Want to play quarterback for perennial Georgia state power Calhoun?
A hypothetical want ad for the position might read: "Candidate must be intelligent, a natural leader and a hard worker who is adept at film study. He must possess a strong, accurate arm and be athletic enough to run the ball 12 to 15 times a game."
In today's spread-offense takeover, prep football teams no longer can just stick their best athlete behind center and turn him loose. At Calhoun, the move to the spread elevated the program from good to great and helped produce two state titles and four runner-up finishes.
The one constant on those teams: a quarterback who could do it all with his arm, legs and brain.
Kaelan Riley has continued the mold of Calhoun spread-offense quarterbacks who can run, pass and read defenses."Being able to read defenses, to me, separates the good ones from the great ones - knowing what they're in, what they need to do, where they need to go with the ball," Calhoun coach Hal Lamb said. "You're not going to be successful if your quarterback can't do all those things in the spread."
It's worked so well that, beginning with the switch from wing-T to the spread in 2007, the Yellow Jackets have had six quarterbacks - Tre Lamb, Michael Johnson, Nash Nance, Taylor Lamb (twice) and Kaelan Riley - earn first-team all-state honors.
Calhoun's quarterbacks are groomed at an early age. Lamb and his staff work with the youngsters in the school system in an effort to have them as prepared as possible for the big stage. The early start has paid huge dividends.
"We try to identify them in the seventh and eighth grade and try to get one or two in each class," Lamb said. "At that age, character is the No. 1 thing. Obviously, they have to be able to throw it and be a good athlete, but the perfect candidate is also willing to learn."
David Gann is doing the same thing at North Murray, though the fourth-year coach is still in the building phase. As it is, he's already had two quarterbacks in Payton Swilling and Hinton McConkey put up nearly 3,000 total yards a season. Like Lamb, he wants a young man who can do it all.
"Like most spread teams that are good at it, when you have a dual-threat guy it's hard to defend it," Gann said. "When you make a defense spread you out, the quarterback can be like a tailback. If they can defend the pass with seven or eight guys, you won't be as effective."
His Mountaineers likely will have a freshman leading them next year. McConkey's little brother, Lad, is the middle school quarterback and has trained with the prep varsity enough to be comfortable in the system already.
The experience is important because, as Heritage coach and spread proponent E.K. Slaughter says, this isn't your brother's spread offense.
"The spread option has exploded in really the last three years," he said. "A quarterback isn't just reading that defensive end any more. We can read any single player in an eight-man box, and that's a lot to put on one person, but that's what you have to be able to do in today's game."
If it were easy, as the saying goes, anybody could do it.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow at Twitter @youngsports22