Brown, O’Brien will be a ‘game-time decision’ Maryland football coach Randy Edsall likes to keep fans in suspense.
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What uniforms will the Terrapins wear? Check Edsall’s tweet on Wednesday. Curious about which players are hurt? Wait for Thursday’s injury report. Want to know who the quarterback is? Once again this week, it’s a game-time decision.
Saturday when Maryland (2-5, 1-3) faces Boston College (1-6, 0-4), either C.J. Brown or Danny O’Brien will get the call, and if all goes according to Edsall’s plan, no one will know until pre-game warm-ups. That’s when Brown found out he was starting 11 days ago against Clemson. On Tuesday, Edsall even hinted that he could rotate the redshirt sophomores.
| up next |
| Boston College at Maryland |
| When » Saturday, 3 p.m. |
| Where » Byrd Stadium |
| TV » RSN |
“We could play one, or both,” Edsall said.
While some of Edsall’s zealous protection of information can be attributed to Randy being Randy, there’s a legitimate reason why the Terps’ coach is mum about his quarterbacks. The Maryland offense has a different personality depending on which is in the game.
With Brown, Maryland operates more often out of a shotgun spread and poses a significant rushing threat. With O’Brien, the Terps play more pro set and feature the pass. The longer Edsall can keep Boston College in the dark, he figures, the better.
In Clemson’s 56-45 victory over Maryland, Tigers defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said that his team’s uncertainty over who would play quarterback contributed to the 468 yards his unit surrendered, including 162 rushing and 175 passing by Brown.
In Saturday’s 41-16 loss at Florida State, the Seminoles knew who was starting and limited Brown to 25 yards rushing on 10 carries and 11 completions in 19 attempts for 92 yards. Brown left early in the second half after sustaining a helmet-to-helmet hit from linebacker Nigel Bradham.
“He got me good,” Brown said. “After seeing the replay, it looked pretty bad.”
O’Brien relieved Brown and rallied the Terps to a pair of touchdowns, completing nine of 18 passes for 180 yards. With O’Brien in the game, Maryland showed more ability to throw downfield, though the defensive posture of Florida State was altered with a big lead.
“We did some really good things, just not enough of them,” O’Brien said. “It felt good to get out there for sure, and complete some balls against a quality opponent. It’s gonna have to carry over this week if I’m out there.”
O’Brien is at a loss to explain his lack of success this season after leading the Terps to a 9-4 record and a bowl appearance on his way to ACC rookie of the year honors last year. In practice this week, he has been splitting snaps with the first-team offense.
“I think it might be a lot of things,” O’Brien said. “We played some good teams, the different scheme, different coaches, different players out there, different tempo, not playing as good as I should be. It might be just a little bit of a lot of things. But you can’t really get hung up on why you’re not playing well. You just gotta fix it.”
