He's a tall, left-handed quarterback from a Utah County high school who led the state in passing as a junior and also excels at baseball and basketball.
We must be talking about Scott Mitchell, Springville High, circa 1985, right?Actually we're talking about Jamon Taylor, Payson High, 1993.
Taylor is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound left-handed quarterback who is bringing back memories of Mitchell, who terrorized high school opponents in the mid-1980s before going on to star at the University of Utah and get drafted by the Miami Dolphins.
As far as his own memory goes, Taylor has vague ones from from his junior high days of Mitchell playing for Utah, but he never looked up to Mitchell as a hero or anything like that.
Because back in junior high school, Taylor wasn't even playing quarterback. The rules in his little league forbid anyone over 120 pounds from running the ball. So Taylor, who was big for his age, was stuck on the line, even though he had always been the quarterback in elementary school.
When he got to 9th grade he was able to move back to quarterback. But he wasn't an instant standout like Mitchell. In fact, going into two-a-days last year, Taylor was third-string quarterback before emerging as the starter. By the end of the year, he had completed 198 of 394 passes for 2,495 yards and 20 touchdowns, which, by the way was nearly 300 yards more than Mitchell threw for as a senior.
In his first game this year Taylor completed 24 of 54 passes for 388 yards and four touchdowns in a 36-26 win over Ben Lomond. In that game his leading receiver from the year before, running back Randon Renzello, broke his foot. So last week, with Payson's top running back out, Ogden concentrated on Payson's passing game, limiting Taylor to just 13 of 27 for 138 yards. However, two of the passes went for touchdowns in the 14-7 victory.
Taylor is a drop-back quarterback, who handles Payson' pro-set offense well. Although he occasionally rolls out of the pocket, Taylor claims he can't run very fast, saying "I'm no speed demon." But he is fast enough to play point guard for the Lion basketball team and to beat out plenty of hits as the leading hitter on the baseball team the last two years.
"He's deceivingly quick," said Payson coach Bart Peery, pointing to the fact that Taylor was sacked only once in the first game when he put up 54 passes. "He has quick feet and a great feel in the pocket."
Even though he is relatively young in quarterback experience, Taylor is getting a lot of letters from colleges.
"I'd love to play college football, if I was given a shot," says Taylor, who looks up to Joe Montana and Ty Detmer as his heroes.
Peery says there's "no question" Taylor is a college prospect and says he has impressed local coaches with his performances at football camps. At least one junior college coach, who's hot after him, has said he's by far the best quarterback in the state this year.
An opposing coach from last season, Pine View's Bill Jacobsen, thought Taylor was the best in the state last year. Jacobsen, whose brother coached Mitchell at Springville, sees a lot of similarities in the two.
"They're a lot the same kind of talent," said Jacobsen. "One difference is that Mitchell was surrounded by a lot of talent around him, while that's not the case with Taylor."
What most impressed Jacobsen was Taylor's ability to read defenses. "He's a heck of a quarterback," he said.
Payson is off to a 2-0 start and this week will play a grudge match of sorts with a non-league encounter against Wasatch, a team that upset them in last year's 3A playoffs.
Taylor knows it will be tough to go unbeaten like Springville did in Mitchell's senior season. The Lions' region is considerably tougher this year with the addition of Timpview, Provo and Pleasant Grove, three schools all played in a higher classification last year.
"We can play with anybody, it's just a matter of going out and doing it," said Taylor.