Oregon Football: What impact will Anthony Brown’s transfer have?

Tyler Shough will have some new competition for starting quarterback of Oregon football with incoming transfer Anthony Brown from Boston College.

The Ducks were ready to hand redshirt sophomore Tyler Shough the keys as the successor to former four-year starting quarterback Justin Herbert this spring. That was the plan until former Boston College starting quarterback Anthony Brown announced his decision to transfer to Oregon.

Brown will come in as a senior and play immediately for the Ducks. He spent the past three years as the starting quarterback for the Eagles and last season, he passed for 1,250 yards, nine touchdowns, and two interceptions on 81 completions (out of 137 attempts) before suffering a knee injury six games into the season.

In the span of 28 games in his three-year starting career with the Eagles, Brown passed for 4,738 yards, 40 touchdowns and 20 interceptions on 373 completions (out of 680 attempts). As a dual-threat quarterback, he rushed for 423 yards and four touchdowns on 129 rushes as well as caught four receptions for 91 yards and three touchdowns in his career.

Brown came to Boston College as a three-star recruit ranked as the No. 23 dual-threat quarterback in the recruiting class of 2016. He had helped the Eagles accumulate significant offensive performances but after his second season-ending knee injury this past season, the Eagles felt more comfortable moving on with their offense being led by a healthy junior quarterback in Dennis Grosel.

The news of Brown to transfer to play for the Ducks and contend for a starting role doesn’t make the job of head coach Mario Cristobal or new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead any easier. Shough has a lot of potential as a four-star pro-style quarterback in the recruiting class of 2018. Last season, he saw limited action by passing for 144 yards and three touchdowns on 12-of-15 attempts. He has also spent most of the offseason as the No. 1 quarterback in the limited spring practices they have had.

Moorhead will be installing his spread offensive scheme at Oregon that he used at Penn State when he was the offensive coordinator from 2016-17 and Mississippi State when he was the head coach the previous two seasons. While at Penn State, Moorhead got Penn State up to the 21st-ranked scoring offense (37.6 points per game) in 2016 and seventh-ranked scoring offense (41.1 points per game) in 2017.

Moorhead has a specialization of running with dual-threat quarterbacks in a spread-RPO style of offense at Penn State with Trace McSorley and at Mississippi State with Nick Fitzgerald, Tommy Stevens and Garrett Shrader. This type of offense would be more favor more for Brown than it would for Shough.

The starting quarterback spot will be determined during the summer or potentially right before the season starts in the fall. The impact of the COVID-19 will allow Brown, Shough and other quarterbacks to learn the new style of offense and the playbook from coach Moorhead.

Right from the end of the 2019 season to March, the quarterback position looked to be locked up for Shough. Now it’s an open competition for a College Football Playoff-contending team and the reigning Pac-12 champion.