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JULIAN LEWIS is only 11 years old, but Nick Saban knows
who he is. As Julian’s dad, T.C., tells it, at Alabama’s youth
camp in June, the Crimson Tide coach took in the majestic
precision of the boy’s quarterbacking, sidled up beside him
and said, “I want you back. Every summer.”
Julian had been training for that moment since he was
eight, that tender age when most boys are preoccupied
with searching for boogers, not receivers downfield. That’s
when he started working with private QB coach Ron Veal
in hopes of one day attracting not just compliments, but
also scholarship offers. While the notion of elite instruc-
tors like Veal molding lab-grown QBs destined for big-time
programs is not new, here’s what is: Never before have so
many of their pupils been so ready so fast.
Example 1A is another Veal client, one who came under
his tutelage when he was 13. That would be Trevor Law-
rence, the star Clemson quarterback who last season be-
came the first true freshman since 1986 to lead his team
to a national championship.
And so, on a sizzling day in suburban Atlanta, under the
watchful eye of Veal, Julian is running a drill in which he
backpedals just over five yards and then, off his back foot,
slings the football across his body. T.C. calls it “the Trevor,”
named after what became the Clemson QB’s signature
move during his blazing rookie season.
All of Veal’s students must master the Trevor. It is a foot-
ball exercise designed to improve a quarterback’s instincts
against on-coming pressure. It is also a maneuver that
most quarterbacks, especially the 11-year-old kind, avoid:
throwing off your back foot and across your body. But
Veal, 51, teaches advanced studies, drilling his charges on
what to do in highly specific situations—like, for instance,
when protection breaks down. The upshot: He and other
coaches like him are giving young QB’s tools that their
predecessors simply did not have.
The impact is being felt at programs across the country.
Put simply, the NCAA has never seen so much talent at
quarterback all at once. Georgia’s Jake Fromm (page 5 4),
Oregon’s Justin Herbert, and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa are
all possible No. 1 overall draft picks in 2020 and on title
contenders. Texas’s Sam Ehlinger (page 50), Michigan’s Shea
Patterson and Nebraska’s Adrian Martinez are dark horse
Heisman candidates, leading tradition-rich programs with
playoff aspirations. Two high-profile transfers, Jalen Hurts
(from Alabama to Oklahoma) and Kelly Bryant (Clemson
to Missouri) are poised for monster seasons.
And then there’s the biggest star: the 19-year-old
Lawrence.
To some, his rise was an anomaly, a once-in-a-generation
event. But to others, the freshman’s success was a logical
conclusion. With his blond hair, sweeping smile and square
jaw, Lawrence is not only the face of the game, but also of a
youth movement at QB like we’ve never before seen. “The
evolution of our game continues to speed up,” says Mis-
souri coach Barry Odom. “The mental approach it takes to
play quarterback, they’re learning that earlier and earlier.”
O
UR LASTING image of the 2018–19 season
was of that tall, sinewy kid with the marvelous
golden locks hoisting the national title trophy
under a confetti shower at Levi’s Stadium in
Santa Clara. Lawrence shredded the Crimson Tide defense,
throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns, with no
interceptions. His breathtaking performance in Clemson’s
44–16 dismantling of No. 1 Alabama was a crescendo to a
years-long evolution.
This youth movement at quarterback didn’t suddenly
arrive on the scene with Lawrence. After all, in just the
last three seasons, four first-year quarterbacks—all true
freshmen like Lawrence—have played meaningful snaps
in a national championship game. There was Jalen Hurts
in 2016, and after that Fromm and Tagovailoa in ’17.
And last year, five rookie quarterbacks started a season
opener at the Power 5 level—more than in any season in
the previous decade. Overall, 12 true-freshman QBs started
at least one game among the 65 major college programs,
a fifth straight season in which that number hit double
digits. Those quarterbacks combined to start 88 games,
which is nearly twice the average of freshman starts from
2009 to ’13 (47.6).
College programs are setting records for their youth on
the field. At Alabama in 2016, Hurts was the first true-
freshman quarterback to start a game in three decades.
At Maryland, two true freshmen had started at QB in the
previous 120 years; then five rookies started at least one
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