BC loses QB Brown to surgery
Boston College quarterback Anthony Brown was scrambling for a first down in the second quarter of Saturday’s 17-14 home loss to North Carolina State when the season collapsed underneath him.
The redshirt freshman’s knee buckled awkwardly while making a cut with 13:06 to play. Brown had to be helped off the field and departed for the locker room on crutches.
BC coach Steve Addazio announced yesterday Brown is out for the season and will require surgery to fix what he referred to as a “lowerleg” injury.
“I’m not going to get into the details of everything there yet. I think that is kind of personal business,” Addazio said. “But suffice to say he’ll be gone for the year, and he’ll be having surgery.”
Brown started 10 games and emerged as one of the top freshman quarterbacks in the country with 1,367 passing yards and 11 touchdowns. Brown had a breakout game at Virginia on Oct. 21 by completing 19-of-24 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns. He was named ACC Rookie of the Week.
“Obviously our heart goes out to Anthony, and he is a big part of the future of our program,” Addazio said. “He’s going to be a great player with a great future, and we couldn’t be more excited about what he’s gotten done, what he’s gotten accomplished and what he’ll do in the future.”
Addazio said senior Darius Wade will start Saturday night’s nonconference clash with UConn at Fenway Park. The Eagles are 5-5 overall, 3-5 in the ACC and can secure bowl eligibility with a win against the Huskies. BC closes out the season with an ACC contest at Syracuse on Nov. 25.
“With this opportunity, we have some really good football players starting with Darius Wade, and we are going down that path,” Addazio said. “That’s the way it is.”
Wade, a 6-foot, 215-pound quarterback from Middletown, Del., was mostly ineffective after replacing Brown against the Wolfpack. He completed 8-of-15 passes for 82 yards but was sacked five times. North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb had 2.5 sacks and four tackles for losses.
“They had one of the elite pass rushers in America, so we had some issues there,” Addazio said. “We were also in some situations where the whole stadium knows you’ve got to drop back and throw the football.”
Addazio will reluctantly move E.J. Perry into the backup roll. That was a tough decision for the coach, who wanted to redshirt the true freshman from Andover.
“That conversation’s been had. We are all on the same page,” Addazio said. “Now we are going to move based on a lot of factors, one of which is we’ll have a great week of practice here and see where we are at.”
Wide receiver Jeff Smith, who started three games at quarterback as a freshman in 2015, will get significant practice reps and might be a safer option than Perry. Junior quarterback John Fadule, who started against Notre Dame at Fenway Park in 2015, is out with a concussion.