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“Guys like Jake Fromm, Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor,
this is going to be a trend you’re going to continue see-
ing,” says Danny Hernandez, an independent quarter-
back coach based in Los Angeles who counts among his
clients the top-ranked dual-threat QB in the 2020 class,
Bryce Young, and the No. 1–ranked pro-style ’20 QB, DJ
Uiagalelei. “I work with kids 10- or 11-years-old, and they
get it. These are going to be the faces of college football
in a few years.”
Experts in college football attribute the youth movement
to a wide variety of factors, none greater than the early
specialization of young athletes—especially quarterbacks.
Football parents are pumping money into developing their
QB kids the way golf and tennis parents have for years,
creating a year-round endeavor highlighted by the seven-
on-seven circuit and one-on-one training.
T.C. Lewis, the father of Julian, says he identified his son’s
talents early and is following a script. “I don’t want to give
away secrets,” he says, “but there is a blueprint. If a kid
shows a certain skill set, there are steps parents can take.”
Here’s one of his secrets: Hire a personal coach. Trevor
Lawrence’s father, Jeremy, began taking his son to college
camps around age eight and sent him to Veal about five
years later. “He was always really good from the waist up,”
Jeremy says, “and Ron worked with him on
using his legs and footwork.”
Among his peers, Veal is unique: He has
no Twitter account, no Instagram, not even a
website. Two private QB coaches interviewed
for this article didn’t even know he trains
Lawrence. Another longtime client is Justin
Fields, the Georgia signee who transferred
to Ohio State this offseason, but that’s not
well-known either.
“He’s done a lot of good things for me,” Lawrence con-
firms, “but the best thing he’s done is he’s never tried to use
me for anything and he’s never wanted anything from me.”
U
NLIKE VEAL, most private quarterback
coaches aggressively market themselves and
their clients through social media. George
Whitfield, likely the most famous of them,
was featured in an ESPN College GameDay segment in
2013 and was later hired by the network as an analyst. His
rise has paralleled that of the field.
Some estimate the private QB coaching business has
doubled in size in just the last five to eight years, but there
is no way of knowing exactly. The industry has become
something of a Wild West, says Whitfield, whose high-
profile clients have included Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel
and Andrew Luck. “You can walk out, make an Instagram
account, get yourself a logo and say, ‘I’m coaching quarter-
backs! Welcome to Bar-B-Q Academy!’ ” he says.
When Whitfield began training quarterbacks in 2006,
the only widely trumpeted QB coach was Steve Clarkson,
a Los Angeles–based trainer who began a quarterback
THE LIKABILITY OF THOSE IN THE
PRIVATE-QUARTERBACK-COACH
INDUSTRY IS “50-50,” VEAL SAYS.
“SOME PEOPLE LIKE US AND SOME
PEOPLE HATE OUR GUTS.”
COU
RTESY O
F JO
SIE VEAL (COACH
ING); GREG N
ELSO
N
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PREVIEW
QB YOUTH MOVEMENT
