Anthony Brown to bring ‘fierce competition’ to Oregon Ducks QB room

Anthony Brown

Boston College quarterback Anthony Brown passes during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Kansas in Boston, Friday, Sept. 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)AP

EUGENE — Oregon’s quarterback competition will begin in earnest later this summer once Anthony Brown takes the practice field.

A graduate transfer from Boston College, Brown joined the Ducks after the cancellation of spring practice but has been in Eugene for several weeks.

Brown completed 59.1 percent of his passes for 1,250 yards with nine touchdowns and two interceptions, ran for 128 yards and two scores and had a touchdown catch in six games last season before suffering a torn left anterior cruciate ligament.

“I’m happy that he’s here and that he’s working and really has gotten himself healthy, which was priority No. 1 for him,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said on The James Crepea Show on KORE 1050 Fox Sports Eugene. “Everything that he’s shown us is to be an exceptional young man that wants to be part of a program. I want to lean on what he said when he chose to come this way, is he wanted to come here because of the culture. There are no promises and that’s just the way we do things, we don’t promise (anything). We lay the ball out there, we prepare guys and we let them compete.”

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A three-year starter for the Eagles, Brown has torn each of his ACLs in successive seasons but has far and away the most game experience of any of Oregon’s quarterbacks.

Still, it’ll be a tough battle for him to win the starting job over Tyler Shough, last year’s backup to Justin Herbert and a capable dual-threat in his own right.

The Ducks are slated to have five scholarship quarterbacks, with Cale Millen, Jay Butterfield and Robby Ashford also on the depth chart.

“I love all those young quarterbacks as well and Anthony is a guy that’s going fit in great and bring some fierce competition to that room,” Cristobal said. “Which we’re going to treat the quarterback room like we do the other ones; we’re going to bring competition to it. I firmly believe that if you don’t do that with your quarterback room you do a disservice to your team and you do a disservice to the development of your quarterbacks. That’s something that we’re excited about.”

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