Liberty Univ. to start Beecher ahead of Brown at QB

Ultimately, Danny Rocco’s decision to start Tommy Beecher at quarterback for Liberty’s Sept. 5 opener at West Virginia was about how Rocco could get his best 11 offensive players on the field at once. Beecher, a senior South Carolina transfer, is limited. He plays quarterback or nothing. Mike Brown? Well, one only has to look at the depth chart released Tuesday to see his value to the Flames.

Brown is listed as a starter at five different positions — quarterback, receiver, holder, kick returner and punt returner. So Brown was going to get on the field regardless of how the quarterback battle played out. With little experience coming back at receiver, Rocco chose to get both players on the field as much as possible.

“I was really pleased with the performance of both quarterbacks throughout the camp,” Rocco said. “I think it’s evident to me that I’ve got two guys capable of playing well enough for us to win. They both seem very enthusiastic, very excited. They both just want to win.”

Brown, one of three offensive captains, will be on the field as a quarterback at times, and when he lines up under center (or in the shotgun, as the case may be), the playbook will not be limited. Last season, if Brown entered the game at QB, it was pretty evident what was going to happen. He was going to take a direct snap and run upfield out of the shotgun.

Rocco said Tuesday that Brown will have the full arsenal of plays at his disposal.

“Mike will play quarterback in every game, depending on how we’re moving, the flow of the game,” Rocco said. “But Mike will do a lot of other things for us here this year. … Last year, Mike would have had a selected number of plays and things for him to run. But this year, he’ll run our offense.

“Now we’ll feature specific things in the offense, but the neat thing about both of these kids, is that they’re both capable of handling the offense, all phases of the offense. We’ll obviously cater the calling of the game to who is in the game. But we don’t necessarily have to create packages for each guy.”

With the Flames set to run more plays out of the shotgun and spread this season, finding three starting receivers was as important as naming a No. 1 quarterback. Brown is the team’s leading returning receiver (19 receptions, 331 yards, one TD), and he’ll join South Carolina transfer Freddie Brown and Chris Summers at the starting receiver positions when the Flames operate out of three-wide sets.

“To get guys in the game that will give us a chance to win when we play at West Virginia, it became evident that we had to have Beecher and Mike in the game at the same time,” Rocco said. “That allows us to have a little more experience, a little more maturity, guys who are a little more game ready.”