Oregon Quarterback Anthony Brown Finally gets his Autzen Chance

Brown is excited to finally play at Autzen after sitting out most of last year

Author:
Nick Battey
Publish date:
Aug 11, 2021 3:54 PM EDT

Oregon senior quarterback Anthony Brown has paid his dues with injuries in 2017 and 2019 along with sitting behind Tyler Shough for the majority of last season. Now though, the keys to the offense are his as he tries to navigate this tough Pac-12 schedule and being a leader to meet the team's high expectations.

“Being what the team needs me to be [a leader].” Brown said at Oregon football media day. “Whether that’s being a leader for the guys in the room. Them criticizing me or something that I need to work on. Leader is not just a concrete term that a lot of people like to throw around it’s very abstract as well. Leadership isn’t just a solid thing right now, it’s very fluid and just being where my team needs me to be.”

Brown had to sit out the majority of last season as Tyler Shough originally beat him out for the job, even though Brown was dealt a short hand by not having much of fall camp to prepare for year one of Moorhead's offense.

“It was hard [sitting out], any competitor is going to be upset about anything like that,” Brown said. “But I would say it was needed for what's about to come and I wouldn’t have changed it for anything that’s coming right now.”

Brown was asked about Moorhead's offense and if there would be changes to it this season with the extra time to prepare and a new quarterback.

“Not too much change, just some tweaks," Brown said. “Coach Moorhead is a great coach, he’s a great person. Extremely great leader, and he keeps us on our toes. I’m really excited to see what he has in store for us. It’s going to be cool so I’m just ready for it.”

One of the biggest stories in all of college football this year is wondering about how teams will react to the 13/14 game seasons again after many seasons being shorter last year.

“Just the fact that we had full winter workouts, we had a full spring, we had full summer workouts. Just to be around each other and not to be stopped by cancelations or weeks off because of COVID or people being taken out.” Brown continued. “That’s the biggest thing right now and we’ve been around each other for so long, we’ve been able to bond with each other, become closer and I feel like at any school that has been the biggest change from one year to the next.”

Verone McKinley and Johnny Johnson III have talked recently about the improved culture this season from last year's condensed action. Brown was asked about that as well.

“When you’re around people that you love, the more you’re around them the more you build that trust, the more you build that love, that energy, and ultimately that culture especially when it comes to team sports. I would say that’s the biggest change from last year to this year as we’ve been talking about so I agree with Johnny and Verone.”

Brown’s face lit up when he was asked about the idea of playing in front of a full Autzen Stadium this Fall.

“They describe it like it’s no other feeling in the world, and I’m excited to play in this stadium because I grew up watching games," Brown said of playing in Autzen Stadium. I grew up loving Oregon so this is an exciting one for me especially since I’m new here, and it’s like I’ve never played in this stadium yet and it’s like a little kid getting candy, Halloween, something like that. That’s the type of feeling you’d get from this.”

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