University of Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray may be slightly biased on the subject, but he believes Plant High School in Tampa, Fla., is the greatest quarterback factory going.
"By far!" Murray said this past week. "Coach Robert Weiner is the best QB coach in the nation. He does a tremendous job in getting QBs ready to compete in high school and in college."
Murray signed with Georgia in 2009 as Rivals.com's No. 3 pro-style quarterback, and he threw for 3,049 yards and 24 touchdowns this past season as a redshirt freshman. He played at Plant after Robert Marve, the No. 8 pro-style quarterback in '07 who signed with Miami, started as a redshirt freshman and is now at Purdue.
The Plant pipeline is continuing this winter with Phillip Ely, who succeeded Murray and recently enrolled at Alabama.
"To have three quarterbacks back-to-back-to-back like that is really impressive, and they've collectively thrown for more yards than any three quarterbacks in the history of Florida high school football," ESPN recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg said. "Florida has not always been known for producing quarterbacks, but Robert Weiner has just done an unbelievable job."
Louisiana produced two quarterback factories fairly recently with Isadore Newman in New Orleans and Evangel Christian in Shreveport. The Isadore Newman pipeline actually was more of an Archie and Olivia Manning pipeline, with their son Peyton signing with Tennessee in 1994 and younger brother Eli going to Ole Miss in '99.
Evangel supplied Josh Booty, who played at LSU and was the All-SEC quarterback in 2000; Brock Berlin, who made starts for both Florida and Miami; and John David Booty, who started for Southern Cal in 2006-07 and holds the Rose Bowl career mark with seven touchdown passes.
Carroll Senior High in Southlake, Texas, produced Chase Daniel of Missouri and Greg McElroy of Alabama in succession, but there is no outdoing the ongoing run of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif. Headlining the Mater Dei list are Matt Leinart, who led Southern Cal to a national title and won the 2004 Heisman Trophy; Colt Brennan, who set the NCAA single-season efficiency mark in '06 and guided Hawaii to the Sugar Bowl in '07; and current Southern Cal starter Matt Barkley, the No. 1 quarterback in the '09 class.
The latest Mater Dei product, Max Wittek, is the No. 3 pro-style quarterback nationally and recently enrolled at Southern Cal.
Ely will try to uphold the Plant High tradition after completing 64.3 percent of his attempts for 2,731 yards and 26 touchdowns this past season and earning an invitation to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. He led Plant to a state title in 2009 and was forced to start most of his sophomore season when Murray broke his fibula.
"I really think the offense we ran last year is a perfect preparation for a guy going to Alabama," Weiner told RIvals.com. "In the past, we've been more of a spread attack, throwing it around 40 times a game, and that helped guys like Marve and Murray set all kinds of state records. Phillip was part of that early on, but we evolved into a more multifaceted offense because of some of the other talent we had.
"We ran some spread, some pro sets, and even some power-I, sometimes changing from down to down in the same drive. I think having the ability to change pace like that will be a big tool for Phillip at Alabama since that's really the way they seem to approach offense as well."
The 6-foot-1, 186-pound Ely is similar to Murray in size but is not as highly touted, ranking as the No. 20 pro-style quarterback. Murray, who said the two talked during Ely's recruitment, believes they have very similar styles.
Like Marve and Murray, Ely is expected to redshirt his first season, which will leave A.J. McCarron and Philip Sims battling it out for the starting role in Tuscaloosa.
"He's made a lot of strides in the two and a half years he's been playing quarterback," Newberg said. "He took over kind of like a deer in the headlights when Aaron Murray went down with an injury a couple of years ago and has really transformed himself into a very solid quarterback. He doesn't have great size and he doesn't have the greatest arm, but he's smart and has good fundamentals.
"He's walking into a good situation, because he's not going to be asked to rescue the program as a true freshman."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.