Best QB in Central Florida navigates the recruiting process like a pro | Recruiting Insider
Everything is quick about Noah Grubbs.
As the best quarterback in Central Florida, Grubbs, Lake Mary’s Class of 2026 standout, knows that’s the way it has to be.
His reads are quick.
His decision-making is quick.
He gets the ball out of his hand quick.
The delivery of the ball to receivers is quick.
Everything is on time, and on target.
His talent was known from a young age, and that’s why the family’s decision to get out in front of the recruiting process also was quick.
Ephraim Grubbs, Noah’s father, has four sons — Lieth (27), Adam (23), Eli (19) and Noah (16). So the dad learned from experience that there were maybe things he should have done with his older children that he could do with Noah, and he has taken advantage of that knowledge.
“The best thing for me as a dad is that his three brothers are his biggest fans,” Ephraim said. “They are always calling to hype him up for games, but they also keep him humble by kicking the crap out of him sometimes [laughing]. It’s great to have that.”
Once Mr. Grubbs knew Noah was good enough and serious enough about football, he knew it was time to get in promotion mode and get his kid in front of as many college coaches as he could as fast as he could.
“I have four boys and … I’ve made mistakes,” Ephraim said.
Ephraim Grubbs said it wasn’t all from the evolution of fatherhood that he learned how to deal with all of the attention that would eventually come Noah’s way. Others helped guide him. Grubbs was able to get his son out there and create attention instead of waiting for it.
“It started when Noah was in eighth grade and I was walking the sideline at a quarterbacks camp and I was talking to a gentleman who had a son who was a senior,” said Ephraim, who is a retired colonel in the U.S. miitary. “So I asked him what he would do if he were me with a son in eighth grade, and he said, ‘Get after it now.’
“I really was taking a page out of another person’s book. He said, ‘We didn’t start until the 11th grade and we were way late.”
So they didn’t wait. The summer before Noah’s freshman year at Lake Mary, the Grubbs got after it. They mapped out as many colleges as they could hit over one summer and made the rounds, cold-calling every big-time football program and coach in the southwest region.
They did it again last summer. They hit 18 colleges in two-and-a-half months, and the whirlwind journey was not all for naught. This time it wasn’t a cold-call. They knew Noah Grubbs.
“Coaches knew who Noah was before he got there and now when we get there, and there are 70-80 quarterbacks … It’s all paid off,” Ephraim said. “We’re going to do the same thing this summer.”
Before he even had taken a snap as a sophomore last season at Lake Mary, Noah had 11 Football Bowl Subdivision scholarship offers: Virginia Tech, UCF, Texas A&M, Charlotte, Miami, West Virginia, Duke, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan and Pitt.
“It’s been great,” Noah said. “It’s great to have connections and communications with a bunch of different college from around the nation.
“It’s still fun and I like the process. Sometimes it gets frustrating, but you have to be patient and trust the process so it’s fun for right now. … I’m just letting the process run and we’ll see where it lands.”
The navigation of the process is the difficult thing. Ephraim was lucky to learn the approach needed to be started early.
“There are so many dads out there just sitting and wondering. There is no playbook for us,” Ephraim said. “The two things I always do when we go to these camps is try to network with other dads around the country and I always try to ask the OC [offensive coordinator] or head coach, ‘Hey, what would you like to see the dads do better.'”
Grubbs is coming off a phenomenal season in which he was fifth among state passers with 3,670 yards and 49 touchdowns. Two quarterbacks ahead of him played three more games than Grubbs. Now the 6-foot-4, 205-pound Grubbs has 20 FBS offers, his latest coming from Tulane, and just before that, the Florida Gators.
In two seasons he has 5,263 yards and 66 touchdowns.
He broke on the scene as a freshman when he came into a few games in reserve for the Rams before taking over the starting role. He was that good right away.
The thing about Grubbs is that none of his success or attention has really bothered or changed him. He’s just a laid-back kid who is nonchalant with everything and he’s enjoying life.
“Does he really know what’s ahead of him? Who knows?” asks his dad. “Get in the head of a 16-year-old kid and what do you see? What are they worried about? Girls and Friday night. ‘What are we going to do Friday night.’ We’re lucky because Noah loves Friday night and football.”
Noah juggled playing baseball and football through his childhood. One summer, however, just before his eighth-grade year, dad knew it would be football because Noah told him.
“Lake Mary didn’t have a 14U Pop Warner team then … so we went with Apopka,” Ephraim said. “We had jst come off a travel baseball season, 47 games in 30 days, and I took him to his first football practice the next day at Apopka.
“He wanted to trying playing with Apopka because he said, ‘They thump at Apopka.’ After three hours of a grueling practice over there, he comes off the field and I asked him, ‘OK, baseball or football?’ He didn’t hesitate one bit. He said, ‘Football,’ and that’s when I knew.”
Noah is meticulous. He also is a self-motivator.
Monday is speed with Tony Ponton, Tuesday is quarterback training, Wednesday is church. Thursday is more speed work. Friday is rest. Saturday is more quarterbacking. It’s a routine that is engrained in him. He just does it.
“We never have to tell him what he needs to do. He tells us what he’s going to do all week,” Ephraim said.
His quarterback training has come from former UCF player Tyson Hinshaw, the brother of UCF offensive coordinator Darin Hinshaw, and most recently for Oak Ridge High and USF/Weber College QB Baylin Trujillo.
“He is a special talent. He’s a generational talent. He is elite. There’s good, there’s great and there is elite, and he is elite,” Trujillo said. “I told his dad after his first camp with me in his eighth grade year, if he quits baseball today, I can make him the best quarterback in the country.”
Recruiting services do not have rankings released for the 2026 class yet, but Grubbs is expected to be among the top prospects.
He’s also been fortunate ot have some tremendous relationship with head coach Scott Perry at Lake Mary and offensive coordinator Adam Donnelly who recognized the talent in Noah and centered the Rams around his abilities.
He’s in for a big future and the Grubbs are just lying in wait, figuring they’ll know when it’s time to take the next step. That step will be to decide what college he will choose.
“It’s exciting and it’s anxious because it’s unknown,” Ephraim said. “We’re blessed, and honored. … You realize how fortunate you are to get the attention that Noah is getting. You have to have the talent and you’ve got to have the hard skills to get the attention, but you also have to be fortunate and we have been very fortunate.
“Coaches are always saying, ‘Enjoy the ride,’ but I’m looking two years, three years down the road and he has to make a decision. That’s going to be tough.”
