth with each other,” said Brown, a 6-foot-1, 202-pounder who also returns punts. “I always try to be as accurate as I can, just in case.”

He feels his best position is receiver, though Brown added, “It’s always nice playing quarterback and getting to touch the ball all the time.”

The use of Brown three times as a passer illustrates Richmond’s increased thinking outside the box in the absence of quarterback Joe Mancuso (broken right index finger), who missed all but two plays of UR’s 21-10 loss at Virginia Tech on Sept. 25 and all of the Elon game. Law-school student English, more effective as a runner than passer, now starts at QB. Surgery was performed on the finger of Mancuso, expected to be out another couple of weeks.

“I thought Beau was gritty, played hard. Beau probably gave us a chance to get into position … his scrambling, those types of things,” said UR coach Russ Huesman, whose team did not score during three trips inside Elon’s 10. “The problem wasn’t Beau.”