Meet Chase Brice, Clemson’s new next QB option after Trevor Lawrence

Months before the 2018 season, Clemson’s quarterback room was loaded.

The Tigers had Kelly Bryant, the rising senior who’d just gotten them to the College Football Playoff. They had Zerrick Cooper, his backup. They had Hunter Johnson, a five-star QB in the class of 2017 who’d just redshirted. They had Chase Brice, a three-star rising redshirt freshman who’d been rated as a four-star for a while. And then, the big one: they had five-star true freshman Trevor Lawrence, the highest-rated recruit of any position since Matt Barkley went to USC in the class of 2009.

Cooper transferred to Jacksonville State right after the season. Johnson transferred to Northwestern well before fall camp. Bryant started the first four games, but after Lawrence was named the starter for Week 5’s game against Syracuse, Bryant transferred. Because he’d only played in four games, Bryant is able to redshirt this season and play immediately somewhere else as a graduate transfer in 2019.

And Lawrence got hurt in the first half of his first start, against Syracuse. Brice then led the Tigers to a comeback win against the Orange. His conversion on a fourth-and-6 late in the fourth quarter was key to the Tigers’ comeback.

The Tigers hope that’s almost never, but Brice is a talented player. He sort of got lost in the mix when Clemson signed Johnson in the same class, but don’t sell him short. Clemson blog Shakin The Southland wrote about him after he signed:

Brice is an amazing second QB pickup. You just don’t normally stockpile this much talent at the quarterback position. Chase still has a lot of work to do as he adjusts to the college level. He had a great supporting cast at Grayson, with an excellent offensive line. Grayson runs a lot of effective play-action so Brice had a lot of easy deep throws behind that offensive line. The route concepts aren’t all the intricate either at Grayson but Chase still showed good deep ball accuracy. He also improved his decision making. His junior year he could get caught making some bad throws with poor mechanics at times. Those throws off his back foot have been cleaned up a bunch in his Senior year.

He’s a pro-style passer with some athleticism, not unlike Lawrence. And he’s had a whole year-plus in Clemson’s offense, learning under offensive coordinators Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott. Brice doesn’t have Lawrence talent, but that’s not to say he can’t effectively steward Clemson’s offense and win games with great defense. That’s basically what Bryant did for a whole season, and it was good enough to get to a Sugar Bowl semifinal game.

Dabo Swinney told ESPN’s Holly Rowe after halftime that he’d take Bryant back if the veteran, seeing Lawrence’s injury, wanted to return. It’s not clear that Bryant would be violating any rules, either from the NCAA or ACC, by coming back.

A compliance officer at another FBS program told SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey that if Bryant hasn’t un-enrolled from the university or taken financial aid from another school, he’d still be eligible. It appears Bryant’s still at Clemson and thus free to return, if everyone wants. Whether Bryant would want to come back isn’t known. Same with Lawrence’s health status.

Ben Batson is behind Brice on the depth chart. Receiver Hunter Renfrow is the current fourth-string QB when Lawrence is healthy.