How a unique offensive philosophy could flip Rockford Jefferson's football fortunes

ROCKFORD — Jefferson sophomore Sebastian Bracius leads the NIC-10 in passing, but sometimes he’d like to be a receiver.

“What’s crazy is Sebastian is lighting it up at quarterback, but he’s extremely excited to play receiver for some reason now,” coach Jacob Arnold said. “He wants to play receiver. He wants to play running back. He wants to play defense. He’s just a football player.”

“I like to play quarterback,” said Bracius, who threw for 300 yards — third-highest in Jefferson history — in last week’s win over Belvidere, “but I want to do other positions just to have fun, to try it out, see what I can do.”

Why not? Every other J-Hawk seems to do that.

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Bracius has thrown for 1,069 yards and 11 touchdowns in six games. That is already second in yards in Jefferson history to James Dunner, who threw for 1,415 in 2016, and second in TDs to Jason Ippolito’s 14 in 2001.

But Bracius not Jefferson’s only passer. The J-Hawks have had five different players throw a pass this year, including last year’s QBs, Nick James and Joey Alvarez.

“He played quarterback in middle school,” James said, pointing to primary running back Chauncey Jackson at practice Tuesday. “He plays quarterback,” James said, pointing to Alvarez. I play quarterback. He (receiver Josiah Williams) can play quarterback. Everybody’s throwing it.”

But that doesn’t mean everyone is throwing it as well as Bracius.

“That,” James said, “is the best quarterback I’ve ever played with. He’s better than I ever was.”

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And it doesn’t mean that because Jefferson’s receivers dabble with playing quarterback that the J-Hawks’ QB should dabble at being a receiver.

“When I go to quarterback,” James said, “he wants me to throw him the ball. He tells me he is open. All the time."

Is he open?

“Noooooo,” James said with a laugh. “Never. He's slow."

How, then, will James convince Bracius to stay at quarterback?

“I will just catch the ball when he throws it. That’s how,” James said.

Rotating through 5 QBs

Jefferson is not like other teams in the NIC-10. Or anywhere. No other team rotates in QBs when they already have one of the best in school history.

“We always try to get multiple quarterbacks in,” coach Jacobs said. “We have five quarterbacks on the roster. We also have an ace in the hole in Randy Johnson (who was an all-conference receiver as a sophomore last year). He can sling it. And we just found out (receiver) Josiah Williams can throw it. He took two snaps at quarterback last week.

“It’s just creating competition and keeping everybody on their toes. We have a system where you can plug and play. It's creating fun here. We're not giving the ball just to one kid and calling him the best. We're giving the ball to multiple kids and letting them display their talent. That's creating a buzz for us."

Jefferson’s rotating aerial circus makes this one of the school’s most intriguing teams in decades. Jefferson (1-5) will complete its 29th consecutive losing season this year. Last week’s victory snapped an 18-game losing streak. Jefferson is 11-80 the last 11 years.

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But the J-Hawks have also scored 141 points in six games. That is more points than they have scored in 16 of their previous 23 full seasons. Their current average of 23.5 per game is their third-highest in their 52-year history. And they finish their season against three teams that are currently a combined 4-14.

“We are trying to change the program around, get a different name for Jefferson,” said senior Tyler Gaines, who leads the NIC-10 with 447 yards receiving. “We just have to stick together as a team and know we can beat the rest of these teams coming up.”

“We know we’re good,” said Jackson, who leads the team with 307 yards rushing. “We can do better than what we are already doing. We just have got to execute better. We haven’t tapped into what we have yet. We knew this was going to happen. We knew what we had going on.”

They haven’t convinced others yet. Not even their own schoolmates.

“I saw this coming,” said Alvarez, the team’s defensive leader at linebacker. “But it’s going to take a few more wins. They are still saying it’s not a great win, because it’s just (winless) Belvidere. It’s going to take a few more wins.

“It’s really important that we get these last few wins to keep it going, not just for this year but for next year too and the years following.”

'We can handle tough teams'

Jefferson was destroyed by Boylan and Belvidere North, teams that are a combined 11-1, but have played everyone else tough, including a 35-22 loss to Hononegah, 41-32 to Harlem and 44-22 to Guilford, three teams that are a combined 14-4.

“Everybody thought we were going to get blown out, but we showed we can handle the tough teams,” said Johnson, who caught five passes for 125 yards and two TDs in that 51-26 win over Belvidere.

Jefferson isn’t there yet. But the J-Hawks have several young stars, play an exciting brand of football, have the leading passer in the league and three of the top four receivers in Gaines, Johnson (339 yards) and James (321).

“Our philosophy is to throw the ball to all five eligible receivers short at any given moment,” Arnold said. “Any one of those guys can explode in a game. We want to keep it balanced between all of these guys. Tyler Gaines has 26 touches and the rest of those guys are all at almost 20 touches. And Randy Johnson, he just woke up the last two weeks. The rest of the season might be a problem for people.”

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Bracius might be a problem for teams for two more years.

“Sebastian is phenomenal,” Arnold said. “He makes great decisions. He puts the ball exactly where it needs to be. His play has elevated our offense to a whole other level.”

He has a lot of help, including from a budding star lineman in 6-foot-6, 310-pound sophomore tackle Dontrall Fort.

“We took a lot of people by surprise,” receiver Josiah Williams said. “Nobody had faith in us. But our QBs, they put the ball on the spot. Our receivers catch it. Our O line creates a path for our running backs. It’s a team effort.

“But we’ve still got to put it all together. We’ve shown little flashes of what we can really do, but we haven’t put it all together yet.”

Making it a reality

It won’t be easy, but these J-Hawks are showing it might just be possible.

“We are trying to change the program around,” Gaines said, “and get a different name for Jefferson.”

“A lot of people doubted us, even people in our own school,” Bracius said. “But they weren’t out here on the field. They just looked at us in school and thought we were going to suck and lose. But we don’t.

“I knew from Day 1 this could be a good season for all of us. We’re a different team.”

Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and three years covering the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

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This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford Jefferson High School football adds high-power passing attack