Transfer Jadyn Glasser catches on quickly as Venice High starting quarterback

VENICE — When he arrived at Venice High School in January, quarterback Jadyn Glasser had the daunting task of learning the football playbook.

And the playbook did not resemble much of what Glasser did in the past at South Plantation High School in Broward County.

“It was a lot different,” he said. “Just learning the running schemes, who blocks who, double teams and gaps.”

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From January to May, Glasser spent four days a week with Venice coach John Peacock and fellow quarterback Ryan Downes, who transferred in from IMG Academy.

“Both those kids have high football IQs and both are really smart kids,” Peacock said. “It was pretty easy.”

Gaining trust and respect

Peacock said he knew “actually nothing” about Glasser before he arrived on the Venice High campus. And while there is a package of plays for Downes, a junior, it was Glasser who Peacock entrusted the offense.

“One of the big things is the way he captured the team,” Peacock said. “Everyone here right away was pretty much sold on him. He does such a great job of being a great teammate.”

“They accepted me right away,” Glasser said.

Glasser had a connection with only one of his teammates prior to arriving. He played 7v7 with wide receiver Ryan Matulevich when Glasser lived in Tampa.

Now he hangs out and eats with the offensive linemen, gets haircuts with the receivers and is buddies with the defenders.

“Everyone,” Glasser said.

Matulevich is one of the many talented receivers Glasser has at his disposal this season. That is one of the reasons Glasser spreads the ball round.

“It’s a lot different. I have a lot more trust in my receivers to go get the ball and making 50/50 plays which I didn’t have before,” Glasser said. “It helps a lot.”

Not missing a beat

After throwing for 2,624 yards and 25 touchdowns while completing 57% of his passes last year as a junior at South Plantation, Glasser has thrown for 716 yards and four scores in Venice’s first three games.

“We’ve been pretty good offensively this year,” Peacock said. “We had one bad half of football that kind of killed us in the Armwood game. Penalties killed us in the Cocoa game.”

Venice went into last week’s off week with a 1-2 record, having beaten Miami Northwestern 63-46 on Sept. 9 at Traz Powell Stadium in Miami.

“The record really isn’t indicative of how we’ve been playing,” Peacock said. “We’ve been playing better than our record shows.”

Peacock says the offense strives for “perfection.”

“I don’t know we’ve never had it. We just strive for it,” Peacock said. “There’s been glimpses of it throughout the beginning of this year and glimpses of it in the past.”

“Perfection is possible,” Glasser said. “Just not making silly mistakes and not hurting ourselves like we did our first two games. That’s the main reason we lost: We shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and fumbles and giving the other team the ball.”

Glasser’s ability on pre-snap reads, knowing where a mismatch could be possible even before taking the snap from center, is a reason the offense has averaged more than 36 points in the first three games.

“He does a really good job of keeping his eyes downfield, especially when there’s pressure,” Peacock said.

“I definitely know the game a lot more, coverages, what I’m reading,” Glasser said.

From offensive lineman to quarterback

Beginning his football career as an offensive lineman because he was “a little bigger than everyone else,” Glasser switched to quarterback around the age of 12 under the guidance of his coaches and father Jamie.

“My dad and coaches kinda realized my arm talent and saw that I could be a good quarterback,” Jadyn said.

At 6-foot-3, 224 pounds, Glasser still is bigger than the average high school player. But that does not hamper his ability to tuck the ball away and run, when needed.

“He’s pretty crafty when he runs the ball,” Peacock said of Glasser, who can bench 325 pounds, squat 425, run the 40-yard dash in 4.75 seconds and has a 35-foot vertical jump and a 9-feet, 5-inches broad jump.

“He’s a load at 225 pounds,” Peacock said. “He runs with a good pad level. I’ve been trying to tell him you don’t want to be taking hits. When the playoffs come it will be a different story. Right now we are trying not to take as many hits.”

Committed to Central Michigan

Glasser has six college offers, including Central Michigan, Air Force, Bethune Cookman and Bucknell. The 3-star prospect, who has a 3.5 grade-point average, has committed to Central Michigan, where he plans to study business and start his own clothing brand.

“I like how Coach Mac is bringing the program around,” Glasser said of Chippewas coach Jim McElwain. “They’re a winning team that I want to be a part of.”

Winning is one of the reasons Glasser landed at Venice High, too.

“Just being able to graduate early and playing for a state championship,” he said.

Right now, Glasser said the Venice offense is “really good.

“It can be great,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Venice High quarterback Jadyn Glasser quickly learns playbook