One of the more intriguing side stories that came out of Saturday’s win over the Louisville Cardinals was the play of graduate student Darius Wade. After redshirt freshman Anthony Brown went down with an apparent shoulder injury, Wade came in and was efficient going 7-10 for 91 yards. That’s not to say that Brown wasn’t effective as well, because he was, moving the ball well with his feet and making a nice wheel route touchdown pass to Thadd Smith.
But which quarterback will get the nod against the Virginia Cavaliers? There are a multitude of factors that will help Steve Addazio decide. First off, it’s the injury to Anthony Brown. In yesterday’s press conference Daz said that Brown re-injured the shoulder that he hurt against Clemson earlier this season. He had no time table on his return, but did say that if he was ready he would be the starter. Clearly Brown’s health is something to keep an eye on as Addazio was vague on where he is at in terms of being game ready.
If Brown is ready, which quarterback gives BC a better chance of winning? Wade seems to be the safer bet, as he manages the game and can is more accurate in his short and intermediate passes than Brown. But Anthony Brown may be the more dynamic player, with a higher upside. True he makes mistakes as we saw on Saturday when he threw a jump ball into double coverage that got intercepted, but BC has just started to open up the option run for him and it was working. Plus all signs point to Brown being the quarterback of the future, so giving him this game experience and grinding through a whole season will be important for his progression.
In my opinion Anthony Brown should be the starting quarterback on Saturday. While I respect what Wade did against Louisville, I think Brown gives them more options in the playbook, which in turn should open up the passing game. True, he makes the occasional bad decision, but moving forward he needs to be the starter if we want a quarterback to grow in this system (all jokes aside). That being said, he needs to be healthy enough to go.
So who will it be on Saturday? Will it be Anthony Brown again? Or Darius Wade? And who do you think it should be? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.