Two senior quarterbacks will be dressing up as Division I
prospects tonight for Halloween, and they won’t be wearing
costumes.
Gilroy’s Jamie Jensen and Palma’s David Fales are legitimate
next-level players. The latter has already given a verbal
commitment to the University of Nevada-Reno, while the former has
yet to receive any offers. The two run completely different
offenses, but that hasn’t limited the output of either.
Two senior quarterbacks will be dressing up as Division I prospects tonight for Halloween, and they won’t be wearing costumes.
Gilroy’s Jamie Jensen and Palma’s David Fales are legitimate next-level players. The latter has already given a verbal commitment to the University of Nevada-Reno, while the former has yet to receive any offers. The two run completely different offenses, but that hasn’t limited the output of either.
Jensen, working out of a spread, shotgun attack, has thrown for 1,788 yards and 20 touchdowns while leading the Mustangs to a 7-0 record. He is coming off a record-setting year in which he passed for 4,323 yards and 41 touchdowns, the first of which established a new gold standard for Northern California high school football.
Fales, operating mainly under center in a single-back, three-receiver set, has led Palma to a 6-1 mark with 1,304 yards passing to go along with 13 touchdowns and just one interception. His efficiency is highlighted by the fact that he has completed 74 percent of throws.
Both will be slinging passes in what many are expecting to be a slugfest that decides the Tri-County Athletic League champion. Gilroy and Palma are both perfect in three league games.
Quarterback guru Peter Goodson, the man who knows the most about each player’s ability after serving as a private instructor to the pair the last two years, thinks the matchup could provide one of the most prolific passing duels the Central Coast Section has ever seen.
“If [Palma lets] David loose, we’re going to have a shootout,” he said. “It’ll be in the 50s or the 60s (for both teams).”
Goodson should know; he’s seen each throw more than 25,000 passes over the last year while refining their technique throughout. Running an exclusive academy known as Central Coast Quarterback Elite 8, which handpicks passers around the area with the talent to play at the Division I level, Goodson has spent the last two offseasons molding both into premier players by stressing footwork, using core muscle groups to throw rather than just the arm, and accuracy, above all else.
“We want them to be able to hit a quarter from 35 yards,” Goodson said.
Make a zero with your thumb and index finger and you’ll know how high such demands are for pinpoint placement. Such demands are to be expected from a quarterback coach that learned his trade under Bill Walsh at Stanford, and went on to coach at Seaside, Palma and Hartnell College.
Goodson isn’t the only one who thinks the two quarterbacks might steal the show, though.
“I could see [a shootout] happening,” Palma coach Jeff Carnazzo said. “I mean, I hope it doesn’t happen. I don’t know if I want to get into a toe-to-toe shootout. I think anyone (playing Gilroy) would prefer that.”
Gilroy’s first, second and sometimes third option is to pass, but Palma prefers to run between the tackles to open up passing lanes on play-action. With Chieftains running back Justin Olivarria (756 yards, 9 touchdowns) being knocked out of last week’s game against North Salinas and a question mark for tonight’s contest, that might not be an option.
The college scouts in attendance certainly would have no qualms with such a scenario.
Fales has yet to sign on the dotted line with UNR, and the game could serve to only enhance his profile. For Jensen, the game will be yet another opportunity to showcase himself as a D-I caliber player. Carnazzo thinks that assessment is long overdue.
“They’re both Division I quarterbacks,” he said. “Why Jamie hasn’t gotten the attention he deserves, I’ll never know.”
Goodson traces it back to raw mechanics that were evident even at the end of last season.
“This offense carried him and his ball would float on him sometimes,” he said. “And 20 interceptions is not the number you want. Now, he’s able to get his full body into it.
“As people are seeing him (again), the interest is reviving. I have no doubt that he’ll have more than one, possibly five offers by the time the fall is over.”
While the animosity between the schools will be obvious from the opening kickoff, Goodson doesn’t think it will trickle down to the two signal-callers.
“What’s really interesting is the two are really close friends,” he said, adding that during the season he and the two quarterbacks break down film together each Sunday. “There won’t be anyone rooting more for David Fales than Jamie Jensen, and there won’t be anyone rooting for Jamie Jensen more than David Fales.
“The rest of the 10 players, you got a problem.”
Missing a game of this magnitude would be a problem.
Watching a pair of quarterbacks as talented as these two on Halloween, though, will be a treat.
