For Browns Passer, Comeback Trail Leads Back Home CLEVELAND - The coach's phone rang at St. Ignatius High School, a longtime football powerhouse here. The voice on the other end was a familiar one. "Coach, do you mind if I come to practice and throw the football around with your players?" the coach, Chuck Kyle, remembers the caller asking. It was September 2012, the start of football season. But for the caller, Brian Hoyer, the season had just ended. The New England Patriots had cut him. With nowhere else to go, Hoyer, who had starred at quarterback for St. Ignatius 10 years earlier, returned to his roots and a quiet high school football field nestled in an urban neighborhood just a mile or two from the Cleveland Browns" FirstEnergy Stadium. Out of the limelight, out of the N.F.L., Hoyer patiently threw pass after pass to a bunch of eager teenagers and waited for a call inviting him back to the pros. "It was kind of surreal," St. Ignatius receiver Jake Helton said of hauling in passes from Hoyer, who showed up wearing Patriots gear. Kyle chuckled at the memory. "When I reflect back a year ago, it's really amazing," he said. Hoyer is now the starting quarterback for the Browns, after short stints late last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. An unassuming but confident drop-back passer, Hoyer provided a much-needed spark to an 0-2 Browns team that lost its starting quarterback, Brandon Weeden, to injury and traded its starting running back, the former first-round draft pick Trent Richardson, in the same week last month. In his two starts, Hoyer has thrown for 590 yards and 5 touchdowns and led the Browns to back-to-back victories. He is the first quarterback to win his first two starts with Cleveland since Mark Rypien in 1994. Even though Weeden, a Browns first-round draft pick last year, is considered healthy enough to return from a sprained thumb, Hoyer will start against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night. "For me, it's just another opportunity to help this team win," Hoyer said this week. That Hoyer, who was signed by the Browns in May and was later designated their third-string quarterback, is now the team's offensive leader is no surprise to several of his former teammates, from high school to the pros. Tom Brady, whom Hoyer backed up for three seasons with New England, has publicly praised Hoyer and his talent. "He has everything it takes physically and mentally to play the position," Brady recently told Cleveland.com. John Grech, who was Hoyer's backup in high school, saw the seeds for success years ago. "He always had that "it" factor, in terms of being the leader," Grech said. Being able to rally guys around him - he had that presence about him. Grech said he remembered one game in particular during their junior season in which Hoyer lifted his team from a late 21-3 deficit against the perennial Ohio powerhouse Massillon Washington. "I just remember the overwhelming feeling on the sideline was that we're going to lose this game," Grech said. And Brian stepped in and changed that. Browns cornerback Joe Haden caught a glimpse of Hoyer's confidence during the Browns" 17-6 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Haden said that with the Browns leading, 7-3, in the third quarter, Hoyer approached him on the sideline and told him that if the defense held, the offense would score again to secure the victory. "It made me have a newfound respect for him," Haden said. Hoyer, a Michigan State product, has been earning respect from his Browns teammates and admiration from fans since he led a game-winning, 11-play drive at Minnesota on Sept. That he was born and raised in Cleveland makes his early success especially sweet for him and Browns fans. Hoyer said he recalled watching Browns games as a child at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium with his father. He also remembered being scared as fans ripped seats out of the stadium in 1995, when he was 10, at the team's last game before Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore. Hoyer said his cellphone had been ringing and buzzing incessantly with calls, text messages and e-mails from well-wishers. "My battery dies a lot quicker because it's getting so much use," he said with a laugh. Beyond that, Hoyer said, he was trying not to get caught up in all the attention. His wife, Lauren, his high school sweetheart, is pregnant with their second child and is due at the end of October. They have a 17-month-old son, Garrett. Hoyer said his days consisted of going from his home to practice and back home again. "I really try to stay in a bubble," he said. As a quarterback who was out of a job a year ago, he knows how quickly that bubble can burst.