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As expected, Max Browne was named USC's starting quarterback coming out of fall camp, head coach Clay Helton announced Saturday. The first start of Browne’s career will come against the defending national champs from Alabama.
The redshirt junior Browne and redshirt freshman Sam Darnold competed for the starting role throughout spring practice and during the first two weeks of camp. Brown is a member of the same QB signing class as Jared Goff, Christian Hackenberg and Alabama’s Cooper Bateman, who could end up as the Tide’s starter on opening night.
The 6-5, 220-pound Browne has thrown just 19 passes in his college career, but Helton said his "veteran experience" is key for USC.
“We were very happy as a coaching staff with the decision to continue the quarterback competition into our fall training camp,” Helton said. “We believe that the competitive atmosphere that was put in place allowed both quarterbacks to progress as players. We also gained valuable knowledge on each quarterback’s skill sets that will allow us to better game plan this fall. Finally, we learned that these two men are extremely talented, ultra-competitive and possess all the leadership intangibles that you must have at the position. It made for one of the toughest decisions in my college coaching career. This usually is the case when you have very talented individuals at the same position performing at a high level.
“At this point, we feel that it is in the best interest of our football team to lean on the veteran experience that Max Browne has, so we have named him the starter going into our opening game against Alabama. With our experienced offensive line and the weapons at our skill positions, we as a staff are confident that Max’s ability will help guide a very successful offense. The performance by Sam Darnold at such a young age in both spring and fall camps has made us very confident as a staff that Sam could enter any game and our offense would not miss a beat. Though we will not rotate quarterbacks, we do envision using Sam’s unique athletic skill set for special situations throughout games this season."
Darnold had impressed Trojan staffers with how close he’s made this battle since producing a strong spring that carried over to the fall. Darnold’s got the better feet of the two QBs and a stronger arm that has USC coaches very excited about his future there.
