Temple's Matt Brown signs with Buccaneers

Thirteen days after announcing he would play for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders, former Temple running back/return specialist Matt Brown signed a contract Wednesday night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The 5-foot-5, 165-pounder was able to join the NFL team since he never signed his contract with the Roughriders. Brown was scheduled to fly to Saskatchewan on Tuesday to sign it. However, he was unable to board the plane in Baltimore due to an expired passport.

While Brown was in Philadelphia Wednesday morning getting a new passport, his agent was contacted by the Bucs. So he flew to Florida to sign a contract with Tampa Bay instead.

Brown was the 2012 Big East special teams player of the year.

Former Owls tailback Montel Harris signed a three-year contract with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

The all-Big East selection wasn't picked in April's NFL draft and had unsuccessful tryouts with the Eagles and Buccaneers.

Harris rushed for a combined 4,786 yards and 39 touchdowns during his college career at Temple and Boston College. He had 1,054 yards and 12 touchdowns in 10 games in 2012, his lone season as an Owl. His average of 105.4 rushing yards per game led the Big East. He rushed for school and conference single-game records of 351 yards and seven touchdowns against Army on Nov. 17.

- Keith Pompey