Myles Brennan (12) has thrown for 1,028 yards and 10 touchdowns through three games, all wins, this season for St. Stanislaus. (Photo: Richard Gleber, Saint Stanislaus).
Saint Stanislaus (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) senior quarterback Myles Brennan, who made the American Family Insurance Preseason ALL-USA team, has thrown for 10 touchdowns and 1,028 yards through three games, all wins, this season. At that pace, the state records he set of 5,761 yards passing and 64 touchdowns as a sophomore are in jeopardy.
This past week, the LSU commit brought the Rock-A-Chaws back from a 10-point deficit with nine minutes to go and led them to a 37-24 defeat of Long Beach by throwing for two touchdowns and running for two.
“Some of those records I think about from game to game, when people start talking about them, but it’s not the mindset I have when I go into a game,” Brennan said. “What I need to work on the most is just slowing the game down, knowing to go through the progressions and make an accurate throw at the same time. I need to know when to step up in the pocket when needed and avoid pressure. Also, be smart and don’t force any throws.”
RELATED: Meet the ALL-USA Preseason Football Team
Brennan, who is 6-4 and 181 pounds, is listed as only the No. 6 pro-style quarterback in the 2017 class, even with his gaudy numbers. Saint Stanislaus plays in the third-largest class in the state, so the knock on Brennan is he hasn’t faced the toughest competition, despite helping his team reach the state championship the past two seasons.
To counter that argument, for the past two seasons, Rock-A-Chaws coach Bill Conides scheduled St. Paul’s Episcopal (Mobile, Ala.), which won its state 5A title last fall, and Brother Martin (New Orleans), which was a state quarterfinalist last year and a state semifinalist the season before.
“After his sophomore year, I went out of my way to find the best competition within an hour’s drive,” Conides said. “So, we brought in St. Paul’s and Brother Martin. As a junior, Myles took his lumps, but this year, we were able to beat St. Paul’s (Saint Stanislaus plays Brother Martin in New Orleans on Friday). Ultimately, our football players needed to see better talent and experience better talent.”
LSU lost to Wisconsin last week in its opener and soon after, Tigers fans wanted to know when Brennan would be on campus. Unfortunately for LSU, he’s not going to graduate early at Saint Stanislaus.
With all the LSU fans panicking, Brennan said it’s important to remember, it’s just one game.
“It’s kind of hard to predict the future,” Brennan said. “It’s hard to say anything after one game. Many of the SEC teams struggled this week. I’m lucky enough that I don’t have to make the final decision until February.”
Brennan has an excellent release, both for its speed and its height. That makes it harder for defenders to read where he’s going or to knock the ball out before he can throw. That’s not by accident. Conides has a drill with Brennan where he places a baseball bat on Brennan’s sternum. If Brennan drops his elbow too low, it hits the bat on his follow-through.
“Obviously, you don’t want to hit the baseball bat,” Brennan said. “I learned real quick not to drop my elbow.”
Brennan comes from an athletic family. His father Owen was a linebacker at Tulane and his mother Megan was the first female scholarship athlete at Tulane, playing volleyball and basketball. His older brother Bo was an all-state quarterback and briefly played as a walk-on at Ole Miss.
“When I was a sophomore and junior, he was still at the house,” Brennan said of Bo. “It was nice to come home and watch some film and to have him in the room and go over mistakes. We could talk about what I saw and he what he saw. I feel like that was a huge advantage.”
When Brennan has to scramble, he does a good job of looking downfield for his receivers.
“It’s kind of instinctual, something I’ve been doing since sophomore year,” Brennan said. “Once I leave the pocket to extend the play, I try to keep my eyes downfield because my receivers do a good job of getting open and staying in my line of sight.”
What separates Brennan is he has the ability to absorb a pointer and put it to use, Conides said.
“The drill work that we’ve been doing since Day One has always been about pocket presence and evading the rush,” Conides said. “What separates guys who look really good throwing the football in practice or warm-usp or camps or a 7 on 7? What’s the natural filtration process? What separates guys who play in the NFL from guys who are good college quarterbacks but can’t make the transition? To me, it’s pocket presence and being able to avoid the rush.
“If something happens, you have to be able to escape. That’s what was cool about going to talk with the coaches at LSU. They see the drills we do in practice and then with Myles, you see it in action in a game. It really comes down to muscle memory. A lot of people can’t do the things he can physically.”