By Zack Siedel – Spear Reporter | Sophomore quarterback Emmett Brown prepares to take the snap against Sacramento State (photo by Nick Orozco – Co-Executive Editor of The Spear)
After San Jose State’s loss against Colorado State, the Spartans’ coaching staff made the decision to have junior quarterback Walker Eget be the team’s new starter over sophomore Emmett Brown.
Brown should start for the remainder of the season.
Through the first four games of the season Brown was dominant with a 62% completion percentage and averaging 324 passing yards a game, with three of those games having three or more touchdown passes.
Brown gave the nation a game to remember when going up against his former school Washington State when the game went into double overtime, but lost 54-52.
Although the Spartans lost, Brown’s 375-yard, four-touchdown and two-interception game was very impressive against a tough opponent and SJSU’s offense looked like a force to be reckoned with.
The following game, the Spartans took on Nevada in which Brown got benched in favor of Eget after only completing 12-of-20 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns, but also had three passes batted down in the process.
Brown’s leash was for some reason a short one, and no athlete should be judged based off one or two bad performances, especially given how successful Brown ran the offense.
Eget was phenomenal coming off the bench, completing 10 of 13 passes for 141 yards and completed the comeback as the Spartans won the game 35-31.
But this was Eget’s first time seeing any type of game action all season and it’s known that quarterbacks with no film on them will perform very well when they are put into action for the first time during the season in both the college and NFL levels.
The film aspect could also be a reason why Brown was benched, with the opposing team’s defenses now getting a better scheme idea on how to defend plays made by him as more games have been played.
Although Brown was benched after the loss, he proceeded to start the next game against Colorado State.
But as the game went on and the Spartans were only down 14-7, Brown was shockingly benched after completing eight of 14 passes for 91 yards and a touchdown pass.
Eget came into the game and once again became the spark plug off the bench but couldn’t complete the comeback victory, losing 31-24.
In the loss, Eget completed 22-of-30 passes for 273 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.
The SJSU coaching staff then decided to name Eget the starter over Brown, but Eget has underperformed in his two starts this season.
Eget owns a 1-1 record as a starter and has only completed 51.5% of his passes as a starter for 520 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.
With the Spartans just looking towards making a bowl game at this point in the season, it may be smart to have Brown become the starting quarterback once again with how explosive the offense looked with him under center.
Because of Eget’s struggles, it may give the coaching staff a reconsideration about taking Brown out as the starter, with the offensive dominance and spark looking like it has faded away.
The offense looked more awake and amped up with Brown under center, and there were more eye-opening, star-studded moments and plays that happened during lots of SJSU’s offensive possessions.
Brown has also led wide receiver Nick Nash to greater heights as he is currently second in the nation with 995 receiving yards and first in the nation with 12 touchdown receptions.
The Brown and Nash one-two punch looked like one of the most powerful and exciting quarterback-wide receiver duos in college football.
SJSU’s offensive struggles have shown under Eget, with the explosiveness and impact from when Brown was the starter being nowhere to be found.
Eget will look to finally be on track this season as the starting quarterback at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday when the Spartans (5-3, 3-2 MW) travel to Oregon State to take on the Beavers (4-4)
