LOS ANGELES — Anyone who thinks the USC quarterback competition is between Max Wittek and Cody Kessler with true freshman Max Browne in distant third has thought wrong, said coach Lane Kiffin.
Kiffin said Browne is very much entrenched in the quarterback battle, which takes center stage at Saturday's Spring Game at the Coliseum at 1 p.m. PT.
“There’s not a one, two, three,” Kiffin said. “They’re all in there.”
Wittek and Kessler, obviously, had a leg up on Browne entering spring ball with two years in the system under their belts.
Despite being at a disadvantage, Browne never made excuses. He was always of the belief that he belonged and any information he studies should be retained and fully absorbed.
However, that wasn’t the case.
On more than one occasion, Browne has gone through practice at Howard Jones Field and looked his age.
“The competitor inside me, it’s stuff I should know,” said Browne of trying to manage the USC playbook. “It’s stuff I do know. As long as I’m learning each and every time and recognizing what I’m doing wrong so I can move forward, that’s the biggest thing.”
The last time the Trojans hit the Coliseum turf, Browne appeared to turn his previous mistakes into production. He went 6-for-7 on the day and was a drop away from being perfect.
Knowing he had an uphill climb, Browne has tried to do all that he can to give himself the best possible chance to compete.
His largest obstacle, aside from absorbing the playbook, has been the adjustment to being under center. Browne was primarily a shotgun quarterback at Skyline High School in Washington, where he earned Gatorade National Player of the Year honors.
During spring break, Browne went back home — with playbook in hand — to get in some extra work with his quarterback coaches.
“My whole life I practiced the under center footwork, but it’s a whole other animal once you’re under there doing it,” Browne said.
Browne, just like Kessler and Wittek, likely won’t be able to win the quarterback job during the Spring Game, but a good performance would make for quite a launching pad into the fall when the competition for Matt Barkley’s successor continues.
Managing the offense will be especially beneficial for the quarterbacks, with the Trojans missing 20 players on Saturday due to injury.
The key non-participants offensively are tight ends Randall Telfer and Xavier Grimble, along with running backs Silas Redd and D.J. Morgan.
Even shorthanded, the offense has been able to take advantage of the USC secondary and limit turnovers this spring.
Continuing that trend will be essential come Saturday.
“(We’re looking for) timing, accuracy and decision making (from our quarterbacks), going in there and really doing what they’ve done,” Kiffin said. “They have really limited turnovers in the Coliseum this spring, which is very different than last (spring), if you think about last spring how much we were turning the ball over at quarterback, especially with our starter.
“We turned the ball over at an alarming rate.”
Browne and company hope there's not a repeat of last spring on Saturday.
