Football and basketball pro teams often talk about having a “big three” of offensive firepower to help fuel their championship goals — like the 1990s dynasty “triplets” (Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin) who helped capture three rings for the Dallas Cowboys. The Miami Heat utilized LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to earn two titles in four trips to the NBA Finals.
Football teams with high-profile offenses — whether at the high school, college or pro level — often boast a balanced attack and triple threat that keeps opposing defenses on their heels. That triple threat usually consists of at least one standout rusher, passer and receiver.
The 2020 Carroll Dragons fit that profile to a tee with a dangerous player starting in each of those positions. Having that type of talent at its disposal could be a big key to Carroll’s success this year. The expertise could prove highly necessary, especially since those three athletes are the only returning starters on offense.
Junior quarterback Quinn Ewers, sophomore running back Owen Allen and senior wide receiver Brady Boyd logged impressive stats in 2019, as the three were responsible for a huge chunk of the Dragons’ total offense during a 14-game stretch that saw Carroll post a 13-1 record and advance to the 6A Division I Region I Final. This season, it falls on the trio’s shoulders to set the tone for a less-experienced supporting cast.
“I’m excited about those three guys leading,” says Riley Dodge, who begins his third season as Dragons head coach and who helped lead Carroll to a state championship as a former quarterback for the storied program. “Going into last year, we were very inexperienced in the backfield. This year, we’re going in very experienced with Quinn and Owen. We’re real excited to see those guys take the next step. They have a lot of chemistry in the backfield, playing a lot of ball games together. And then Brady Boyd on the outside was a key contributor for us last year on a really good football team.
“We also have some young offensive linemen that have a lot of talent. They just need to put the pads on and play,” Dodge says. “I think people will see that we’ve got a good group.”
Carroll’s big three were all totally new to the Dragon varsity scene in 2019, but being young and less experienced didn’t slow them down. Ewers threw for just over 4,000 yards, 45 touchdowns and only three interceptions as a sophomore. Allen carried for 1,266 yards and rushed for 23 scores as a freshman, while Boyd caught 66 passes for 972 yards and eight touchdowns as a junior move-in.
The production received from last year’s newbie trio gives Carroll’s coach plenty of optimism that other young and currently unknown Dragons could follow that same path and make a mark as first-year varsity playmakers.
“What was beneficial for those three guys is that they had a lot of seniors around them, so they could take a lot of burden off their shoulders and just let them play football,” Dodge says. “But it’s been proven that we’ll play young guys, and young guys can thrive as well in our system.”
A year ago, Dodge fully intended to give the keys to his offense to a sophomore quarterback, but no one expected the youth movement to be quite so dramatic. A freshman was not expected to start at running back, but injuries thrusted Allen — a promising young talent set to be groomed — into an impactful role immediately.
The result was a season that saw the rusher put up head-turning numbers down the second-half stretch and into the playoffs while earning some impressive accolades. Allen was the only athlete from the DFW area to be named to the MaxPreps Freshman All-American Team. He was also the unanimous choice for the District 5-6A Newcomer of the Year.
“Knowing me, I’m hoping that they’ll trust me with the ball and trust that I’ll make them right,” Allen says. “I’m more excited for this year than I’ve ever been for football. I trust my O-line. I trust every single one of them. Whoever they end up putting in to block for me on Friday nights, I know that we’ll be more than fine.”
The faces might be different, but the confidence is the same along Carroll’s offensive line. They intend to protect their quarterback, giving him time to find the open receiver. They also expect to open holes for Allen so that the sophomore has an encore performance that’s at least as dominant as last year.
“We’ve come prepared,” says team captain and senior Dylan Anderson, slated to get time at center as a first-year starter. “We’ve kind of tightened our stuff up from last year and have really been fine-tuning our craft and getting all our assignments right. I think [Allen] is really going to shine this year and get a lot of yards.”
Allen wasn’t the only one finding daylight up the field last season. Ewers kept the ball for 569 yards and nine touchdowns, ranking second on the team in both categories. Ewers is expected to be a threat on the ground once again, but his arm makes him most lethal, with a knack for finding receivers on first-down strikes. The junior averaged just shy of 10 yards per attempt (9.95) to keep the chains moving.
Ewers’ play as a first-year quarterback was impressive enough for ESPN to name him the No. 1 recruit in the country. He took the District 5-6A MVP as a sophomore and garnered serious consideration from various college programs across the nation before originally giving the University of Texas a verbal commitment. As of now, Ewers decommitted from Texas and continues to field college offers.
“I don’t really think that age determines how good you can be,” says Ewers, who proved that to be the case for himself and believes the same can be true for his first-year varsity teammates. “Obviously experience helps a lot, but after that first game, I feel like those guys will be prepared well enough and coached well enough to where it doesn’t really matter how old or how young you are.”
It also doesn’t matter how familiar you are with the Dragon playbook. Boyd, who is currently out after undergoing an injury in the first game of the season, entered the fold of receivers last year after previously attending Richland High School, and he immediately had an impact with his speed and ability to get down the field. He finished a yard shy of second in total receiving yards for the Dragons, but averaged the most yards per catch (14.7) of all players with more than four receptions. And he grabbed the most eyeballs after his one-handed catch went viral last year and made the No. 3 spot on “SportsCenter’s” “Top 10 Plays.”
“Last year, I didn’t really have any expectations coming in,” says Boyd, who has verbally committed to the University of Minnesota. “I feel like the coaches and the team really brought me in and treated me right, made me feel welcomed and made me feel like I was at home. Over the past year and a half, they made me feel like I made the right decision coming here.”
Other receivers lacking varsity-starting experience hope to make their mark this season in Carroll’s highflying offense. With one of the top quarterbacks in the nation and a passing system with a proven track record, guys who are unknown or unproven hope to end the season as household names.
“We’re very detailed. Coaches hold us to a very high standard, and we just work our butts off,” says junior tight end RJ Maryland, son of former Dallas Cowboys’ defensive tackle Russell Maryland. “We work hard together and try to win together.”
That effort is expected to pay off in the form of bigplay execution and drives that lead to scoring opportunities. Senior kicker Joe McFadden, a standout special teams athlete entering his fourth year on varsity, is excited about his chances to contribute points through the uprights as a result. Young or not, the kicker expects his team to light up the competition.
“We’re obviously going to get down the field quite a bit,” says McFadden, a 2021 All-American Bowl selection and verbal Connecticut commit. “The team wants to put up seven points, but I’m always happy to put up three points. We’ve had young teams, and it always takes a couple games to work the kinks out and to get the butterflies out. But I think this group’s really special and we can do really big things this year.”