Mario Cristobal cleared up any quarterback battle debates after Friday's practice, officially naming senior Anthony Brown the starting quarterback. The news didn't come as a surprise to many around the program, seeing as how Brown is the only quarterback who saw snaps last season and took a majority of the reps with the ones in fall camp.
After making the announcement, Cristobal was asked what Brown did to earn the job, and he said that he's performed well in camp and that he's won over the locker room. He gave a number of reasons as to why the Ducks coaching staff thought Brown was their guy.
"The way he handles and has control and command of the offense," Cristobal said. "His presence amongst the players and at the line of scrimmage. His ability to improvise and sometimes negotiate throws in tough situations. His ability to run the ball. He's been really accurate, and his explosive play ratio has been really high against a defense that we feel is really good."
Brown has a ton of experience to fall back on, as he spent four years at Boston College prior to transferring to Oregon before the 2020 season. He threw for over 4,800 yards and tossed 40 touchdown passes as an Eagle in 28 starts.
He also played in Oregon's final two games in 2020, accounting for four touchdowns while building chemistry with the players in the locker room and the coaching staff.
"Anthony's done a great job," Cristobal said. "Quite frankly, he's the starter because he's done a great job, and the other ones are battling for that other spot because they've done a great job as well. It's not a matter of great performance versus poor performance. They've developed under Coach Moorhead and the system. I'm proud of them and wanna see them keep competing."
The Cliffwood, N.J., native has a talented arm and a loaded group of skill players that assemble Oregon's arsenal of offensive weapons. Having that extra season to be in on-the-field situations and play through series with the starters clearly played a significant role in Brown being named the starter.
There will be a bit of pressure on the veteran quarterback to lead the Ducks through a relatively competitive schedule, especially with road matchups against Ohio State, UCLA, Washington, and Utah. Another type of pressure that Brown will face is who will take over the reins as the starter after him, as Ty Thompson, Jay Butterfield, and Robby Ashford all have a great chance of being the signal-caller of the future.
Cristobal said that Brown has earned the command of the locker room, but that nothing will be simply handed over to him. Despite the high levels of trust and confidence in him from the coaching staff, the expectations and standards are always higher in Eugene.
"I think he earned it," Cristobal said of Brown winning over the team. "We're still gonna make it hard on the guy. He's been pressed hard. He'll tell you I press him hard. I can't simulate thousands of people yelling and screaming and that type of duress. We gotta create that in practice.
"Just a lot of credit to him. He's been through a lot. He's been around--pretty much across the country. He's done a really good job, and we expect him to keep growing as a leader."
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