When Charlie Brewer’s intentions to transfer to Liberty were announced this past December, the expectation was that he would be the front-runner in the quarterback competition to replace Malik Willis as the Flames’ signal caller. On Monday, that expectation became reality when Hugh Freeze announced that Brewer will be the team’s starting quarterback for the season opener at Southern Miss on Sept. 3.

“I just think he separated himself by a small margin over (Johnathan Bennett), just in probably the timing throws of close windows,” Freeze said of his decision on Wednesday. “It’s not that I don’t believe JB or Kaidon (Salter) or Nate (Hampton) couldn’t do well either, that probably makes it more challenging. I think it comes down to what we saw in the two scrimmages, particularly the last one. Probably, there’s part of me that knows he’s done it before and want to see if we can re-kindle a type of year that he had at Baylor. That’s what it came down to, but again it was very close, very difficult.”

Brewer was one of four quarterbacks that competed throughout spring practice and into training camp. There were times when Freeze said that the competition would likely last until the early part of the season before he would feel confident in who his starter would be. Other times, Freeze seemed like he was close to naming the starter even earlier than this week, frequently referring to what his “gut” feeling was.

“It’s always good to have experience, that never hurts you,” Brewer said on Wednesday in his first media appearance since being named the starter. “Having different starts in different leagues has helped me a lot, understanding defense, and the ebbs and flows of games.”

Brewer has no shortage of experience. He passed for 9,700 yards and 65 touchdowns at Baylor as he started 39 career games from 2017-20 for the Bears. He helped lead Baylor to the BIg 12 conference championship game in 2019. He began his Baylor career under Matt Rhule, who left to take the Carolina Panthers’ head coaching job in 2020. Brewer’s 9,700 passing yards and 65 touchdowns rank second on the Bears’ career list.

Brewer suffered multiple concussions during his time at Baylor and was knocked out of the 2020 Sugar Bowl with a neck injury he suffered on a late hit by a Georgia defender. As a graduate transfer, Brewer moved on to Utah for the 2021 season and started the first three games before losing his job to Cameron Rising. Brewer left the Utah program that September and entered his name into the transfer portal.

Ultimately, it was the experience factor that pushed him over the top in the competition at Liberty. The other three quarterbacks have never started a college football game and had very limited snaps in live action. The 6’1″, 208 pound Brewer has had the experience of being a starter at the college level in both the Big 12 and the Pac 12.

“There’s no substitute for experience, especially playing quarterback,” said Liberty quarterbacks coach Kent Austin on Tuesday. “It’s always been said that you don’t learn to play the position until you physically can’t play it anymore. There’s some truth to that. It’s an exaggeration, but when you’ve been in those wars, you’ve been in different environments of competitive nature and different types of games, all those things you can draw from your experience. If you’ve learned from it properly, it will help you make quicker decisions. Making quicker decisions as a quarterback helps you slow the game down.”

Brewer has one season of eligibility remaining, his sixth at the college level, because he used the 2021 year as a redshirt year after having never redshirted at Baylor. The 2022 season will be his extra COVID year of eligibility.

“I’m just trying to have fun,” Brewer said of his final year of eligibility. “I feel like I didn’t have a lot of fun the last two years. Getting back to having fun, competing with teammates, going out there and competing as hard as I can is my emphasis. Have fun, obviously take it serious, prepare really well, but also don’t forget to have fun.”

Brewer takes over for Malik Willis after two years of the uber-talented quarterback led the Flames before being drafted by the Tennessee Titans in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft. Willis led Liberty in rushing each of the past two years as a true dual-threat quarterback. He ran for 1,822 yards and 27 touchdowns in 13 games played at Liberty.

Brewer is very familiar, and says he feels comfortable, in Freeze’s system which includes tempo and run-pass-option (RPO) plays. He is a different quarterback than Willis though. Brewer has the ability to make plays with his feet and move the chains, but he’s unlikely to lead the team in rushing as the now NFL signal caller did the last two years. Brewer has rushed for 1,055 yards and 22 touchdowns in 47 career games played.

“Charlie is going to stand in the pocket and throw the football,” Austin said of his new starting quarterback. ” He will throw in a crowd. He’s tough mentally. He’s tough physicall. He understands the RPO game, the RPO world. He did that a lot at Baylor.”

Stepping into the highest profile position on a football team, Brewer immediately assumes the role of being a team leader. He is similar to Willis and Buckshot Calvert before him in not being a vocal leader. He is more likely to lead by example than with a strong personality and with his words.

Since coming in prior to the spring semester, Brewer grew a lot of the summer and into training camp. He improved some of his lower body mechanics where he was falling out of his throws and pivoting back on his back foot. Coach Austin gave him some drills to work on while throughout the summer, and Brewer did just that, coming into camp a much more polished quarterback.

Johnathan Bennett is Brewer’s backup to begin the season. The redshirt-sophomore is entering his fourth season in the program with the Flames and has seen playing time in 14 games. He was Willis’ backup in 2021, completing 15 of 33 passes for 299 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions in 8 games played. Just like last season, Bennett has to prepare as if he is the starter because he is only play away from being thrown into the fire.

After losing the starting job three games into the season at Utah last year, Brewer is entering the 2022 campaign as if the competition is not over, looking to continue to improve each and every day.

“Just cause you’re named the starter, you have to keep it,” said Brewer. “Obviously, you have to play well each week, keep getting better, put your first foot forward and do everything to help the team.”