Top high school QB recruits: How the nation’s elite prospects fared over the weekend

By / / Sports / 9 minutes of reading


Happy Monday and welcome back to another edition of our high school prep report. Each week, we’re tracking how the country’s top high school quarterbacks are playing and how their seasons are going.

Let’s get to it.

Editor’s Note: Missouri commit Matt Zollers and Georgia commit Ryan Montgomery, the nation’s No. 7 and 9 quarterbacks, respectively, are out for the year with season-ending injuries.

Bryce Underwood

School: Belleville (Mich.) High
Committed to: LSU
Ranking: No. 1 overall, No. 1 QB

Underwood and Belleville continue to roll and are 7-0 after a 41-0 victory against Wayne Memorial. Friday marked the third time in four games that the Tigers have scored at least 40 points and the second time this season they’ve shut out their opponent.

Tavien St. Clair

School: Bellefontaine (Ohio) High
Committed to: Ohio State
Ranking: No. 6 overall, No. 2 QB

After being on the wrong side of a 51-6 loss on Sept. 27, Bellefontaine has now scored at least 50 points in each of its last two games.

The Chieftains beat Urbana 50-19 on Friday with St. Clair — the school’s recently crowned Homecoming King — throwing for three touchdowns, including two that went for 40-plus yards. He also rushed for a 5-yard score late in the third quarter.

With the win, Bellefontaine is now 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

Bellefontaine plays Jonathan Adler this week in its penultimate game of the regular season. The last time these teams played, Bellefontaine squeaked out a five-point win, 28-23.

Keelon Russell

School: Duncanville (Texas) High
Committed to: Alabama
Ranking: No. 11 overall, No. 3 QB

What a week for Russell. In what was billed as one of the biggest matchups in Texas high school football, Duncanville, the No. 4 team nationally by MaxPreps, dominated DeSoto, the No. 17 team, en route to a 42-20 victory. And Russell, the top quarterback in the Lone Star State, balled out.

The Alabama commit went 27-for-36 passing for 427 yards and six touchdowns, four of which went to Oregon wide receiver commit Dakorien Moore. Moore finished with 230 receiving yards in what became another showcase for the best quarterback-receiver duo in the nation.

Russell has now thrown for 400-plus yards in consecutive games, and Duncanville is 5-0 heading into a matchup this week against 3-3 Lancaster. For the season, Russell is 117-for-156 passing for 1,864 yards and 25 touchdowns. He has yet to throw an interception.

After reports circulated that Deion Sanders and Colorado may be trying to flip him, Russell appeared to shut down the buzz this weekend.

Russell flipped from SMU to Alabama in June. There’s a case to be made he’s the best quarterback in the country and it won’t be surprising if schools continue to try to flip him again, especially if Alabama continues to struggle.

Julian Lewis

School: Carrollton (Ga.) High
Committed to: USC
Ranking: No. 15 overall, No. 4 QB

Carrollton is 8-0 after another easy win. The Trojans beat Chapel Hill 42-0 and have now scored 40-plus points in six consecutive games.

After going 22-for-27 passing for 325 yards and six touchdowns with one pick on Oct. 4, Lewis had a lighter day on Friday against Chapel Hill, finishing 12-for-16 for 141 yards and one score.

The Trojans have just two regular-season games remaining: at 3-4 East Coweta and at 7-1 Douglas County.

For the season, Lewis is now 135-for-175 passing for 1,843 yards, 28 touchdowns and four interceptions. He has also rushed 21 times for 74 yards and two more scores.

Perhaps most impressive: He has now surpassed 9,000 career yards passing.

The USC commit visited the Trojans over the weekend, as Lincoln Riley’s team fell to Penn State 33-30 in overtime. Keep an eye on Lewis, who still has Indiana and Colorado in play, per On3. He committed to USC in August 2023 but this one doesn’t feel over quite yet.

Deuce Knight

School: George County (Miss.) High
Committed to: Auburn
Ranking: No. 30 overall, No. 5 QB

After missing three games due to a hamstring injury, Knight was back in action for the first time in a month on Friday and played like he hadn’t missed a beat. George County defeated Long Beach 48-13, with Knight leading the way with four touchdown passes and one rushing score, per SouthMiss6.com.

With the win, George County is now 1-0 in region play heading into the final third of its schedule.

The way Knight made this throw look easy has to have Auburn fans pumped for his arrival on The Plains.

Husan Longstreet

School: Centennial (Calif.) High
Committed to: Texas A&M
Ranking: No. 34 overall, No. 6 QB

Centennial had no problems with Vista Murrieta on Thursday, beating the Broncos 63-0 on an easy night for Longstreet.

The Texas A&M commit finished 10-for-13 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns in addition to rushing four times for 32 yards and another score. He has now thrown at least three touchdown passes in each of his past three games.

For the year, Longstreet is 64-for-99 passing for 1,040 yards with 13 touchdowns and four interceptions. On the ground, he has 34 carries for 335 yards and five touchdowns, averaging 9.9 yards per carry. The Huskies have three games left in the regular season, starting with Murrieta Valley this week. The Nighthawks are 6-1 while the Huskies are 5-2.

George MacIntyre

School: Brentwood (Tenn.) Academy
Committed to: Tennessee
Ranking: No. 61 overall, No. 8 QB

A season ago, Brentwood Academy won two games. In the past two weeks, the Eagles have scored 115 points and are now 5-3. What a difference a year makes.

Brentwood Academy beat Knoxville Catholic 63-26, a week after the Eagles took care of business against Innovation Academy with a 52-0 win.

MacIntyre had quite the night against Knoxville Catholic, completing 13 of 16 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns, per The Tennessean. He is about 360 passing yards shy of eclipsing the 2,000-yard mark for the season, which should be in reach considering he has at least two games left on the schedule.

Next up, Brentwood Academy plays Lipscomb Academy, where UAB coach Trent Dilfer most recently coached. Lipscomb is 2-5 but has plenty of talent and should present a fun challenge for MacIntyre and the Eagles.

Madden Iamaleava

School: Long Beach Poly (Calif.) High
Committed to: UCLA
Ranking: No. 127 overall, No. 10 QB

After weeks of uncertainty, the saga concerning Iamaleava’s eligibility could be coming to a close soon. The Southern Section of the California Interscholastic Federation denied Iamaleava eligibility after he transferred from Warren to Long Beach Poly in September. According to The Press-Telegram, Iamaleava plans to appeal. But he’s running out of time and is staring down the possibility of enrolling at UCLA having played just one game in his senior season — Warren’s season opener on Aug. 23.

Long Beach Poly has turned to Class of 2026 quarterback Deuce Jefferson, though the Jackrabbits have struggled this year. Long Beach Poly is 2-5 and has just three games left on the regular-season schedule. For his high school career, Iamaleava has thrown for nearly 4,500 yards and 55 touchdowns with five interceptions.

School: East Forsyth (N.C.) High
Committed to: North Carolina
Ranking: No. 129 overall, No. 11 QB

Baker and East Forsyth remained undefeated thanks to a 62-6 win against Parkland on Friday. This marked the third time in the past four games that East Forsyth has scored at least 55 points and the second time this season the Eagles scored 60-plus. Baker shined with an efficient night, going 11-for-13 passing for 304 yards and four touchdowns. He has now thrown 12 touchdown passes in the last four games and has still thrown just one pick this season, in early September.

For the year, Baker is 112-for-143 passing for 1,906 yards with 22 touchdowns and one interception. He has also rushed 33 times for 166 yards and four more touchdowns.

Should he sign with the Tar Heels, he’d likely be the program’s quarterback of the future as UNC’s next in-state blue-chip prospect at the sport’s most important position, following in the footsteps of Sam Howell and Drake Maye.

The Eagles have just three games left in the regular season, starting with R.J. Reynolds this week. Getting Baker to the finish line remains UNC’s most important task on the recruiting trail.

KJ Lacey

School: Saraland (Ala.) High
Committed to: Texas
Ranking: No. 139 overall, No. 12 QB

Lacey was back in action on Friday after not having played since Sept. 13 due to injury.

And for his first game action in a month, the Texas commit wasn’t too shabby. Not at all. In a 19-14 win against St. Paul’s Episcopal, Lacey finished 16-for-29 passing for a season-high 334 yards, two touchdowns and an interception to deliver the Saints their first loss of the season. Saraland, meanwhile, stayed undefeated and is now 7-0 as both the Spartans and Lacey’s Longhorns continue to roll.

For the season, Lacey is 74-for-127 passing for 1,260 yards with 15 touchdowns against four interceptions. Saraland has two games left on the regular-season schedule.

Bonus

There’s no denying that things are rough at Purdue in coach Ryan Walters’ second season. The Boilermakers are 1-5 after losing 50-49 in overtime to Illinois on Saturday, and the program has had three recruits decommit this season already.

But the quarterback of the future, three-star Texas native Sawyer Anderson, is standing by the Boilermakers. And unlike his future team, Anderson has had quite the season in 2024.

Through seven games, Anderson is 132-for-189 passing for 2,348 yards and 24 touchdowns against four interceptions. He has thrown for at least 300 yards in five of seven games and threw for a season-high 398 yards when Parish Episcopal beat Cornerstone Christian in September.

Most recently, Anderson went 14-for-18 passing on Thursday night for 251 yards and four touchdowns in a 56-0 win against Trinity Christian Academy. He’s on the cusp of topping the 12,000-yard mark in his prep career.

(Photo of George MacIntyre: Andrew Nelles / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)





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About The Author

Avatar of Fannie Hogan
Fannie Hogan is a writer and editor who covers lifestyle, books, sports, education, and tech. She's always loved to write—from the time she was a little girl writing stories about talking animals to the day she got her first job as an editor at a lifestyle magazine. Her hobbies include long walks on the beach, running, and taking breaks from work to read a good book.

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