Hogan Whitmire, Jon Patton, Will Queen, Alex McGhee and Reese Phillips miss the late NFL games every Sunday.
Continuing a practice that began before summer passing leagues, the Signal Mountain quarterback and receivers are out throwing and catching before Sunday supper. The exercise continued this past Sunday as they got an early jump on preparations for Friday’s Class 2A state semifinal game at home against Boyd-Buchanan.
“I usually get a little scouting report of what we’re going to do that next week from Coach [Kevin] Thomas, and we meet about 5 and go through all the routes,” said Whitmire, who has thrown for 2,205 yards and 26 touchdowns with just three interceptions in the Eagles’ 12-0 run.
While that extra work has paid dividends for the Mr. Football finalist and Signal Mountain, Whitmire says much of the credit for his success goes to those receivers.
“They make me look good,” he said. “I’m 100 percent confident that I can put it up there and they’re going to go get it.”
Whitmire showed his versatility last week in the state quarterfinals. When top-ranked Trousdale County dropped seven defenders into coverage, the senior tucked the ball and ran – 11 times for 97 yards.
“He’s a great quarterback and he would succeed because he can run, but his passing ability doesn’t do him or the team any good without guys that can catch it,” Eagles coach Bill Price said. “Hogan is blessed with guys that can catch. They’re all good and they’re committed – big kids who run good routes, have some speed about them and block well on the perimeter.”
Trousdale coach Kevin Creasy, whose season ended at 11-1, told Price that the speed was what caught the Yellow Jackets off guard.
“He said they knew [the receivers] were big but that [Trousdale coaches] didn’t realize how fast they were,” Price said.
“We’re large, and having large targets probably helps Hogan, but as a group we have gotten better,” said Phillips, a sophomore. “It helps being large, but we also are fairly fast and we have learned to run crisper routes.”
Patton, the statistical leader with 35 catches for 751 yards and 14 TDs, agreed that size has made a difference.
“We’re big. We don’t have a receiver [less than] 6 feet,” he said. “We’re probably not the fastest receivers around, but we have decent speed.”
McGhee is 6-foot 5 while Patton and Phillips, who plays tight end, are 6-4 and Queen is 6-1. It is a luxury that likely belongs to only one Class 2A school. Price, though, was quick to point out that each had paid a price for the team’s success.
“They have worked hard. Over the last two years they have learned to run routes really well, and they’ve learned to come back to the ball,” he said. “They have improved dramatically over the last two years, and Reese’s emergence at tight end allowed us to move Jon outside.”
Price predicted that Patton will be an NCAA Division I prospect.
“It’s just form letters right now because he’s a junior, but he’s getting them from a lot of the big schools – Georgia, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Tennessee – because while they like the 4.4 [40-yard] burners they also want that 6-3 or 6-4, 225-pound guy that can play that inside receiver,” Price said.
Opponents make little distinction among the quartet, and that suits them.
“I don’t know that there’s a leader. I think we’re a group,” said McGhee, who moved to Signal Mountain from Indiana last January.
Yet they’re quick to note that Whitmire is a big part of their success.
“Hogan is great and he definitely gives us a lot of chances,” said Queen, the team’s second-leading receiver with 22 catches for 571 yards.
“Hogan puts [the ball] where it needs to be, but he’s our quarterback so we have to make him look good,” Patton said with a sly smile.
While McGhee graduates, Patton and Queen will be back next season to resume catching passes. Phillips, though, is a different story. The sophomore logs more minutes than any other Signal player, but his time will be limited next year as he steps in to succeed Whitmire.
“Next year we’ll still have the big, fast targets, and it will make my job easier too,” he said.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.