Backing him up

After completing the first four passes of his first drive as the Terrapins football team's new starting quarterback Saturday, C.J. Brown was off and running against No. 7 Clemson.

Brown eluded arm tackles in the backfield, scrambled up the sidelines and caught cornerbacks in man coverage looking the other way as he stormed to 162 rushing yards, a program record for a quarterback.

For someone who found out just moments from kickoff he would start the game, Brown hardly looked flustered. Despite the 56-45 loss, he led the Terps' offense to its highest output of the season.

"I had the nerves, but I also had the energy," Brown said. "It felt good to go out there and show what I could do."

Brown said both he and former starter Danny O'Brien practiced last week as the team's starter. Despite relieving O'Brien in the Terps' game at Georgia Tech one week earlier, Brown still didn't know if the job was his until pregame warmups Saturday.

How he performed for the next three and a half hours assured him a starting job this Saturday at Florida State. In an updated depth chart released yesterday, coach Randy Edsall listed Brown ahead of O'Brien for the first time this season.

It's hard to discount Brown's production against the Tigers. Along with his rushing record, the redshirt sophomore finished with 177 passing yards as he went 17-for-35 with three touchdown passes and another on the ground.

Though he threw a third-quarter interception, Brown led the Terps to 21 first-half offensive points and an additional 78-yard touchdown drive immediately after halftime. Entering the game, Clemson's defense had yet to allow more than 30 points against a schedule that included three top-25 teams in Auburn, Florida State and Virginia Tech.

"I tried to make as few mistakes as I could," Brown said. "I tried to stay inside the offense and go off what coach [Gary] Crowton had taught me."

Brown appeared to fit Crowton's spread offense better than O'Brien, showing an ability to run zone-read options and connect on short throws.

"I thought he played unbelievably good for his first time," said tight end Matt Furstenburg, who scored twice on long touchdown receptions Saturday after taking short dump-offs from Brown. "He just handled the situation and played great."

Though complimentary toward Brown for his performance, both Furstenburg and running back Davin Meggett expressed disappointment about the offense's overall production.

"We as a group, as a unit, didn't play good enough," Meggett said. "As a unit, we have to score every drive. That's the mindset we have to have."

When Clemson adjusted to Brown in the second half, using its defensive line and blitzes to contain the quarterback and prevent long scrambles, the Terps' offense faltered.

Four of the team's final five possessions ended in a punt or turnover on downs, and Brown gained just 2 yards on the ground in the fourth quarter as the Tigers forced him to throw downfield.

Still, Brown added a dimension to the offense Clemson hadn't prepared for.

"We could not catch Brown, and we changed up players marking him," Clemson defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said after the game. "We didn't have a lot of video evidence to go off of this week, which really hurt us."

Edsall said after the game that he needed to dissect film before he could evaluate Brown's performance and make a decision on the future of the most visible position on his football team. What he saw, apparently, was enough to set apart Brown from the Terps' reigning — and slumping — ACC Rookie of the Year.

"The quarterback position is no different than any other," Edsall said. "The good thing is that we have two really, really good players I think. Hopefully we can continue to build that kind of depth at each position."

"Anything can happen," Brown added. "That's just the way you have to look at it."

ceckard@umdbk.com