Jackson GuyHonorable mention
› Traneil Moore, East Ridge: He had just 17 carries but totaled 211 yards while scoring five touchdowns.› Cooper Hodge, Boyd-Buchanan: The quarterback/linebacker passed for 60 yards, rushed for 84, intercepted a pass and recorded 7.5 tackles while also dropping four punts inside the 20.› Eric George, North Sand Mountain: He rushed for 152 yards (11.7 per carry), scored three touchdowns and converted four of five extra-point attempts.Coaches and/or statisticians are invited to nominate players by emailing Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com by 2 p.m. each Saturday.
There was little room for regret from McMinn Central’s 66-35 victory Friday. If there was disappointment, it would be only that the Chargers’ scoring outburst – their most points in a game since at least 1975 – was at Loudon rather than home in Englewood.
The McMinn Central fans who made the trip up Highway 411 reveled in the performance led by senior quarterback Jackson Guy. Chargers coach Josh Goodin said Guy’s game “was one of the most impressive since I’ve been at Central.”
That covers a lot of players in more than a half-dozen years, but how many high school football players – much less at McMinn Central alone – have accounted for seven touchdowns in a single game?
For his performance, the Times Free Press sports staff has selected Guy as the Waffle House All-Star player of the week. He completed 9 of 14 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns, and he also had 152 yards on 14 carries, four of them touchdowns.
And, Goodin noted, his star quarterback wasn’t even tuckered out after the Region 2-3A victory.
“He didn’t seem to be. He was still pretty high about that effort,” the coach said. “Winning that game, a region game, was pretty big for us.”
The Chargers run a shotgun set and spread the field but leave the quarterback with option reads in both running and passing calls.
“Steven Stone, our offensive coordinator, put him in some good spots in the passing game,” Goodin said, “and in the running game Jackson was making some really good reads.”
As one might expect from a third-year starter, Guy has earned much on-field responsibility.
“Absolutely,” Goodin said. “I would say at least 75 percent of our plays directly go through him – beyond taking the snap. On the run game, he has been making great decisions on handing the ball off or keeping it. He has made his reads on passes, and while his receivers ran good routes, he’s making good throws – putting the ball where it needs to be.”
The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder actually gave the coaching staff some free time.
“We weren’t bogged down as a coaching staff because he was so solid,” Goodin said. “He allowed us to expand the playbook.”
A recruiter from Carson-Newman was at the game, and he probably filled his notebook.
“I don’t know if he was there specifically to see Jackson, but there are a lot of Division II schools looking at him,” Goodin said. “He was on the quarterback camp circuit all summer. I don’t remember all of them, but I think he was at Furman, Austin Peay, Vanderbilt, Chattanooga and East Tennessee. It seemed like every weekend this summer he was gone somewhere.”
While Guy appears to have the necessary speed, arm strength and grades for college, Goodin feels his quarterback’s best attribute is his decision-making.
“Everybody has bad moments, but he has made some really good decisions,” Goodin said. “He has known when to hand off and he has been able to buy some time on passes, but he knows when to pull it down and run it.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.