Experience helps Brice win job to become Duke's starting QB

Updated Sep. 7, 2020 4:05 p.m. ET

Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Duke coach David Cutcliffe says Chase Brice’s game experience at Clemson helped him earn the Blue Devils’ starting quarterback job for Saturday’s season opener at No. 10 Notre Dame.

Brice is a graduate transfer who spent the past two seasons as Trevor Lawrence’s backup with the Tigers. He was battling redshirt junior Chris Katrenick and redshirt sophomore Gunnar Holmberg for the starting job in preseason camp before the school announced Sunday night that Brice had won that position battle.

“As he got more comfortable with our system, what you started seeing was his experience,” Cutcliffe said Monday. “He’s played a lot more football at this level than the other two have. … And you could see that in pocket movement and just feeling natural in a pocket.”

Brice is best known for rallying Clemson from a fourth-quarter deficit at home to beat Syracuse in 2018 after Lawrence left with a first-half injury. The Tigers went on to complete an unbeaten season and win the national championship.

Cutcliffe said Katrenick and Holmberg would share No. 2 duties behind Brice, saying the call on who would relieve Brice if needed would depend on the game circumstances.

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