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“If you look at how quarterbacks are judged, at the collegiate level and at the NFL level, they talk about the greatest ever is a guy like Tom Brady. It’s about winning games. There may be other guys that throw for more yards. Those guys are really kind of an afterthought to the ones that are winners. And K.J. is a winner.”

Saraland coach Jeff Kelly

on QB K.J. Lacey

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Saraland quarterback K.J. Lacey has one hallmark that surpasses his superlative career numbers and it’s this: His teammates have a powerful faith that every time he cocks his arm, something good is going to happen — a completed pass, even if he is throwing from his shoelaces while five defenders try to detach his head from his body; clutch third-down conversions, touchdowns, victories.

Lacey — who became the fifth high school quarterback in state history to reach 10,000 career passing yards in Friday’s 49-14 win over McAdory — will be regarded as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game in Alabama. He is also the finest quarterback I’ve seen come from the southern part of the state in nearly 50 years of covering the sport.

Lacey has done it with consistent excellence and scarce drama. Twenty-nine of his 39 games have been decided by 20 points or more, so he didn’t play a full game the majority of the time. He’s 37-2 as the Spartans’ starter; the losses are by one point and three points.

The 31-28 loss to Clay-Chalkville in last year’s Class 6A state championship game remains torturous. On the final play, Lacey was less than a yard away from casting his eyes upon a bookend Blue Map. Instead, the season ended with him face down on the grass, his world reduced to a few inches of damp darkness within pungent, musky scent of the goal line.

This year, if a similar challenge presents itself, Lacey expects a different outcome.

“If I have to get down into this situation, if I’ve got to go get us a touchdown, throw a touchdown, run a touchdown, whatever it is, I’m going to go do it,” said Lacey, who has committed to Texas. “I just want to win. That’s all that matters to me. It’s about winning state and whatever comes with that comes with it.”

 

Winning before stats

 

For now, Piedmont’s Jack Hayes (11,024 yards) is the all-time passing yardage leader in state history, followed by Williamson’s Jamarcus Russell (10,774), Pinson Valley’s Bo Nix (10,386), American Christian’s Chris Smelley (10,385) and Lacey (10,154).

“It feels really good being in that company,” said Lacey, who was presented a commemorative game ball by Saraland coach Jeff Kelly after Friday’s triumph.

Lacey also has 123 career touchdown passes, one of only 10 state quarterbacks to breach 100.

That’s a lot of arithmetic — imagine his statistics if he had played every snap and hadn’t missed two games his senior year with an injury — but it doesn’t fully capture Lacey’s essence.

“If you look at how quarterbacks are judged, at the collegiate level and at the NFL level, they talk about the greatest ever is a guy like Tom Brady,” Kelly said. “It’s about winning games. Tom Brady’s a guy that wins games. There may be other guys that throw for more yards or this or that. Those guys are really kind of an afterthought to the ones that are winners. And K.J. is a winner. He’s led his team to a state championship. He led us last year to within one yard of a state championship. And this year, we’re in the hunt. I think that’s the greatest individual stat of somebody that plays that position — does he lead his team to wins? His record is as good as probably anybody’s done in the state of Alabama. I’d like to know if there’s anybody that has a better winning percentage as a quarterback.”

The short answer is no, at least among the 10,000-yard fraternity. Lacey has the best winning percentage of them all (95%) and if the Spartans win another Blue Map in a few weeks, he’ll have two state championships to equal those of Hayes and Nix. Russell and Smelley have none.

With his unparalleled release, savvy football IQ, pro-caliber arm and the ability to turn that arm into a slinky, Lacey makes throws others can only dream about. He makes mistakes about as often as you can get DoorDash in Antarctica — 18 interceptions in 854 attempts at Saraland, or one in every 47 throws.

Oddly, Lacey’s passer rating of 124.8 this year is the lowest of his career but still exceptional, even better than the best NFL single-season passer rating, which belongs to Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson (123.2) this year. Lacey’s career passer rating is 126. As a point of reference, Brady, who is widely considered the greatest of all quarterbacks, had a career passer rating of 97.2.

 

Even better in big moments

 

Lacey has been at his best in the playoffs, when he faces the most onerous competition. He has completed 70% of his passes and averaged 251 yards per game in the postseason compared to 62% and 198 yards per game in the regular season. In the loss to Clay-Chalkville in last year’s finals, when he was stopped inside the 1 as time expired, Lacey set a Super 7 record with 389 yards passing.

“He has proven over the years that in the big moments, when it matters the most, he plays his best,” Kelly said. “It shows you how competitive he is.”

Perhaps this is why Kelly always has much the same message for Lacey before he takes the field.

“Coach just tells me he wouldn’t rather have anybody else with the ball in their hands than me,” Lacey said.

Lacey’s teammates wear his tranquil but inspirited comportment like armor, especially against unfamiliar teams in the playoffs. Accordingly, Kelly believes his players perform with a larger sense of urgency.

“We see them on film but we’ve never played against them, so we don’t really know what to expect,” Lacey said. “So, you’ve got to prepare yourself, like be in a different mental space coming into the game. Once it comes to those big games, the team has to rely on me to do what we have to do. I feel like that’s when I shine the best. That’s when I play the best. More is expected of me and I like to be held to that standard because I’m the quarterback, the leader of the team. So, whatever they need me to do, I’m going to go out there and get it done.”

Lacey is the Spartans’ barometer and it rarely rains on them, unless footballs are raining down to be collected by his trusty receivers, which have included the singular talent Ryan Williams along with collegiate prospects C.D. Gill, Dillon Alfred, Deshawn Spencer, Jordan Dees and Myron Dunklin.

“It’s a team thing,” Lacey said. “I always have confidence in my receivers. Whoever I throw the ball to, I believe they can catch the ball. … But, for sure, I feel like however I carry myself, that’s how the mood and the attitude of the team is going to be. I’m glad to be out there. I’m pushing everybody to be better during the game and we’re having fun.”

 

 

The common denominator

 

Lacey has proven he is the golden thread that has bound the Spartans through some of the best years any program ever experienced. Williams came, conquered and went. There were always new additions to the three offensive lines Lacey relied on for protection. Yet, Saraland remained prolific.

“He has been the common denominator for sure,” Kelly said. “A lot of people thought this was a year that Saraland takes a step backward. K.J. has done a really good job of raising the team and his game to the level that makes everybody around him better. We’ve been able to rock and roll — what we’ve come to expect around our place — and he’s done it with a lot of different people.”

Lacey has also done it with pride and an extraordinary eye for detail. When he watches film, he lights up a dark room when he detects man-to-man coverage, although he interprets it as folly, even an insult.

“It’s when teams try to play man coverage or their safeties are low,” he said. “And we saw that coming into the Chelsea game (in the first round), where it’s just disrespectful for them to even come out there and try to play us like another regular team. We see that, we’re like, all right, we’re going to make them get out of it. I feel like everybody that we played, we made them get out of it after the first or second drive. That makes me pretty happy.”

Lacey is already reading defenses as good or better than many SEC quarterbacks and Kelly feels he’s going to have an outstanding career at Texas.

“There’s a transition period for every quarterback going from high school to that level,” Kelly said, “but he’s going to have a lot of success just because of how hard he works and how hard he studies. That’s definitely going to give him a chance to play well when he gets his opportunity.”

When Lacey departs this winter, he will leave Saraland with a legacy that will long be remembered.

“Without a doubt, he’s the best quarterback I’ve seen at the high school level, either on my team or on anybody else’s team,” Kelly said. “I’m glad I don’t have to coach against him.”