In an interesting twist of fate, the seeds of a Texas quarterback factory were planted at a Holiday Inn less than four miles from Andrew Luck's high school in Houston.

Coach Dick Olin, now the offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin University, set up a meeting in 1996 for all high school coaches from the city to discuss starting a seven-on-seven passing league to be run in the spring and early summer. The meeting was held in a conference room at the hotel.

"We had maybe 15 or 20 coaches show up," Olin said. "It's like anything new that you're trying, people are resistant at first. They needed to be convinced."

On Thursday, the NFL will provide proof positive that Olin and his first group of coaches were on the right track. The top three quarterbacks expected to be selected in this year's NFL draft, including the top two overall selections, will all have deep roots in Texas.

Andrew Luck is headed to the Indianapolis Colts. (AP)That starts with Luck, the Stratford High and Stanford University star who the Indianapolis Colts announced Tuesday will be the top pick. Then there's projected No. 2 pick Robert Griffin III of Baylor, who is from Copperas Cove, a rural town of 32,000 roughly 200 miles northwest of Houston. Ryan Tannehill, from a little farther out in Big Spring, could end up with the Miami Dolphins at No. 8 overall.

The trio of young passers is part of a growing and historic trend. This will be the third time in the past four years, starting with No. 1 pick Matthew Stafford in 2009 and including Christian Ponder last year, a quarterback from Texas has gone in the first round.

The trend is showing in the stats. Last season, seven of the top 31 rated quarterbacks in the NFL were from Texas high schools. That included Stafford, Ponder, Drew Brees, Andy Dalton and Kevin Kolb. Overall, there are roughly a dozen active NFL quarterbacks from Texas and almost all of them are under 30 years old.

By contrast, none of the top 31 passers in the league in 1991 were from the Lone Star State.

Essentially, the nation's most football-crazed state was a passing wasteland for decades. While Texas has had its share of great quarterbacks, guys like Sammy Baugh, Bobby Layne and Y.A. Tittle hardly evoke images of the modern game. The top modern players from Texas are guys like Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson and Billy Sims … all running backs.

To put it another way, it wasn't long ago that if a coach threw much more than 14 times a game, there might be serious concerns about his political leanings.

"If you did that, you were a communist," said Don Clayton, the head coach at Cinco Ranch High in Katy, Texas, just west of Houston. Clayton, 55, is a Texas native with 31 years of coaching experience. With his slight drawl and tinge of sarcasm, Clayton is joking.

Matthew Stafford (L) with Drew Brees after the Saints' playoff win over the Lions. (US Presswire)At least it sounds like that. Any football man in Texas with a shred of dignity can still hear the words of former University of Texas coach Darrell Royal ringing in his head.

Royal was legendary for his run-first, run-second and run-third mentality. He once opined on the passing game that three things can happen to you whenever you throw the football, and two of them are bad.

"Three yards and a cloud of dust, play defense and don't give up field position," said Greg McCaig, the coach at Cypress Creek High and a 27-year Texas coaching vet. "To do anything else was heresy."

But in the 1990s, as teams like the Houston Oilers with Warren Moon and the University of Houston with Andre Ware and then David Klingler were starting to throw the ball around, high school coaches recognized the need to keep up.

After some initial resistance, it was quickly, "Houston, we have liftoff."

"Once it got going, the whole thing really took off," McCaig said. "Football is king here to begin with, but this type of game really got even more people excited. It's fast and it's fun."

"You hear people say that 7-on-7 is basketball on grass and that's true," Clayton said. "All those kids who want to play the up-tempo style that you see with basketball, we're still getting those kids instead of losing them."

Currently, schools regularly have teams enter tournaments from the middle of May until the state tournament in mid-July. The game is touch-only with no blocking or tackling and a set clock for plays (and for the quarterback to get rid of the ball). Most importantly, while high school coaches obviously help organize the teams for the two-month season, they are not allowed to be on the sideline or coach at all during the games.

And that's a good thing. A very good thing.

"I basically called all the plays," said Stafford, one of three NFL quarterbacks to throw for more than 5,000 yards last season. "That's part of the point of it. First off, you're playing 12 months a year, which can only help. You're learning route progressions and coverages. It really forces you to dissect the game and understand what the defense is trying to do to you."

Said Clayton: "It forces kids to learn the concepts we're trying to teach, not just how to execute a play. If you're on first-and-10 and you throw a curl-flat route underneath the defense, that's OK. But if you come back on third-and-8 and run that, you learn pretty quick that you're probably going to come up five yards short, so you need to do something else that works."

Ponder said the constant learning was vital for him once he got to Florida State and now in the NFL.

"One of my favorite route combinations to throw is the 'smash,' where the outside receiver runs a hitch and the inside guy runs a flag or a post," said Ponder, who replaced Donovan McNabb as the Minnesota Vikings starter last season. "I learned how to throw that against man, Cover 2 and Cover 3 by running it again and again [in high school]. By the time I got to college, I had a really good feel for how to execute that route."

Cardinals QBs Kevin Kolb (L) and John Skelton. (US Presswire)Arizona Cardinals backup quarterback John Skelton, who grew up in El Paso, said one of the best parts of 7-on-7 was the unencumbered view he got of the defense once the linemen were taken away.

"You got to understand how the linebackers and the safeties will flow depending on the defense," Skelton said. "You could actually see it without all the bodies in the way so that once you got back into an 11-on-11 situation you still had a pretty good idea where everybody was."

"At a certain point, football is football," Stafford said. "Sure, the stuff at the NFL level is more sophisticated, but the concepts from high school to college to the NFL are pretty much the same. The more exposure you have to it, the better you are going to be."

And there is constant exposure.

Between playing two games during the week and at least three during a weekend tournament (all teams are guaranteed at least three games at tournaments), teams can easily play in the range of 35 games. Each of those games will feature at least 60 offensive plays, all of them passes.

Ultimately, it starts to add up. A talented high school passer who plays three years of 7-on-7 football will get roughly 6,300 passes over that time. Throw in another 1,500 throws during his three years as a high school starter in the fall and another 3,000 throws in practices for the fall and suddenly top high school quarterbacks are getting more than 10,000 throws.

"You have kids who have seen pretty much every situation by the time they get to college," Olin said.

Clayton knows that personally. He was a wishbone quarterback in high school who went to Wyoming to play for Fred Akers (an offensive coordinator under Royal at Texas and eventual successor to Royal). In college, Clayton was coached at one point by Jimmy Raye, an eventual long-time NFL assistant and brilliant strategist in the passing game.

Jimmy Raye (US Presswire)"When I met Jimmy Raye, it opened my eyes to a whole different way of thinking about the passing game," Clayton said. "Those are the things we're teaching kids in high school now. The stuff we're giving them is very complicated, but you see them handle it. We have Freshman B teams who are running the spread and doing it well.

"That's why when you hear from college coaches, they talk about how much they appreciate getting kids from Texas because those kids really understand how to play. It's not that they're just physically gifted."

And it's not just the colleges that are seeing it. It's the NFL.

The senior quarterback threw for more than 300 yards in the first half as the Ramblers raced past Lyons for a 33-10 win in Wilmette to advance to the Class 8A semifinals for the third season in a row.

Weaver connected with Charlie Dowdle for a 59-yard touchdown toss on the game’s fourth play to start a scoring spree that lifted Loyola (12-0) to a 33-3 lead by the half. Weaver threw three TD passes to three receivers and ran for another in the first two quarters.

Willie Palivos scored the Ramblers’ other touchdown in the first half on a 41-yard run, giving the team three scores of at least 40 yards.

“We haven’t been able to get over the hump in the last few years, but we will try to do it again next week,” the senior running back said of Loyola’s consecutive season-ending losses to Maine South in the semifinals. “We want to keep this dream season going.”

Often overlooked on an explosive offense, Palivos once again got the job done on the ground, running 12 times for 128 yards.

“It’s fine with me,” said Palivos. “The offense we run is the spread, and it’s been working. We will stick with it.”

Weaver went 25-for-37 for 356 yards. He threw three TDs and one interception. Dowdle caught 10 balls for 185 yards. read more >>

Malcolm Weaver was the quarterback for TEAM ILLINOIS during the 2011 spring 7-on-7 fottball season.

Malcolm Weaver (QB) and Marquese Martin-Hayes (WR/DB) from Loyola both participated on the 2011 TEAM ILLINOIS 7on7 all-star travel team last spring.

“I just wasn't making the reads right (early),” Milas said. “(Then) it was like 7-on-7.”  READ MORE >>

Jack Milas and the Rolling Meadows team participated in the 2011 All-American 7on7 Passing League high school division.  Artie Checchin also played for TEAM ILLINOIS 7on7 during the 2011 spring season.

Hersey upended No. 23 Glenbrook North 21-14 in Friday night’s season opener in Northbrook.

Second year Huskie head coach Dragan Teonic was excited by the result, but he wasn’t wearing his underdog cape heading into the matchup.

“I don’t consider anything an upset,” said Teonic. “They’re a good football team and I think we’re a good football team. I thought our kids played with a lot of intensity tonight and I think for the first time in my two years here, we came out and didn’t test any waters.”

Hersey (1-0) was dominant early as it pulled ahead 6-0 after a 50-yard touchdown run by senior running back Stephen Kuc.

The Huskies added another score with the two-point conversion after senior quarterback Brad Zaucha found senior running back Andrew Collins on the 10-yard pass.

Brad Zaucha and the Hersey team participated in the 2011 All-American 7on7 Passing League high school division.

The Ramblers (1-0) outgained Evanston 296 yards to 62 in the opening two quarters.

Weaver was effective through the air, going 11-for-15 for 128 yards before giving way to backup Peter Pujals in the second half. Weaver lofted a 24-yard pass to Dowdle in the right corner for a touchdown and 13-0 lead with 5:03 left in the first quarter. He found Dowdle for a 33-yarder on a post pattern with 7:58 left in the second for a 20-0 advantage.

"A lot of jump balls, he's going to go get it," Weaver said of Dowdle. "I expected us to come out here and have a fast-paced offense. We kept the ball moving and executed well."

Player of the game: Malcolm Weaver, Loyola, 11-for-15, 128 yards, 3 TDs.  read more >>

Malcolm Weaver was the QB for the TEAM ILLINOIS 7on7 spring all-star travel team.

By SEAN STILLMAKER Journal Sports 

Hersey 7-on-7 FootballHigh school football players typically pick up the ball in June and drop it in November. Seldom is there an outlet for players to practice and condition during the spring. But the All-American 7 on 7 Passing League has been a rising opportunity for area players to get some spring practice.

The league started five years ago for athletes ages 13 to 18. It started off with five teams total and has expanded to 46 teams with 600 athletes participating. "Every other sport has the off season to play. [High school] football has never really had that outlet," said Ray Glassmann commissioner and founder of the league.

The spring training camp is designed to finetune the skills of quarterbacks, receivers, tight ends, linebackers, running backs and defensive backs. The training does not include linemen, eliminating blocking and tackling, which makes for a faster pace and gives quarterbacks more practice on scrambles and quick decisions.

The spring training has been very useful, and is quickly gaining traction amongst area players. It starts the first week of April and ends in the last week of May. Practice takes place indoors at the Lake Barrington field house.

There were seven high school teams participating last year. It's rapidly grown to 16 teams this year.  Journal-area high school teams from Hersey, Fremd, Rolling Meadows, Loyola and St. Viator all participated. But they only made up a fraction of the 46 total.

This spring also marked the first time where all the best players from the camp formed Team Illinois and competed with 7 on 7 teams from other states.  Team Illinois was led by Loyola starting quarterback Malcom Weaver.  He helped lead the team to the championship game at Eastern Michigan University on May 30. Team Illinois finished the tournament with big wins against Kentucky, Ohio and two solid victories over the Michigan Elite.  read more >>

As a junior last fall, Weaver led the Loyola Ramblers to the Illinois state 8A semifinals.  This spring, he has been demonstrating his talents in 7-on-7 tournaments as the quarterback of the TEAM ILLINOIS all-star team. 

It's been a very productive spring/summer for Weaver.  The rising senior lead TEAM ILLINOIS to the championship at the Eastern Michigan University 7-on-7 event on April 30 and spent last weekend participating in the Chi-town Invitational tournament in Lake Barrington, Illinois. The Chi-town Invite hosts all-star 7-on-7 teams from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Barrington Red, the #3 seed, finsihed off a great year by upsetting the previously undefeated and #1 seed Prairie Ridge 35-19 in the league championship of the 13U Gold division.  In the semi-final game Barrington defeated Huntley 31-28.