As it’s proven to be a task every year to find out exactly who are the top returning players at their respective skill positions, Friday Game Night has put together a series of top returning players in 2021.
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Some of these players already have accepted college offers, some have offers on the table, and some are starting to blip on the radar.
The next group of Northeast Georgia talent we will look at is one of the area's best positions: quarterbacks.
It was a deep and young-ish field of signal-callers last year. Only J. Ben Haynes of White County and Clayton Jenkins of West Hall, both among the area's top passers, graduated after the 2020 season.
In 2021, the area has three returning players that led their classifications, at the conclusion of the regular season, in passing yards. Rabun County's Gunnar Stockton, the state's top-rated senior quarterback and a Georgia commit, returns after leading Class 2A in 2020. David Renard of Flowery Branch, who paced Class 4A, and Zach Holtzclaw, who led Class 3A, both return as seniors as well. East Hall's Clete Cooper, also a senior, was a top-five passer in Class 4A in 2020.
But they're not the only ones that made noise in 2020. Several others are ready to build off last season and are poised for breakout seasons.
Below are the top returning quarterbacks in our coverage area:
Buford — Sr. Ashton Daniels (49-76, 670 pass yards, 11 TD, 4 INT -- Stanford-commit)
Buford — Jr. Dylan Wittke (54-88, 1,041 pass yards, 10 TD, 1 INT; 55-266 rush yards, 3 TD -- offers from Wake Forest and East Carolina)
Cherokee Bluff — Sr. Sebastion Irons (85-141, 1,442 pass yards, 15 TD, 6 INT)
Chestatee — Sr. Luke Bornhorst (92-191, 1,116 pass yards, 11 TD, 6 INT)
Dawson County — Sr. Zach Holtzclaw (158-259, 2,513 pass yards, 25 TD, 5 INT -- offer from Birmingham Southern)
East Hall — Sr. Clete Cooper (153-248, 2,197 pass yards, 14 TD, 6 INT; 47-187 rush yards, 3 TD)
Flowery Branch — Sr. David Renard (161-249, 2,655 pass yards, 23 TD, 6 INT; 65-467 rush yards, 5 TD)
Gainesville — So. Baxter Wright (28-55, 178 pass yards; 50-251 rush yards, 2 TD)
Jefferson — Sr. Malaki Starks (20-48, 569 pass yards, 11 TD, 4 INT; 172-1,537 rush yards, 24 TD -- Georgia-commit)
North Hall — Sr. Bradford Puryear (18-56, 322 pass yards, 6 TD, 3 INT; 59-357 rush yards, 3 TD)
Rabun County — Sr. Gunner Stockton (213-317, 3,128 pass yards, 45 TD, 4 INT; 191-1,581 rush yards, 26 TD -- Georgia-commit)
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