Bluefield – Bluefield head coach Fred Simon has always been an advocate for rewarding players that pay their dues.
Senior quarterback Ryker Brown has done just that.
Playing anywhere and everywhere he’s been asked, Brown finally found a stable spot on offense this season behind center and he’s made the most of it, finding a rhythm as of late.
He capped off a stellar regular season Friday night with one of his most efficient performances, completing eight of his 13 passing attempts for 176 yards and four touchdowns in a 55-6 win over Mingo Central that helped the Beavers reach the playoffs for the fifth straight year.
For his efforts Brown has been named the Week 11 Lootpress Player of the Week by the Lootpress sportswriters. The award is sponsored and presented by Bodyworks and The Law Offices of Brandon Steele.
Mount View’s Jaylen Hall was the winner of the online fan poll, garnering more than 30 percent of the vote.
Getting to this point wasn’t easy for Brown.
He played his freshman year at James Monroe where he saw some time at QB but eventually moved to Bluefield and started at the bottom of the totem pole again. His willingness to play anywhere accelerated his path to playing time though.
It culminated in him getting a shot as a slot receiver in the 2019 Class AA title game against Bridgeport. After receiver Juwan Green was lost to injury the week before, the Beavers needed somebody to fill his shoes and Brown answered the call, catching two passes early in the game for first downs.
“He’s a Swiss army knife so to speak,” Bluefield offensive coordinator Fritz Simon said. “He can play anywhere and he’s a tool that you can plug in. He can be a tight end, he can be a receiver, you can flex him, he can be a box or a sniffer. On defense he’s a really good linebacker and he could be a corner or a safety. He plays where he fits for our team and he’s a team guy. His football IQ is sky-high and it’s good to have that on both side of the ball.”
Brown wouldn’t have it any other way. His experiences playing all over the field have given him a better understanding of each player’s job and how they’re supposed to operate in the offense. It’s also helped provide the drive to reclaim the spot he played sparingly as a freshman.
“It’s definitely been a long journey,” Brown said. “I feel like it’s made me a better football player. I knew I’d want to play QB again, I just had go work for it.”
Once he took the reins Brown’s upward climb continued. He was efficient in his first game against Princeton but a 31-6 loss to Graham buried the Beavers in an 0-2 hole with their playoff hopes fading.
The senior passer elevated his game.
Three days later against PikeView he completed six of his seven passing attempts for 119 yards and two touchdowns. As the season progressed those performances became more common as he threw for 290 and four scores against Class AAA Oak Hill, 199 yards against Ridgeview, Va. and 176 yards and four more touchdowns against Mingo on Friday.
“The biggest obstacle has been timing,” Brown said. “We didn’t have much of a preseason and then we were shut down for a couple of weeks so I had to find my timing again with the receivers. I think we’ve got it clicking now.”
“He threw a pass the other night against Mingo to Jacorian (Green) that was on the money,” Simon said. “It was 54 yards but if you take the distance in the air it was probably 70. He just torched it, but yeah he has gotten better. But practice time and being out here, he has gotten better. It’s helped him tremendously because in years past he was behind second-team wise. Even last year he still didn’t get the reps because of Covid. We didn’t have the 7-on-7s this year and we didn’t have them last year. The practice time this year has been diminished, so we’ve had only one way to go and that’s up.
“The more time you’re able to spend with your backs and your receivers, the more the timing improves and that’s what we’ve really seen from Ryker over the last couple of weeks.”
Brown, who finished the regular season with 1,114 yards passing to go along with 14 touchdown passes to only four interceptions, completed 67 percent of his pass attempts and appears to be peaking at the right time, hot off of Friday’s win.
The job still isn’t done yet.
The Beavers, who have played for the Class AA championship in each of the last four seasons, hope to do uphold that tradition and do so again. Leading the way will be Brown who’s well aware he’ll need to maintain his recent level of play if the Beavers are to keep their streak alive. That extends past his role on offense to his one defense where he’s been a multi-year starter at linebacker.
“I think we’ll need to play well on both sides of the ball,” Brown said. “Offense is important but our defense is where we want to improve the most. We want our run defense to be at its best and we’ll see how much we’ve improved. Point Pleasant likes to run it a lot and they’ll come right at us.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94