Max Browne knew almost immediately where he wanted to take his final shot at being a starting college quarterback.
The only reason he waited a few days to make his decision was to delay what he faced Friday, some of the tough questions about his time at Southern California and why it didn’t turn out as planned. But there he stood at Pitt’s practice facility, surrounded by cameras and reporters as he spoke about moving to Pittsburgh and perhaps becoming the face of the Panthers offense for his only season here as a graduate transfer.
Browne, who committed to Pitt Dec. 15, is one of five players enrolling for the spring semester to get a jump-start on preparation for spring practices. The other four are freshmen straight out of high school, while Browne has already begun trying to build an identity for himself as a grizzled veteran and the quarterback best equipped to replace Nate Peterman in 2017.
“They’re getting a grinder. They’re getting a guy who knows how to work, knows how to lead, knows how to just go out there and get after it. I think that’s something I want to show the guys here early on,” Browne said before noting the reality of his situation at USC, where he lost his job to Sam Darnold after three games this past season in his first year as the starter. “I haven’t necessarily played a lot of ball in the past four years, but I’ve seen a lot. I’ve seen a lot of ball, experienced a lot, whether it’s coaching changes, whatever it is.”
Joining Browne as early enrollees for Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi are fellow quarterback Kenny Pickett, four-star offensive lineman Jerry Drake Jr., defensive lineman Deslin Alexandre and Australian punter Kirk Christodoulou.
Browne is by far the most likely to see the field next season, let alone start, and touched on a number of subjects Friday — never getting the USC gig back from redshirt freshman Sam Darnold, committing to Pitt with offensive coordinator Matt Canada on the move and potentially taking over from a fellow graduate transfer in Peterman.
“The initial attraction was probably the staff here’s attraction to myself,” he said of choosing Pitt for his senior season. “When I started to open up the recruiting process for a second time, I was kind of sitting back waiting for schools to come to me. Coach [Tim] Salem reached out, that kind of got the ball rolling, but then after that, I enjoyed my visit here, enjoyed the guys here, enjoyed the opportunity here. We’ve got a great team, a chance to win a lot of ballgames, so all that kind of coming together, it felt like it was a great opportunity for me.”
Despite his struggles at USC, Browne brings an undeniable pedigree to Pitt. Multiple recruiting outlets ranked him the top quarterback in the class of 2013, and he threw for almost 13,000 yards and nearly 150 touchdowns at Skyline High School in Sammamish, Wash.
He redshirted his freshman year with the Trojans and backed up current Cleveland Browns quarterback Cody Kessler the next two seasons. Browne was named the starter and a team captain entering the 2016 campaign but was benched in favor of Darnold, who led USC past Penn State with 453 yards passing and five touchdowns in the Rose Bowl. Browne threw for just 474 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in a 1-2 start that included losses to Alabama and Stanford.
“I was, yeah,” he said when asked if he was surprised about how his time in the Pac-12 panned out. “That’s not how you write it up, not what I envisioned, shoot, four months ago. But I’m happy for my guys, happy they got that win, but even more happy to be here and kind of lead this program.”
Browne visited Pitt the second weekend of December and didn’t feel the need to see any other campuses or coaching staffs. Canada’s work turning Pitt’s offense into a high-scoring outfit was part of the decision but ultimately not one that rerouted Browne when Canada was hired by LSU Dec. 14.
Pitt was still the school where “the pieces seemed to be lining up” — including the opportunity to start under center, and a recent history of success with a graduate transfer from a Power Five school in Peterman, who came from Tennessee before his junior season.
“A hundred percent, especially him being a grad transfer himself,” Browne said. “Obviously he had two years instead of the one, but the success he had under coach Canada and coach Narduzzi was something that was attractive to me as far as a quarterback putting up numbers and an offense putting up stats.”
Browne didn’t quite say there were no hard feelings about his previous school, but he was on his couch back home in Washington rooting for the Trojans in the Rose Bowl. His former teammates are also his friends for life, but he also got a head start in wanting to beat Penn State.
“Exactly,” he said with a chuckle. “Part of me was I wanted my guys to win, but then Penn State, that rivalry starts here, so I couldn’t root for them. Yeah, got the ball rolling early.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: January 6, 2017, 8:02 p.m.
Updated: January 6, 2017, 8:54 p.m.
