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To Win on Halloween, WVU Cannot be Afraid of Charlie Brewer

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No matter what his Halloween costume may be, Charlie Brewer and the undefeated Baylor Bears are one scary opponent.

Brewer, a junior, is in his third year starting for head coach Matt Rhule and he is making a case to be the best quarterback in the Big 12. He trails only Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts in passer efficiency with a 163.4 rating.

After winning one game in 2017 and seven games last season, Brewer has the Bears out to a 7-0 start and up to No. 12 in the rankings. WVU head coach Neal Brown thinks Brewer’s experience losing so many games is making all the difference this year.

“He went in and started playing as a true freshman and took some lumps in that season where they won one game,” Brown said. “Then you could see him progress, you could see him getting better. This year he’s been playing at a really high level, and he’s played at a high level in some of their biggest games.”

Baylor has yet to play other teams at the top of the Big 12 like Texas and Oklahoma yet this season, but Brewer has been at his best when the team needed him most.

Against Iowa State, Brewer threw for 307 yards and three touchdowns without turning the ball over. Against Oklahoma State, Brewer completed 76.5% of his passes for 312 yards and a touchdown, again avoiding any turnovers. For the season, Brewer has thrown for 1,866 yards, 12 touchdowns and only three interceptions.

West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning thinks Brewer’s decision making and ability to avoid mistakes are big parts to his success.

“He’s experienced, it’s not his first rodeo, he’s not a freshman, it’s not his first year in the system,” Koenning said. “He gets them in the right plays, his reads are correct the vast majority of the time. If you don’t turn the ball over then you give yourself a chance. There’s a lot of positive things that he does and that’s the benefits of having someone be in your system a little bit.”

Brown has a history with the Brewer family. While he was the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, Brown recruited Charlie’s brother Michael.

“I’ve known him for a long time and tracked him really since he was young, going back to probably elementary school,” Brown said. “His brother played for us at Texas Tech, one of my favorite families I’ve ever had the opportunity to recruit. Special family to me, I pull for them except in this game on Thursday night.”

Michael eventually transferred to Virginia Tech where be passed for 4,395 yards and 31 touchdowns in two seasons. As for any similarities Brown sees between the brothers, “they look alike”.

Facing Brewer continues a string of very good quarterbacks the Mountaineers have faced in a row. In consecutive games, WVU will have faced Sam Ehlinger (Texas), Brock Purdy (Iowa State), Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma) and now Brewer.

“They’re all really good, that’s the common denominator,” Koenning said of Big 12 quarterbacks. “And that’s the challenge of this conference. There’s some good defensive coaches that’re giving up points, that’s the nature of this conference. The thing that we’ve go to do is continue to work on us getting better.”

WVU vs Baylor will kick-off tonight at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN.

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