Bell QB has led turnarounds before

Austin Brougham knows about turnarounds. And he’s hoping the same thing happens for the Hurst L.D. Bell football team that happened when he played at Arlington Lamar.

Brougham, playing quarterback for the first time, endured a 1-9 freshman season at Lamar. The next season, as a sophomore, he led the junior varsity to a 9-1 record.

Now a junior, he’s the starting quarterback for the Bell varsity. Through the first five games, the Blue Raiders were 2-3, getting as many victories as the past two seasons combined.

“When your quarterback gives you a chance to be successful, you’ve got a chance to be really good,” said Bell coach Mike Glaze. “He’s definitely smart. He understands he’s got some leadership qualities. The rest of this year and next year, you’ll see some huge strides.”

Brougham and his family moved to the H-E-B school district prior to this school year. He won the starting quarterback job and has steadily grown into the position.

What’s more, Brougham has learned how to respond to adversity. In his first varsity start, he threw three interceptions. Still, the Raiders came close to upsetting perennial toughie Coppell, falling 28-21 in two overtimes.

“I hadn’t played in a big-crowd environment. The crowd noise, I wasn’t used to it,” Brougham said. “But it made me a lot more ready for what was coming later. Despite losing to Coppell, that helped our confidence so much.”

That was followed by back-to-back wins over North Crowley (19-6) and Keller (26-14). Entering last weekend’s game against Lewisville Hebron, a 21-7 loss, Brougham was coming off his best performance of the season, despite falling 45-28 at Flower Mound Marcus the week prior.

“He was just mentally tough enough to say, ‘I didn’t play well,’ ” Glaze said of the Coppell game. “He’s got a completely different confidence level now. A lot of it is character, handling adversity, not giving up.

“Bill Parcells once said, ‘A good quarterback is a guy who, when there’s a play to be made, he makes it. When there’s not, he doesn’t make a bad one.’ ”

Brougham is becoming that kind of quarterback, Glaze said.

In the Marcus game, Brougham passed for 265 yards, got his first two varsity touchdowns and threw no interceptions. And, like the game against Coppell, Brougham said he gained confidence.

“The nerves have started to calm down. It’s coming together,” he said. “That first half against Marcus was some of the best football we’ve played together.”

However, despite leading 28-21 late in the half, the loss of two starting guards to injury and receiver Ricky Walton being hampered by an injury led to some second-half adjustments.

A highlight of that first half was a 92-yard pass from Brougham to Walton. It was one of two TDs on which the two connected.

“We came out and took a shot. It worked,” Brougham said of the play.

Brougham and Walton have developed a strong connection this season. Through the first four games, Walton had hauled in 20 of the quarterback’s 36 completions, including both touchdowns, for 362 yards.

“The athletic ability he has and us working together has been great,” Brougham said.

Brougham’s father played baseball at Arlington High. In college at Wentworth Military Academy, he opted to switch to football and play running back. Taking a cue, Austin did something similar and switched from wide receiver to quarterback his freshman season.

“We didn’t have the best junior high team, and I decided I wanted to win,” he said. “I figured the change would give me more control of making that happen.”

Brougham said the transition from Lamar to Bell was smooth. He said he already knew several of his new teammates from a program called Quarterback Ranch.

“I wanted to come in and build a bond and trigger a renewal of Bell football,” he said. “I believe that’s happening.”

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Bell QB has led turnarounds before."