MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning may have cracked a wry smile when asked about the stretch of quarterbacks his unit’s had to face during October, but it’s been keeping him up at night.
Texas’ Sam Ehlinger, Iowa State’s Brock Purdy and Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts are all big and strong, but can make plays with their legs.
On Thursday, Baylor’s Charlie Brewer fits almost an identical mold, and this season, he’s taken the next step to be one of the elite passers in the Big 12.
“He’s experienced — it’s not his first rodeo,” Koenning said. “He’s not a freshman, it’s not his first year in the system, he gets them in the right plays, his reads are correct a vast majority of the time. If you don’t turn the ball over, then you give yourself a chance.”
But Koenning mentioned Brewer’s ability to not only run, but keep his head up while scrambling to look for open receivers. Defensively, the Mountaineers call that type of coverage “plaster” — keeping an eye on the QB to make sure he doesn’t take off, but also stick with your zone or receiver in man coverage.
“We haven’t done a good job of that, we’ll need to be better there,” Koenning said.
The Mountaineers are familiar with Brewer — he came into the game as a freshman in 2017 in Waco and nearly led the Bears to a major comeback, but was sacked on a 2-point conversion that would have tied it late. Last season in Morgantown was a different story for Brewer, though. In arguably the worst performance of his career, he completed just one pass in eight attempts and threw three interceptions before being benched in favor of Jalan McClendon.
Brewer has reestablished himself as Baylor’s no doubt starter, and not only is West Virginia familiar with him, but so is coach Neal Brown, although he has yet to face Brewer with the Mountaineers.
Brown got to know the Brewer family when older brother Michael was being recruited by Texas Tech. Brown was the offensive coordinator with the Red Raiders from 2010-12, and Michael Brewer was a highly-touted quarterback from Lake Travis High.
“They’re one of my favorite families that I’ve ever had an opportunity to recruit,” Brown said. “They really bought into what we were doing at Texas Tech. Michael was my first commitment there. It’s a special family to me and I pull for them in every game except this game on Thursday night.”
Michael and Charlie’s father, Robert, and grandfather, also Charlie, played quarterback at Texas.
Michael played under Brown for two seasons at Texas Tech before Brown moved on to Kentucky in 2013. Michael backed up Seth Doege, brother of current WVU quarterback Jarret Doege, in 2012, but ended up transferring to Virginia Tech, where he had a successful final two seasons.
Brown said he remembers Charlie, who would have been about 12 years old at the time Michael was being recruited, though he hasn’t had much connection with the family since.
Now, though, Brown will have to deal with Brewer, who is having his best season yet with 1,866 yards and 12 touchdowns to just three interceptions through seven games. He’s also ran for 165 yards and six touchdowns.
“He’s a kid that’s had a lot of pressure on him since he started playing,” Brown said. “He was just another quarterback in that line from Lake Travis and was really successful there. He went in and started playing as a true freshman, took some lumps in that season where they won one game. But you can see him progress — he missed some time and they were a completely different team when he did play. He’s playing at a really high level, and he’s played at a high level in some of their biggest games.”
