TALENT
RICH
COBB, CHEROKEE CONTINUES
TO CHURN OUT DIVISION I
QUARTERBACKS
8 KICKOFF 2021
By Christian Knox
MDJ Sports Writer
Five current Cobb and Cherokee
quarterbacks are seemingly
locks to play Division I
ball following standout careers in
pass-happy high school offenses.
Cherokee’s A.J. Swann, who is
committed to Maryland, McEachern’s
Bryce Archie (Coastal Carolina),
Walton’s Zak Rozsman (Appalachian
State) and Marietta’s
Tyler Hughes (Southern) have
all committed, and four-star junior
Malachi Singleton of North
Cobb currently has seven Power
5 offers, and will likely be able to
choose where he wants to go to
school before his recruiting cycle
is over. If those five sign in the
near future, they would join more
than a dozen other quarterbacks
from the area currently on Division
I rosters.
After a decade on the rise, local
quarterback talent has reached new
heights. Former Harrison quarterback
Justin Fields has raised
the ceiling for local quarterbacks.
Fields, who took Ohio State to
the 2021 national championship
game while throwing for 2,100
yards and 22 touchdowns in eight
games, was selected as the Chicago
Bears’ quarterback of the future
with the 11th overall pick in this
year’s NFL Draft.
Cobb and Cherokee have long
been a popular area for college
coaches on the recruiting trail,
but the widespread implementation
of spread offensive systems
over the last decade-plus has given
local quarterbacks even more
of the spotlight.
Lassiter was one of the first schools
in the Atlanta area to adapt the
spread system, which former Trojan
quarterback Hutson Mason
said was much more fun to run
than the triple-option system he
began his high school career playing
in. Mason, who now hosts a
daily show on 680 the Fan, and
is a color commentator for ESPN
college football games, broke the
high school single-season passing
yardage and touchdown records in
2009 by throwing for 4,560 yards
and 54 touchdowns while playing
in the spread as a senior.
“It was like it was basketball on
turf. I mean, what quarterback
doesn’t want to throw the ball
and throw it a lot and put up big
numbers, and you’re winning at
the same time?” said Mason, who
was Georgia’s starting quarterback
in 2014 and threw for 3,492 yards
and 29 touchdowns during his college
career. “We were running the
spread offense, and we were one
of very few. I remember nobody
around metro Atlanta was really
running it, maybe a few others,
but when we were running it we
were having a lot of success, so
much success that other coaches
from across the southeast, across
the state, were coming to watch us
practice and coming to our games
and hanging out with our coaches
and watching film trying to figure
out if they could implement it at
their school. Now everybody runs
See RICH, Page 10
Special - File
Cherokee’s A.J. Swann, left, and McEachern’s Bryce Archie are two of the
next wave of area quarterbacks to head to Division I programs. Swann has
committed to Maryland, while Archie is headed to Coastal Carolina.