The Bash is a showcase event matching up three teams from North Carolina against three teams from Tennessee. Obviously I'm going to spend most of my time focusing on Hickory and Hickory's opponent when writing about the Bash. However, there will be four other teams competing in Waynesville this Friday night. The other two North Carolina teams, the host Tuscola Mountaineers and their neighbors from Canton, the Pisgah Black Bears, both feature big, talented quarterbacks who will be playing on Saturdays in the not-too-distant future.The Black Bears, coached by David Pressley, are led by senior signal caller Tyler Jaynes (6'3 205).
Tyler Jaynes Jaynes, whose older brother Zack is a redshirt freshman quarterback at Western Carolina, had a terrific junior year in 2007, passing for 3,018 yards and 23 touchdowns enroute to a second-place finish in the Western Athletic Conference (4-1 and 10-4 overall). Jaynes attended camps at Chapel Hill, N.C. State and Vanderbilt this summer and is waiting for offers. A big senior season would go a long way towards earning a scholarship and a good showing at the Border Bash would be a nice way to start things off.
And then there's the other Tyler...
Expectations have risen significantly in Waynesville since the end of last season. Coming off a dismal 2-9 campaign in 2006 Tuscola brought in Donnie Keifer, formerly head coach at Gates Co. and East Carteret, to turn things around. Keifer, a Lenoir-Rhyne alumnus, was head coach at Hibriten in the mid-1990s (including 1996 when the Panthers were drubbed by the Tornadoes). Here he is being interviewed by what sounds like a student in August of 2007. Keifer is without a doubt one of the most innovative coaches in North Carolina's high school ranks. But even he might have been dismayed by the situation at Tuscola except for one thing: the Mountaineers had one heck of a young prospect in Tyler Brosius.
Brosius is a 6'3" 220-pound junior who didn't waste any time making a name for himself as a pro-style quarterback. His second varsity start for the Mountaineers was a season-ending, 13-10 upset of heavily-favored T.C. Roberson in 2006. That was the end of a freshman season spent mostly on the JV. At that moment hope returned to the Mountaineer faithful. Then along came Donnie Keifer.
Although it is not his style of football Keifer stayed with the spread offense of his predecessor for the 2007 season in order to best utilize the talents of his sophomore quarterback. The early results were positive. Tuscola began with a 29-26 road victory over East Henderson. Brosius threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers in that one. After a tough loss to Brevard the Mountaineers won the 44th Battle of Haywood County by beating rival Pisgah, 22-6. You know what they say about rivalries, how if you only win one game all year it had better be that one... Well the rest of the season didn't turn out the way Tuscola might have wanted it (2-4 in the Mountain Athletic Conference, 5-7 overall) but it was certainly an improvement.
The Mountaineers will not operate out of the spread formation this season and so there is a chance that the quarterback known as "T-Bro" will not have quite the numbers he had last season (1,769 yards, 20 TDs). But after a full year of work under the tutelage of Coach Keifer the entire team should be much more effective. Brosius himself had a very productive off-season. His intinerary included trips to Las Vegas for an Elite 11 tryout and also a trip to Gainesville to participate in the University of Florida's "Friday Night Lights" event where he and other top prospects worked out in front of coach Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Dan Mullen.
Tom Luginbill of Scout.com had this to say about Brosius:
"If Saturday was any indication of the caliber of quarterback in the 2010 class, it could be a special group. Tyler Brosius (Tuscola, N.C.) has great size, a thick build and really looked the part of a pocket passer with good arm strength and solid mechanics."Brosius also had the opportunity to stop off in Columbia to show what he can do to the Ol' Ball Coach himself, Steve Spurrier. Add to this the fact that former Tuscola quarterback Jonathan Crompton is the starter at Tennessee and you can imagine the level of interest that is already being generated among the powers of the SEC.
Tyler BrosiusMost recently, Brosius put on a clinic of his own when the Mountaineers hosted West Forsyth in a 7-on-7 scrimmage in July. Brosius surgically dissected and demoralized the West Forsyth pass defense for nine touchdown passes — and no interceptions. Those nine scoring strikes came from a variety of passes. Four were deep bombs, three were to wide open receivers and two TDs were difficult throws. Seniors Brody Medford and Dakota Brown caught three touchdowns apiece, sophomore Austin Chambers hauled in two and senior Sage Frady one.
Needless to say, the Mountaineers will be looking to conduct another Air Raid this Friday night at the Bash.
No comments:
Post a Comment