Saraland’s K.J. Lacey is atop the quarterback ladder and still climbing

“We’ve got the best quarterback

in the country.”

Saraland coach Jeff Kelly on K.J. Lacey

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

SARALAND — K.J. Lacey cannot stop time, much as he might want to, but he comes close to neutralizing it on the football field despite the frenetic hostilities surrounding him.

Given Lacey’s computational speed and scorching release, he doesn’t need much time. Oddly enough, his development is expanding rapidly even as the calendar required for it compresses at the same moment.

Lacey does not press the snooze button because he does not want to miss even the slightest chance of sharpening his repertoire. That includes seeing into the future, for quarterbacks of his stature are proficient soothsayers and must always prepare, always anticipate, always give the X’s and O’s a heartbeat.

That’s a lot of responsibility but the best from Lacey — who at 17 is about to begin his third and final year as Saraland’s starter — seems right over the horizon, which for some is a dangerous place. Fortunately for him, he excels in navigating through what hasn’t happened yet, just before the snap, just around the curve.

Lacey’s growing aplomb at reading defenses, then exploiting them with his cornucopia of physical gifts, could be compared to a Ph.D. scanning the instructions on how to make Orville Redenbacher’s microwave popcorn.

“The game has slowed down a lot for me,” Dr. Lacey said.

Which is why he plays fast and his prospects — he’s a four-star player who has been committed to Texas for a year now — seem to be ascending along an equally supersonic path, for few quarterbacks in state history have been more prepared to succeed at the highest levels at the youngest age.

Lacey’s career numbers of 6,841 yards and 83 touchdowns passing may seem unremarkable when compared to the high school statistics of Alabama Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young or Mobile’s No. 1 NFL draft pick Jamarcus Russell until you consider Lacey’s accumulation has come in only two seasons; he played two games at Daphne as a freshman. For context, give him four years at 3,312½ yards and 41 TDs in 15 games per season, which is his average with the Spartans, and he’d tie Young in yardage (13,250 yards) and pass him in TDs (164 vs. 152) in about the same number of games (60 vs. 52).

He’d also easily surpass the top two passers in state history — Piedmont’s Jack Hayes (11,024 yards and 158 TDs in five years) and Russell (10,774 yards in four years).

As it is, Lacey is still honing the sixth sense of knowing where the windows in a defense will be before they open, then having the skill to throw a football through them even if they suddenly close down to the size of a shoebox.

His window of opportunity is much larger because Lacey is in the right system with the right arm (or six right arms, given his predilection to deliver accurate gunnery from multiple angles), the right receivers, the right instincts, the right discernment of defensive weaknesses and the right motivation. After leading the best offense in Class 6A history to 6,110 yards and 90 touchdowns last season, Saraland fell a yard short of a second straight state championship on the last play against Clay-Chalkville when a scrambling Lacey was stopped on the lip of the goal line while fans on both sides of Bryant-Denny Stadium held their breath.

When Lacey was jolted to the soggy turf, he rolled over face down and lay there until pried off the ground by his teammates after an agonizing, interminable period. That, and the 31-28 loss, remain a haunting memory despite the fact he threw for a Super 7-record 389 yards.

“We hadn’t lost one in 20 games,” Lacey said. “It was the last drive, the last chance. When I hit the ground, it hit me that we just lost on the biggest stage. I was crying. I don’t like losing at all.”

But it wasn’t long before Lacey began thinking about going that last yard in his final high school season.

“We don’t want to come up short like that again,” he said. “We want complete domination all season. We don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to put the game away. We had our chances then.”

Lacey is intent on not wasting time or chances.

“I want to see things earlier,” he said.

That includes keeping his internal clock wound.

“It’s not always going for the big play,” Lacey said. “I’ve got to know when to be patient and when to get the ball out quick or when to step up in the pocket and when to stay back.”

 

Plenty of assets

 

There is nothing magical about what Lacey does because to make such a claim discounts the fact it’s all real.

“I haven’t found much he’s not good at,” Spartans coach Jeff Kelly said when Lacey was but a sophomore.

Nowadays, Kelly is even more profuse when speaking of Lacey’s merits.

“I feel like we’ve got the best quarterback in the country,” Kelly said, and the facts support that contention.

Lacey — who has been invited to the prestigious Elite 11 quarterback competition in Los Angeles — is ranked the No. 10 quarterback nationally in the 2025 class according to On3’s composite. He’s 28-2 as a starter at Saraland and has thrown for 6,841 yards and 83 touchdowns with only 13 interceptions (about one every 50 attempts) while completing 67% of his passes in his career.

Lacey is in fast company at the Elite 11, which over the years has been attended by Heisman winners Young, Florida’s Tim Tebow, Florida State’s Jameis Winston and LSU’s Jayden Daniels, along with Russell and legendary Texas quarterback Vince Young, who led the Longhorns to their last national championship in 2005.

Lacey committed to Texas a year ago and said it’s unlikely he’ll change his mind. His only scheduled official visit is to Austin on June 21.

“I’m set on Texas,” Lacey said. “If anything changes where I don’t like what’s going on, things could change but it’s not likely.”

But the game has changed and Lacey is a product of it, an instrument of modern efficiency who thrives in space, possesses the powerful passing range to cover all quadrants of the field and the ingenuity to improvise if needed, to pluck off not only all the low-hanging fruit but the treetops and all the bark in between.

Prototypical quarterbacks used to be at least 6-foot-4 pocket passers who lacked mobility but today’s high school and college spread game is ideal for Lacey, who is 6-1 and now about 180 pounds.

“Football the way it has gone the last 20 years is a quarterback’s game,” Kelly said. “You could be good everywhere else but if you don’t have the quarterback, it won’t show up in the win-loss column. You want your quarterback to make everyone around him better and let others show their strengths. This game has gotten away from being played between the hash marks and we do that very well here. You can’t do that without an elite quarterback and we’ve got one.”

Of Lacey’s numerous college assets, 247sports scouting director Andrew Ivins said: “One of the better pure passers in the 2025 cycle. … Should be viewed as a potential high-volume distributor that can push the tempo and set the table for his playmakers with his quick release and swift decisions. … On the smaller side but gets the ball out fast and can change arm angles to create throwing windows. … Must add some body armor to survive on Saturdays but not afraid to take a hit with his gamer-like mentality.”

That gamer-like mentality was demonstrated in the stunning loss to Clay-Chalkville in which Lacey led a valorous 88-yard drive in the final 2:18 despite the Cougars dropping extra defenders into pass coverage and forcing him to improvise and scramble, which was not his forte.

“I wouldn’t say we thought we were invincible,” Lacey said after collecting himself, “but we’re the big dogs.”

Big dogs don’t retreat, so Lacey set out to become more of a running threat. He bulked up 12 pounds in the offseason, tightened the strings on even more fast-twitch athleticism, then showed the fruits of his labor in the spring game against Enterprise, running three times for 45 yards against one of the best defenses in Class 7A. He has run for only 42 yards in his entire career.

“You could see the difference,” Kelly said. “K.J. was much more aggressive when scramble opportunities arose.”

 

Polishing the diamond

 

But Lacey has made his national reputation with his precocious pro-level arm, micro-processing speed that would make Apple envious and his instincts.

“He’s ahead of his years from an anticipation and a pure arm standpoint,” QB Country founder and former Ole Miss quarterback David Morris said of his pupil when Lacey was only 15. “He’s not even a once-in-a-decade player. I’ve been doing this since 2004 and at this age, there’s never been one like him … His arm is NFL (caliber) right now in terms of pure arm strength. He is 100 percent can’t miss. He’s as good as this state has ever seen and he’s not done developing.”

Morris hasn’t changed his mind.

“Every year you get more comfortable playing quarterback,” he said. “He’s always been a fast processor. He’s really an instinctive kid. He doesn’t overthink things often. One of his strengths is he doesn’t make things too big. He’s a special, special talent. He’s the most gifted quarterback I’ve trained out of here.”

As Lacey’s senior season approaches, Kelly knows he is seeing historic football.

“The creativity he has to throw balls is hard to coach,” said Kelly, who tried but found descriptions harder to make as he went on. “A lot of guys can throw the football but playing at the level he does, on time and on balance …”

After a moment of reflection, Kelly praised Lacey’s superior sense of when to let go of the ball, especially under pressure.

“A lot of what we do is off timing,” Kelly said. “You know K.J. will be on time and get the ball out on schedule and be on balance. K.J. is unbelievably special when he gets flushed and scrambles. … He can match his drop to the concept, which allows him to throw with anticipation and attack the right holes. He’s worked a lot on his footwork.”

Then there is Lacey’s celebrated arm, a lightning bolt coming out of his right shoulder.

“The physical stuff has always been off the charts,” Kelly said. “I think his arm has gotten even stronger. His arm strength and velocity, I can see the difference. He is able to drive the ball 30 or 40 yards into a tight hole. That puts us in a good situation.”

Lacey’s mental strength is just as good.

“He’s like a coach on the field,” Kelly said. “He has a grasp of how we want to attack. He can coach up the other guys whether it’s settling into a zone coverage or breaking a route open. He lets them know what he is seeing and what he expects of them.”

Senior wideout C.D. Gill, who has played with Lacey since they were 6 years old in the parks, cited Lacey’s sublime vision when asked what he does best.

“Prep-snap reads,” Gill said without hesitation. “That’s what we make our money off of. When I scan the field and he scans the field, we see the same things. It’s really reassuring that I can trust him to make the right decision.”

In what he hopes are the last 15 games of his high school career, Lacey wants to polish the diamond — “Just knowing where my receivers will be at, predicting how somebody will play against us, knowing where the next option is,” he said.

Gill said Lacey’s accuracy and his ability to adjust routes on the fly, even by a yard or two, give him immense confidence.

“There have been plenty of times he’s done that,” Gill said. “It’s hard to explain our chemistry but when we see something in real time, we’re going to say something to each other even if we hurt each other’s feelings. And coach Kelly makes us feel comfortable enough to tell him what we’re seeing.”

As an example of Lacey’s clairvoyant skill, Gill recalled a play early in last year’s nationally televised 31-30 win over Lipscomb.

“Fourth-and-14,” Gill said. “They were dropping back and we had a double post called. I got past the linebacker and the safety was five or six yards inside. I broke it off and I looked back and the ball was there.”

Gill made a leaping 22-yard catch over the middle, leading to a field goal.

“That’s not how we practiced it,” Gill said, “but I trust K.J.”

 

Surrounded by skill

 

A quarterback such as Lacey needs options and lots of pressure points, a way for him to find and pinch the defense’s carotid artery, in the same way an artist needs a full palette of colors to be creative. He has that at Saraland; he will have that at Texas.

With Lacey and two-time Mr. Football Ryan Williams leading the way, the Spartans set a state record for Class 6A with 754 points and led Class 6A in scoring at 50.3 points per game last year — and most of the time the starters played little more than one half.

“We’d have set every record in the book if they had played more,” Kelly said.

This year, Williams is at Alabama and a rebuilding defense will probably require more playing time and more points from Lacey and star fourth-year skill players Gill and Santae McWilliams — a dual running and receiving threat who has 2,500 career rushing yards and 36 TDs — along with Ole Miss receiver commitment Dillon Alfred.

“Each one of our offensive guys feel like if they have to win a high-scoring game, that’s something they relish,” Kelly said. “We’ve got a tailback who’s played in more big games than anybody ever in this school and who can take over a game. We’ve got a veteran receiver in C.D. who is a No. 1 receiver in his own right. Dillon is an SEC commit who can have a really huge year.”

Their collective abilities will soften the loss of Williams, who needed Lacey as much as Lacey needed him.

“As good as Ryan was, if he didn’t have an elite quarterback, he doesn’t do what he did,” Kelly said. “Ryan was an awesome player — and he’ll go down as one of the best high school careers of anybody — but I feel like we’ve got the best quarterback in the country.”

Morris said Williams’ departure should elevate Lacey’s play.

“He’ll be fine, they’ll be fine,” Morris said. “Sometimes it helps a quarterback grow more when you don’t have the best receiver in the country to throw to. You’ve got to play quarterback more fairly. It’s a good opportunity for him.”

Lacey feels Saraland’s offense will be just as fearsome this season.

“I feel like everyone coming in wants to do better than we did last year,” Lacey said. “We set records and I don’t feel like anybody is going to stop our offense this year. Everybody knew what was coming last year. This year, I don’t think they know what’s coming. I don’t see a dropoff this year. I feel like we’ll pick up where we left off. Receiver wise, everyone is viewed equally. There is no falloff. Anybody can make plays.”

Lacey is looking forward to getting the ball to seniors Gill, McWilliams and Alfred and junior Deshawn Spencer, who was moved from running back to receiver after averaging 9.5 yards per carry in 2023.

“C.D. before was an inside receiver,” Lacey said, “and now he’s going to have a chance to go outside and see what he can do. His role will be bigger. I don’t think anyone in the country can sit there and press him one-on-one. Dillon will be our true X receiver. I expect a really good season from him. Last year he was figuring out the offense. He’s got a chip on his shoulder. And we’ve got to get Santae the ball.”

Spencer also has big-play ability: “It seems every time Deshawn touched the ball, something special happened,” Kelly said.

 

Ready to lead

 

Lacey is only the second three-year starting quarterback Kelly has had (Jack West is the other) and he’s taking charge of the Spartans.

“It’s going to be my responsibility,” Lacey said of setting the example and delivering. “I’m the older guy on the team now. I’ve got to step up and be a leader.”

Lacey’s experience and calm demeanor give Kelly a lot of reassurance.

“It’s an awesome feeling that the guy behind center is one of the best in the business and he is in total control of what you do offensively,” Kelly said. “He has the respect of all his teammates.”

Saraland will be tested immediately when it meets Jackson and four-star quarterback Landon Duckworth in the season opener on Aug. 23 in Saraland.

The Spartans will go as far as Lacey takes them, which is realistically to a third straight Super 7, where they’ll have a chance to go that final yard.

“I feel like his competitive nature has gone up double and triple,” Gill said. “Once we won it (the state championship) the one time, he got even hungrier and worked even harder. You can see it on the field and in the classroom and the weightroom. He does all the small stuff right.”