By Steve Carpenter
Blue Dragon Sports Information Director

Daniel Brown remembers the moment all too well.

Brown recalled the memories of walking off the field Little Rock, Arkansas, after the Blue Dragons missed an opportunity to win a national championship last December.

At that moment 12 months ago, the 31-0 loss to Iowa Western was disappointing and painful. Once returning to Hutchinson for second semester filled with winter condition and spring football, that disappointment began to turn into motivation.

And has the 6-foot-1, 240-pound sophomore defensive end from Kansas City, Kansas, been motivated this season.

Individually, Brown is currently leading the nation in quarterback sacks and is second in the NJCAA in tackles for loss. For the Blue Dragon defense, Brown has helped Hutchinson become the No. 1 scoring defense in the NJCAA as No. 1 Hutchinson preps for No. 4 East Mississippi in Saturday's NJCAA National Playoff semifinals at Gowans Stadium.

"It was a gut-punch," said Brown, recalling leaving the War Memorial Stadium field after the 2022 championship game. "Maybe we needed that (loss). We had a lot of people last year who were getting comfortable. Coming into this season, we aren't playing around. We are taking everything serious."

Brown's sophomore season with the Blue Dragons has been exceptional. Jayhawk Conference coaches named him the league's Defensive Player of the Year.

The Blue Dragon defensive end has 49 total tackles, including 31 solo stops. He has 22.5 tackles for loss, which leads the Jayhawk Conference and is No. 2 in the NJCAA.

Where Blue Dragons fans have noticed Brown the most is when he is rushing the quarterback.

With 17.5 sacks in 10 games this season, Brown leads the NJCAA in that category. He is second in single-season Blue Dragon history, just 1.5 sacks behind record-holder Troy West, who had 19 in 1996. Brown didn't record a sack as a freshman but has climbed to seventh on the Hutchinson career list.

Brown has recorded at least one sack in nine-straight games. He had back-to-back three-sack games against Dodge City and Garden City. He had two sacks in games against Ellsworth, Iowa Central, Butler and Iowa Western.

"I didn't expect to have these numbers," Brown said. "But the Butler game I went off. I've progressed and my confidence level has just kept going up and up."

While Brown may not have expected this level of performance, Blue Dragon head coach Drew Dallas saw it in him.

"He's a special athlete," Dallas said. "The cool thing about D.B. is that he absolutely earns everything. He's a tireless worker, and he does a lot of extra work. He made himself the player he is and it's really fun to root him on and watch him every day."

Brown said he has been very focused since returning from Little Rock 12 months ago. He said the team jumped right into winter conditioning very focused that that carried over into spring ball.

Brown had an average freshman season, but he wanted to be a difference maker in 2023. Between his hard work on the practice field, weight room, film session and in the classroom, the sophomore defensive end said the game has slowed down quite a bit for him.

"When I got here, everything was pretty fast," said the Kansas City Bishop Ward High School product. "This year, I started to get a much better feel for the game. I'm a lot more comfortable and confident."

"His skill set allows him to be him," Dallas said. "He's so fast and twitchy off the ball. When you combine his strength and athleticism and his speed, we just want to put him in positions to be free and make plays."

Brown has helped the Blue Dragon defense become one of the best in the nation.

Hutchinson's defense ranks No. 1 in scoring defense (10.2 points per game), is fourth in total defense (238.8 yards per game) and lead the nation in rushing defense (54.9 yards per game). The Dragons are No. 2 in quarterback sacks with 53.

The Dragons have held opposing offenses to less than 100 rush yards in 8 of 10 games and held a pair of opponents to negative rushing yards.