Sequatchie County quarterback Ethan Barker (14) keeps the ball on this play. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish visited the Sequatchie County Indians in the second round of the TSSAA football playoffs on November 11, 2016.DUNLAP, Tenn. - Ethan Barker is overlooked and often overshadowed. At one time his anonymity ranked close to that of his Sequatchie County High School offensive line teammates.
It is the subtle things the junior quarterback does, the things that folks in the stands often overlook, rather than the touchdown runs he makes or the TD passes he throws, that draw appreciation from those with him on the practice field or between the lines on Friday nights.
"He's a kid that lives to make plays, and that has been a huge weapon for us," said Sequatchie County coach Adam Caine, whose Indians host Alcoa in a Class 3A semifinal tonight. "He's fearless trying to make a play. If he's under duress when we're throwing the football, he isn't going to take a sack or throw the ball in the stands - 'I'm trying to make a play regardless of the circumstances' - and he'll sidestep a rusher and buy extra time on a touchdown pass. You can't teach that."
Barker is an unconventional dual-threat type of quarterback. His passing skills are rarely displayed and his running skills are of the brutish variety but with purpose rather than the proverbial bull in a china shop.
He has thrown for 844 yards, and while his completion rate is 54 percent he has nine touchdown tosses for an offense whose meat-and-potatoes, compete with the bread-and-butter, is without question the clock-eating run game. In 87 passes he has thrown only one interception.
Even in a backfield with the punishing Hunter Davenport and Austin Stevens, the team's leading rusher who often squeezes through even the hint of an opening, Barker has been another serious running threat. He averages 6.26 yards per carry, better by a scant few tenths than his backfield mates, while gaining 851 yards.
"He has some quickness and it's obvious he's a powerful kid," Caine said. "He does a good job of using those two things, and, to be honest, he's a good runner that sees the holes and uses his blocks."
Much of it is honed instinct for Barker, a youth-league quarterback who moved to running back and who didn't return to the quarterback spot until his freshman year.
Run or pass, he doesn't care, especially if the job gets done.
"If a receiver is open I will get them the ball. If not, I'll run it. But I'm just one of 11 out there, and nobody is going to get it done by himself," he said. "All of those guys are my buddies. Most of us have grown up together."
Even this past week, 13 wins into the season as part of something special - he called it the biggest thing to happen at Sequatchie County High School - Barker went through practices as if his very life and the lives of his family depended on his effort.
He already had replayed a costly fumble early in the game last week, a 21-14 overtime victory against East Ridge, and pressed himself to overcome that mistake and others he felt he had made.
"That first half last week, I'd like to forget it - so many mistakes. But I think about what I have done before practice and I make myself work harder to get better," he said. "You try harder. You try to eliminate the things that caused you to make a mistake."
Caine knows Barker was the difference in the 56-28 win over Notre Dame in the round of 16, saying at the time that the quarterback put the team on his back in that game's second half. And Barker threw a TD pass and ran for two more scores last week.
"If he senses that he has to be the guy, then he's going to take the game over. Again, that isn't something that you teach," the coach said.
"Other than us getting bigger and stronger in the offseason in year two of me being with the program, I think he's been the biggest difference (from 2015)," Caine added. "The kids that played last year and Davenport and Cates and all the linemen have been superb, but Ethan's development has been a big difference. He's been a huge part of our success.
"He has set the bar for Sequatchie County quarterbacks. He's a perfect fit for what we try to do here."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.