C.J. Brown

The wallpaper on Clark Brown’s computer offers a somber reminder of a play that registers as nothing more than a footnote in recent Terrapins football history.

In the photograph, Brown’s son, C.J., is set to take the first snap of his college career. It was a snap each Brown would just as soon forget. The Terps had a 45-point lead over Morgan State on Sept. 11, 2010, when Brown – then the team’s third-stringer behind quarterbacks Jamarr Robinson and Danny O’Brien – cut through the Bears’ defense for a 12-yard run and a first down before being crunched by two defenders.

He gutted out the series’ final three plays, which included a fumbled snap the hobbled Brown couldn’t force himself to fall on, before being carted to the locker room.

Once there, Brown learned he’d broken his collarbone. His redshirt freshman season was effectively done. He saw his classmate O’Brien emerge as the quarterback the Terps sought, the impact player he thought he could be. O’Brien established himself among the ACC’s elite, throwing for nearly 2,500 yards and 22 touchdowns while earning ACC Rookie of the Year honors. By the time Brown suited up again for the Terps’ 2010 Military Bowl victory, he seemed destined for a career in College Park with a headset on, not a helmet.

But 519 turbulent days after Brown’s forgettable first snap at Byrd Stadium, the improbable quarterback controversy that raged throughout last season screeched to a halt when O’Brien was granted a release from his scholarship.

And when the Terps take the field tomorrow for their annual Red-White spring game, it will mark the unlikely beginning of what coach Randy Edsall termed “the C.J. Brown era.”

“It’s been a journey since I got here,” Brown said. “First time I ever got to play, I got hurt, sat out the season we went to the bowl game. Coming in [last year], Jamarr left, and that put me at backup and I got to compete, and that’s all I can ask.

“I kind of took advantage of my opportunities last fall, and now I’m sitting here with what I’ve been trying to work for.”

GOOD GENES

For someone who has earned a reputation as a tireless worker on and off the field, it’s odd that Brown didn’t discover his love for football until his freshman year at Seneca Valley High School in suburban Pittsburgh.

The fact that his father was once a collegiate quarterback himself makes it even stranger.

Although Clark Brown started under center for Michigan State in 1983 and regularly threw the football with C.J. and his younger brother, Jordan – a rising senior quarterback at Seneca Valley being recruited by much of the ACC – the gridiron wasn’t Brown’s first love.

Instead, he grew up playing competitive baseball under the tutelage of Jim Leyland, the manager of the Detroit Tigers, and basketball, as well.

But once he started high school and got a taste of “playing under the lights on Fridays,” his father said, Brown never looked back.

“A part of our family philosophy here is playing multiple sports is very important so you can get diversified,” Clark Brown said. “It was about him making a choice, not my heritage. He fell in love with playing quarterback. … Once he started in ninth-grade football, he realized he had the ability to do something special.”

TRANSITION

A combination of factors first convinced Brown to choose the Terps over the likes of Penn State, Pitt and Notre Dame. What helped push him over the top was the staff of coach Ralph Friedgen and offensive coordinator James Franklin.

His ill-fated series against Morgan State marked the first and only time he ever played for them.

On Dec. 16, 2010, as the team prepared for the Military Bowl, Franklin, the team’s coach-in-waiting, accepted the head coaching position at Vanderbilt. Three days later, the athletics department announced that Friedgen’s contract had been bought out.

After a season spent on the bench in a sling, Brown had a new offense to master, a new coach to please in Edsall and a new offensive coordinator to adjust to in Gary Crowton.

His ability on the ground made him an ideal candidate for Crowton’s hurry-up spread offense, which consisted largely of option-read runs and a quick-hitting passing attack, and during last year’s spring practice, Edsall said Brown was giving O’Brien a run for the starting position. Most chalked that up to hyperbole.

Unfortunately for Brown, that appeared to be the case after the team’s explosive season-opening win over Miami. O’Brien, who finished with 348 passing yards and a touchdown, had picked up where he left off.

As the Terps’ season disintegrated, though, so did O’Brien’s game. He threw three interceptions in a loss to West Virginia and never again seemed comfortable in Crowton’s offense.

When the Terps went down early against Georgia Tech on Oct. 8, what few thought possible before the season happened. O’Brien traded his helmet for a headset. Brown did the opposite.

And as Brown burst through the Georgia Tech defense for a 77-yard fourth-quarter touchdown that nearly sparked a late-game comeback, the quarterback controversy was on.

“I didn’t miss a game, and I had actually moved to an empty section of the stadium and was on the phone with my wife when he took off for that touchdown run,” Clark Brown said. “I was simply very proud that he took advantage of his opportunities. … To watch him run away from those guys, he showed his athleticism.

“I can tell you that I was crying in the stands.”

The sophomores would go back and forth the rest of the season. Edsall rarely hinted at his starter before the opening snap. It was a clash of styles: O’Brien the pocket passer, Brown the explosive runner.

Brown racked up 364 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns in his first start, a loss to Clemson, before being knocked out of the following week’s game against Florida State.

O’Brien started the next three games, only to see his season end with a broken arm against Notre Dame. Brown rounded out the team’s 2-10 year with starts in the final two games.

The offseason brought with it a tidal wave of turnover on the Terps’ roster as player after player left the program. In February, the hammer dropped. O’Brien, as had been rumored, was out the door, and Brown was the last man standing.

“Before spring ball even started, I saw him kind of take control,” junior wide receiver Kevin Dorsey said. “He understood, OK, this is my team. This is my time to step up, it’s my time to be that guy.

“In workouts, he’s been the first one to finish across that line. He’s beating receivers and DBs. To see that from your quarterback, people are looking up and thinking, OK, I can trust this guy. I really think that helped people really start to believe in him a little more than they may have before.”

THE C.J. BROWN ERA

In the truest sense of the phrase, Brown has been the guy for the Terps this spring. With O’Brien’s departure, Brown’s been the only scholarship quarterback on the field this spring.

Even with the anticipated arrivals of three-star freshmen Perry Hills and Caleb Rowe in August, the weight of a program’s pressures – to stay healthy, to learn his third offense in four seasons, to lead the offense – have fallen on Brown.

At least he’s used to it.

“It’s something that I don’t think a lot of people have to go through,” Brown said of the coaching turnover. “It’s not something I wanted to get used to, but you’ve got to run with it right now. I’m happy with Coach Locks[ley] and Coach Edsall and where things are at.”

Off the field, Brown is the prototype of Edsall’s kind of guy. Clean-cut, hard working, polite, respectful. A leader by example.

“What you’re seeing is him,” Clark Brown said. “He’s learned over the years. He understands the position and his role and he understands the need to be mentally strong. There’s nothing that’s fake.”

“C.J.’s always been a competitor,” added offensive lineman Justin Gilbert. “He’s always fought, even when Danny was the starting guy. I didn’t see much of a change. He didn’t try to put on a front. He was the same C.J.

“He was just taking his spot. This is his spot now, and he wants to show everybody he’s ready to go.”

By the coaching staff’s account, the spring has been rocky for Brown on the field. He’s still putting too much pressure on himself, Edsall said, and last fall’s inconsistencies have followed him into this spring.

“He has to make strides in everything that we’re doing,” Edsall said. “I just think there’s so much thrown at him. … He’s just got to kind of relax and he’s trying to be perfect, and sometimes that’s cluttering his mind a little bit.”

“I think the skill set is there with C.J.,” Locksley said. “He has the leadership. He has the arm talent that you want at the position. He can make plays with his feet. … He has the work ethic you want at the position, and now we’ve just got to get him consistent.”

Edsall and Locksley remain confident they’ll be able to iron out the mechanical problems in Brown’s throwing style by the time the Terps take the field against William & Mary on Sept. 1.

Tomorrow, Brown has his first chance to answer the question that has followed him since that memorable touchdown run against Georgia Tech last season:

He can run, sure. But can he throw?

“First and foremost, he’s a quarterback and an athlete,” Clark Brown said. “Can he throw the ball? Yeah, he can throw the ball damn well. … People will see when he’s allowed to go and do that, he has all the skill and all the talent in the world.

“He is not a one-dimensional quarterback. He’s an athlete. He’ll do what it takes to get the first down.”

That much has been clear since his first snap.

In what should be his first season as the Terps’ starter, though, they’ll hope his campaign will last longer than the first.

cwalsh@umdbk.com