Boston College QB Anthony Brown suffers another season-ending injury
For the second time in his Boston College career, Anthony Brown suffered a season-ending injury.
Eagles head coach Steve Addazio announced Monday that Brown, a redshirt junior quarterback, will undergo surgery after sustaining a “lower leg injury” against Louisville on Oct. 5. Brown was injured on a quarterback run early in the second quarter, going down after making a cut. Brown immediately grabbed his right knee and was removed from the game.
“We’re very, very sad for Anthony. He worked hard to get himself where he was. He’s seventh all time in passing in BC history and heading towards greater things this year. He’s had a great career and he’s prepared and practiced and put so much into it. We’re so proud of him,” Addazio said.
Brown emerged as BC’s starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman in 2017, but that season was cut short due to a knee injury. He returned to start all 12 games for the Eagles in 2018, throwing for 2,121 yards and 20 touchdowns. Addazio said Brown’s latest injury is not career-ending.
“It’s a tough deal, but he’s a tough guy and he’ll bounce back,” Addazio said. “We’re gonna love him and support him and get him back to where he was, but his season has come to an end.”
Before the injury, Brown had thrown for 1,250 yards and nine touchdowns.
Dennis Grosel will start for BC
When Brown went down against Louisville, backup Dennis Grosel stepped in. He threw for 111 yards, ran for 47 yards and had three touchdown passes, but completed just 9-of-24 passes in a 41-39 loss. Grosel, a redshirt sophomore, led the offense to a go-ahead field goal drive with 3:32 to play, but couldn’t do it a second time after UL took the lead with under a minute to go.
Despite the rough completion percentage (Grosel also threw an interception in the fourth quarter), Addazio was pleased with the way Grosel played and doesn’t anticipate changing how his offense operates.
“Dennis played a great second half of football and really did a great job. Dennis will be in that role,” Addazio said. “We’re running what we run. We’re rocking and rolling. You saw him in full live color in the second half of the game. He played, I thought, really well. Great leadership skills. Threw the ball well. We had a few drops. Ran the ball well, made good decisions. I thought he did a great job.”
Boston College’s bigger concern: defense
Boston College, which is coming off a bye week, has lost three of its last four games, including the embarrassing 48-24 home loss to Kansas. And while Brown’s injury will not help matters, BC’s main issue has been its defense. The Eagles currently rank No. 121 out of 130 FBS teams in total defense, allowing an average of 476.2 yards per game.
Addazio is in his seventh season at the helm and the Eagles have won exactly seven games in six of those seasons. Currently holding a 3-3 record (1-2 ACC) with road games against No. 3 Clemson and No. 8 Notre Dame still on the schedule, BC is going to have to scratch and claw just to reach a bowl game, let alone finally get past that seven-win mark.
That starts on Saturday at home against NC State, when Grosel will make his first career start.
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