The late great John Madden said, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none.”
The playoff-bound Marana Tigers (5-5), winners of four of their last five, might disagree with the Hall of Fame coach, broadcaster and video game advisor.
Jason Wood, a senior captain on the Marana High School football team, said he and sophomore Colten “Coco” Meyer push each other to be better.
“Since we have two quarterbacks, I feel like we can put him in and he’ll produce and you can put me at receiver and on defense and I’ll produce there,” Wood said. “It’s not like I can’t play any other position so I feel like putting me at receiver and safety puts our team in the best position.”
No. 11 Marana (5-5) travels to No. 6 ALA-Gilbert North (6-4) on Thursday for the first round of the Class 5A state tournament.
In the most recent game in which the two split quarterback snaps, Wood went 12 for 15 for 154 yards and a touchdown, and Meyer was 9 for 12 for 206 yards and two scores as the Tigers beat No. 12 Casa Grande 42-9.
Cienega’s James Kendryna (17) gets a hand on Marana’s Jason Wood (5) but can’t quite stop him after his catch at Cienega High School on Oct. 7, 2022
“Both of them are really good quarterbacks,” Marana junior receiver/safety Dezmen Roebuck said.
Then, in Friday’s 46-0 win over Cienega, Meyer went 33 for 45 for 362 yards and three touchdowns. Wood played receiver, catching five balls for 72 yards and two touchdowns.
“He had caught a little injury in the shoulder, so I was trying to protect the shoulder,” Marana coach Philip Steward said of Wood. “But we got some stuff to go over, and I want to get him back in there at quarterback because he does a good job at quarterback.
“But I think right now the hot hand is the sophomore so we’re going to ride his hot hand.”
In the regular season, Wood passed for 1,998 yards. Steward wanted to get him to 2,000 yards, but Wood declined, he said. Wood asked the coach to keep him at receiver “to get us a win so we can get to the playoffs,” Steward said.
“Oh he looks really good at receiver,” Steward said. “The way I presented it to him: putting you at receiver gets us another athlete on the field. Putting you back at quarterback, we’re losing an athlete, basically. So I kind of presented it to him that way and he’s a team player. He wanted to do anything to help the team win.”
Over five games, Meyer has passed for 956 yards and 9 touchdowns while completing 73.5% of his pass attempts.
Wood passed for 534 yards last season and had 515 yards receiving.
“It reminded me of last year. I started at quarterback in the beginning of the year and made the move,” Wood said about playing receiver on Friday. “I’m just a team player so where ever coach puts me I’ll produce.”
With wood as the Tigers’ initial starter, Meyer first played in their 43-7 win at Tucson High on Sept. 1, throwing six passes. His next action was on Sept. 22 when he was 32 for 44 against Canyon del Oro.
“He’s young; he’s a sophomore. He still has his sophomore-year mistakes but he’s playing well. He’s getting the ball out to those athletes and he’s letting those athletes run up and down the field and he’s just doing wonderful commanding the offense,” Steward said.
Until the Tigers handed previously unbeaten Buena a 55-0 loss on the road on Sept. 29, Marana was 1-4. Only one of those was at home, however — a 49-21 loss to 4A No. 2 Canyon del Oro. The Tigers also lost to 5A No. 1 seed Gilbert Higley and 6A No. 2 seed Salpointe Catholic.
Marana’s Dezmen Roebuck, left, cradles a first-down catch just inside the line and in front of Canyon del Oro’s Austin Greer at Marana High School on Sept. 22, 2023.
Marana only played three home games since their field was damaged by a monsoon just before the start of the season.
“We’re finally connecting as a team. We’re playing for each other. We’re not really for ourselves,” Wood said. “I feel like since we started winning we started coming together more and I feel like we have a great chance to go to state.”
Whichever quarterback they use, they have Roebuck, too. Steward called the dynamic wide receiver a safety net.
On Friday Roebuck broke his own Southern Arizona record for catches in a season with his 93rd.
“It’s just a blessing,” Roebuck said about breaking records. “God blessed me with great teammates, great coaches.”
