By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
Immediately upon the conclusion of last week’s win over Ouachita, Captain Shreve quarterback Brodie Savage did something you rarely – if ever – see at a high school football game.
No, he didn’t grab a cell phone and start recording a TikTok. Nor was there any kind of showboating dance at midfield.
Instead, while his teammates tried to find more and more water buckets with which to douse head coach Jeremy Wilburn, Savage made a point to shake hands with the head referee (even though the same official had blown an inadvertent whistle that could have cost the Gators the game).
Then he shook hands with the side judge. And the umpire. And the field judge. If he could have found the clock operator, he would have shaken his hand too.
“That’s just something I’ve been doing since youth football,” Savage said later. “Every single game.”
If that were the only thing that made Savage special, it would be enough. But there’s a lot more to the 6-foot-1 senior.
“He’s the heartbeat of the team,” Wilburn said. “He’s shown the resiliency you’d want out of a leader. He never flinches at anything. Whatever we ask him to do as far as leadership in concerned, he does it.”
Resiliency? No doubt about it. Savage started the 2023 as the Gators’ backup, but played so well in the opening game that he was named the starter in Game 2. Things were rolling along quite nicely until the fifth game, when a scramble by Savage resulted in a knee injury.
“The turf monster got me,” he said.
He was done for the season.
But not for the off-season and Savage worked his way back to health in order to be ready to play his senior year.
“It was hard watching from the sideline,” Savage said. “You want to be on the field with your guys. I had a couple of bumps in the road along the way to getting back. But in July, I felt like I was back to normal.”
Still, Savage was not cleared to play until the week before school started.
In a way, the injury may have actually helped his progress in becoming more of a pocket passer.
“The injury may have slowed down what he was trying to do running with the ball and getting out of the pocket quicker,” Wilburn said. “He’s taking things slower now and letting his reads progress. When you do that, it can make you look really good really quick.”
There is definitely a different look to Savage this year in how he plays. Against Ouachita, he was 10 of 16 for 179 yards and two touchdowns and showed greater arm strength and touch than a year ago.
“Definitely spent a lot of time in the weight room,” he said. “That’s about all I could do in the off-season is work on the upper body.”
“He’s got a lot of confidence in himself without lacking the ability to be coached,” Wilburn said. “That’s always the golden zone you try to get players in. You want them to believe in themselves and the system, but also never get arrogant and remain coachable and hungry.”
Savage and the Gators will take on Huntington Thursday night at Independence Stadium as the Gators try to move to 2-0. Wilburn knows Savage will be a key factor in the Gators’ success.
“He’s everything you’d ask for in a senior quarterback,” Wilburn said. “We are really lucky to have that.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com