They, too, shall pass

The poster child for high school football in Middle Georgia in 2016 is a quarterback.

Jake Fromm has been on the radars of college programs for a few years, and he enters his senior season at Houston County with some all-time state records within his reach.

Fromm, who initially committed to Alabama before switching to Georgia, is a notch better than his Middle Georgia counterparts, but there are many other quarterbacks in the area this season getting a fair amount of attention while making names for themselves.

The Georgia High School Football Historians Association website lists the state statistical records.

For passing yards, the list starts at 5,000 yards, and there are many quarterbacks from the general Middle Georgia area included: Wilcox County’s Nick Marshall (8,043 yards), Dooly County’s Brent Owens (7,147), Fitzgerald’s Kaleb Nobles (5,615), Hawkinsville’s Todd Coley (5,497) and Peach County’s A.J. Bryant (5,192).

The website is going to have to add Fromm (8,835, which is currently fourth), Jones County’s Bradley Hunnicutt and Macon County’s K’Hari Lane after this season. And next in line to pass that 5,000-yard mark appears to be junior Gunnar Watson of Taylor County, with Southwest sophomore Jordan Slocum certainly putting himself on the radar, as has Baldwin sophomore Torez Hicks. Senior Savion Knowlton of Westside will try to crack 4,000 yards in two seasons as a starter.

It’s also a good time to catch passes in Middle Georgia. Fromm again will have a strong selection of wide receivers to choose from, as will Lane. Nick Singleton at Jones County will get even more action this season.

Fromm has been groomed at the position for a few years, and his career accomplishments have been more than well-documented, but Hunnicutt is a quarterback who has emerged as a surprise, taking to the passing spread offense of Justin Rogers when Rogers took over in 2014 and changed the offense from a wing-T.

In two seasons as a starter, Hunnicutt has passed Georgia legend David Greene on the state’s all-time list and is 39 yards from topping Mike Bobo and 67 yards from Bryant. If Hunnicutt has an average season, he’ll be around 7,700 yards, and, depending on other seniors in the state, in the top 20 all-time. Fromm and Hunnicutt played in Class 5A last year, but Fromm and Houston County are now up a classification with Hunnicutt and the Greyhounds still in 5A.

Worth noting is that the top 10 quarterbacks in Georgia history in passing yardage, half are from big schools, Class 6A and 5A before the reclassification that takes effect this season.

That makes it almost impossible to dismiss the accomplishments and/or potential of Lane, Knowlton, Slocum, Watson, Trevor Evans of John Milledge and Miles Morris of Tattnall Square. All are from Class 3A programs or smaller, with Evans the lone GISA representative.

Based on information provided by area schools, a double-digit number of returning quarterbacks passed for at least 1,000 yards last year, with a few surprises under difficult circumstances.

Hicks was a freshman who had to take over after rising senior starter Felix Jones suffered an injury in the spring. The Braves lost some offensive firepower to graduation, but Hicks still completed 56.8 percent of his passes.

Morris took snaps in nine games for Tattnall Square, which lost six straight last season after opening the season with three wins. He still passed for 1,124 yards for a team that failed to score 21 points in seven games. But a pair of two-point losses late in the season doomed the Trojans’ slim postseason hopes.

A new wing-T offense under first-year head coach Chance Jones is likely to change Morris’ numbers, but Jones said Morris is doing a superb job of grasping the new scheme, which might lead to more passing than normal in the run-oriented offense.

In 2015 when Bibb County quarterbacks — like then-seniors Courviosier King of Howard and Derrick Evans of Central — made all sorts of noise, Slocum was able to break through and get a fair amount of attention.

First, there’s his size: he’s 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. And as a freshman for a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2008, he managed a positive touchdown-to-interception ratio and 1,423 passing yards, on a 45.5 completion percentage.

“As a freshman, you’re going to make mistakes,” said Central head coach Jesse Hicks, who also faced Knowlton last year and will see both Slocum and Knowlton again this season. “But I’m going to be honest with you, he’s got all the intangibles, everything that a college coach and football team is looking for.

“He’s got that Cam Newton type of look to him. He’s gonna be one of those kids that’ll probably be one of the most recruited kids out of Macon in a while.”

Watson and then-new head coach Mark Wilson lost four games by a total of 26 points, and the Vikings were 25th in the final GHSA Class 1A public school power rankings, nine spots from the final playoff position. That was an improvement of four spots.

Watson, a junior, increased his yardage and touchdowns, improved his completion percentage and again threw minimal interceptions.

“I need to get better at reading coverages,” he said. “I need to get faster. I’ve been working on that. I’ve been in the weight room.”

He has offers from Mercer, Troy and Austin Peay and said Indiana is interested, and attention will only increase, thanks in part to the recruiting of teammate Lyn-J Dixon, a running back.

“The older they get, the better they get at reading coverages,” Wilson said. “Last year, he may have held the ball a little bit longer. This year, he’ll get it out.

“We think a lot more will offer him.”

Watson, also a standout Taylor County baseball player who was a first-team All-Middle Georgia pick last spring, remains humble, as per a recent Tweet:

“So weird to realize how many D1 players im (sic) friends with.”

Soon enough, he could be one, as well.

Lane would be getting all sorts of attention in the area and state, if his timing was better. After all, the 6-2, 220-pounder passed for nearly 3,200 yards last season. Thus, he’s a two-time All-Middle Georgia third-team pick, trailing Fromm and Hunnicutt the past two years. Jesse Hicks called him the best quarterback in Middle Georgia not named Fromm.

Lane pays little attention to that or recruiting hype. Improving and winning are the focal points.

“My footwork; ninth-grade year, it wasn’t where it needed to be at,” said Lane, who likes watching quarterbacks Deshaun Watson of Clemson and Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay. “As each year has progressed, I’ve improved on that.

“Mostly, I want to win a state championship.”

Thanks to Lane and a corps of quality receivers, Macon County is a team with a target on its back. Head coach Dexter Copeland is happy that it’s Lane leading the way.

“Tremendous arm strength, great vision in and out of the pocket,” Copeland said. “He can make any throw you want. He’s that guy can throw (from) the hash, throw to the other hash on the out route; he can throw the deep ball.

“He is a quarterback. All he can play is quarterback. He’s made for that.”

Of course, there’s a quarterback on this list who won’t set any passing or rushing records at his program, let alone make it anywhere on a statewide statistical list.

But Tobias Oliver of Northside is the only one of this quarterback class with a high school football championship ring. In fact, he’s the only quarterback on the list to reach the championship game.

Oliver competed at quarterback in the preseason of his sophomore year but appearared likely to see the field at receiver. Then starter Jurmon Weaver came down with appendicitis the week of the opener. Oliver got the job.

And he’s 23-3 with a state title, leading the Eagles to the championship as a sophomore.

“Depending on the offense, numbers can be extremely deceiving,” Northside head coach Kevin Kinsler said. “In my opinion, especially when you’re talking about a quarterback, there’s only one number that you have to look at, and that’s wins.

“I know a lot of people like the completions and the yardage and the touchdowns and all that kind of stuff, but the number that means the most to me (for) the guy that plays quarterback for you is whether you win or not. I don’t think there’s any question that Tobias is a winner.”

The circle has come around for Oliver a little bit.

By all accounts, his college future is as a wide receiver, although he is still getting some attention at quarterback. And Kinsler thinks that might increase this year. But look for Oliver to line up wide fairly regularly this season, with the Eagles putting Marcus Jolly and Jaden Daniels at quarterback. Since the Eagles mostly line up in the shotgun, Oliver can still line up wide but go to quarterback. Or fake like he is.

“There are a lot of intangibles there,” Kinsler said. “The type of offense that we run isn’t necessarily geared toward certain quarterback numbers looking good. But he’s obviously been a very steady performer for us.”

Many of these notable quarterbacks do more than just take snaps.

Fromm helped Houston County to a pair of Class 5A baseball titles in the past three years, going out in style in May in his baseball career finale with the second championship. The senior will graduate early and enroll in college early, so the Bears have to replace him in baseball a year earlier than in football.

Hunnicutt has been a huge part of Jones County’s baseball team, helping the Greyhounds to the Class 5A semifinals in 2015. And the same goes for Upson-Lee’s Puckett, Taylor County’s Watson and John Milledge’s Evans with their respective programs.

And Oliver has been a multi-year starter for Northside’s boys basketball team, while Slocum came up big for Southwest’s playoff basketball team.

Between watching film last season and attending a variety of camps the past two summers, Jesse Hicks has gotten a look at most of these quarterbacks.

“People are always talking (disparagingly) about Macon and this area of football,” he said. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I feel the Middle Georgia area, especially the Macon area, is so overlooked.

“There are some players in this area.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 4:06 PM with the headline "They, too, shall pass."