All eyes focus on the quarterback

The play was called 80 Go, and Troy Griffith had run it countless times during Evans High School practices.

But on the first passing play of his career, Griffith surveyed the Greenbrier defense and didn't like what he saw. He barked an audible: 80 Stop, which called for four receivers to sprint five yards and stop, rather than streak down the field on vertical routes.

His receivers didn't hear the change, and Griffith was dumped for a sack. A week later, Griffith led the Knights 69 yards down the field in the final four minutes for a game-winning score.

The quarterback is the most glamorous and fickle position in team sports. Success, coaches say, typically depends on focus, intangibles and fundamentals.

A quarterback's throwing ability "is probably the least important part," said Matt LeZotte, a former Westside standout who played quarterback at James Madison University.

It can be difficult to watch a football game and relate to the players. Some are otherworldly large, and everyone is obscured under a mountain of gear. The one exception seems to be quarterback.

"Everyone plays that game in the backyard where it's the fourth quarter, you're counting down the final seconds and you make that throw to little brother to win the Super Bowl," said Skip Stitzell, a national quarterback coaching expert.

"It's a position where you're going to get all the attention."

Javon Brown, the starting quarterback at Strom Thurmond, in August became the first person not named Hillary to start for the Rebels since 2002. Since Brown was following star players -- Coco Hillary is a wideout at Appalachian State; Aramis Hillary is a quarterback at South Carolina -- everyone who walked into the stadium would be eager to assess his performance.

Coach Lee Sawyer pulled him aside during the summer, delivering a message he wanted Brown to understand. Don't try to be Coco or Aramis, Sawyer remembers telling him, just go out and be Javon.

"The people on the street will run their mouth, but you can't listen to them anyway," Sawyer said. "That's the approach I took, and I think he's handled it well."

Brown has led the Rebels to a 2-0 start entering tonight's game against North Augusta.

LeZotte, now an assistant coach at Aquinas, says a quarterback's best attribute is the ability to forget mistakes, advice given to him in high school by the quarterback he would succeed.

"I wonder if (former Westside quarterback) Nick Kearns remembers telling me that," LeZotte said. "The good players always forget. They continue to be a leader on the field even after mistakes."

Two year ago, Hephzibah coach John Bowen inserted a sophomore named Connell Reddick at quarterback midway through what was a largely forgettable 1-9 season. Bowen didn't know what to expect, but liked Reddick's leadership. He was already the team's hardest worker, Bowen said.

Heading into tonight's contest with Lincoln County, Hephzibah has won its past four games. Bowen calls Reddick "a self-made man" and believes he's a player others naturally follow.

"People can follow a bad leader, but you're not going to go where you want to go," he said.

While a team's success isn't a direct function of quarterback experience -- only nine of the 21 area Georgia and South Carolina public schools who made the playoffs last season did so with a returning quarterback -- it can be easy to attribute it to one person.

Richmond Academy's Mar-Quon Medlock was a running back on the junior varsity team last season. Coach Chris Hughes liked his awareness and knowledge of the game. He saw a quarterback.

To prepare Medlock for this season, Hughes said he placed the team in as many 7-on-7 summer passing leagues as he could. He estimated Medlock played 15 games this summer.

Two weeks ago, on the first play of the regular season, Medlock scrambled out of the pocket for a 37-yard gain. Richmond Academy entered the season with a 17-game losing streak, but is now 2-0.

"Not many people know when a defensive tackle shoots the wrong gap or a linebacker blitzes the wrong gap ... when a quarterback makes a mistake, everyone knows," LeZotte said. "The position is well-deserving of all the recognition that it gets."

Reach Matt Middleton at (706) 823-3425 or matt.middleton@augustachronicle.com.