In the moments following his team's 28-21 overtime victory over Bethel Park in the PIAA Class AAAA football championship game, Bethlehem Liberty coach Tim Moncman didn't seem to know how to handle the moment.
Moncman wandered from player to player, stopping briefly for a hug, then moved off in another random direction for another random encounter.
Once he spotted some reporters, however, he got right to the point. "What do you call him?" Moncman said of Anthony Gonzalez, his junior quarterback and defensive back. "He's Superman." Gonzalez carried an AAAA-record 33 times in the title game. His one-handed, rolling interception ended the overtime game.
Gonzalez's ability and versatility landed him a first-team spot on The Associated Press Class AAAA all-state team and the player of the year award.
Autzen Stadium... Where great teams go to die...Hard!
Something else to keep in mind... Regardless if you think Terrell Pryor was God's gift to football or not.
TP played in the PIAA 'AA' classification... That is the next to the smallest enrollment classification, at 162 -286 students ... About the size of Pleasant Hill HS, just outside Eugene (Smaller than Marist)
Gonzalez played in Pennsylvania's largest classification, AAAA... 493+ students.
One would think the competition would be considerably stiffer in AAAA than in AA, eh?
That makes AG's HS comparable in size to that of Edna Karr HS, the charter school which is attended by another Oregon recruit, Munchie Legaux, at an enrollment of 762 students.
Autzen Stadium... Where great teams go to die...Hard!
I personally like Gonzalez more than Legeaux. Some of you may disagree but after watching a good amount of film on the two of them and having the oppurtunity to see Gonzalez play live on a couple occassions I feel that both are pretty good throwing the ball and can make just about all the throws necessary to be a solid D-1 passer. What separates them is their running ability. Both are good at making plays with their feet, but Gonzalez is the better runner IMO. Another thing I have noticed, and this is just an opinion of course, is that Gonzalez plays with a Masoliesque type of toughness and is vocal in his leadership and actions like Jeremiah Johnson was. As for Legeaux I have not seen him play live so I can't really comment on his leadership, but from the film he looks more like a quiet, lead by action type of player. Kind of like how J-Stew and Dixon were for us. Both are effective forms of play and leadership, so it comes down to what kind of player and leader you like.
These are both good prospects and although I like Gonzalez a little more, maybe because I love lefty QB's and guys that aren't afraid to run people over, I think that signing either one of these guys would be a great pickup for our Ducks and who knows it could maybe open up even more doors in areas like Louisiana and Pennsylvania, which as we all know can't hurt.
Getting Gonzalez and developing him into a more effective QB than TP would be a huge feather in CK's cap on future signing days...
Pennsylvania is like the cradle of HS QBs: The place has produced QBs like Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Jim Kelly, Marc Bulger, George Blanda, Jeff Hostetler, Johnny Unitas, Bruce Gradkowski, Gus Frerotte, as well as Charlie Batch, nortorious to Duck fans as the 'adviser/mentor' to Ohio State QB, Terrell Pryor.
Pennsylvania is also the boyhood homes of NFL RBs such as Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, Kevan Barlow, Mercury Morris, Larry Brown, Ernie Davis, Cookie Gilchrist and Joe Marconi.
Sounds like a great place to develop a pipeline to!
Autzen Stadium... Where great teams go to die...Hard!
ducklydoright and wounded...I agree there's just something about Gonzalez I like and ducklydoright it sounds like you have confirmed it for me thanks. His running ability and his speed might be the difference maker here between the two!
If you could put Munchie and Gonzales together you would have the perfect QB for CK's offense. Munchie is the better passer at this point, but Gonazales can run with the football in his hands. I like AG alot right now cause he put up good numbers. But I really like what I saw from ML throwing the ball. The only thing I worry about is Gonzales turning into another Chris Harper. We have seen first hand what happens when we have a QB that has to rely soley on the running game. To be fair though CH was forced into action as a true freshman. That is never the ideal situation from any QB.
When it comes to two QBs who both have above average ability running the ball, you have to go with the better passer. Although like you guys, there's something I like about Gonzalez, I'd have to go with Munchie.
The one video I found of Munchie was on youtube. I loved the way he threw the ball. Only thing that I could knock was that on plays where it was either a designed run or the pocket broke down, he never ran away from people or broke long runs. As a D1 dual threat QB I would expect him to be more athletic than most kids on the field. The one knock on Gonzales would have to be there werent enough throwing highlights from his profile on ESPN. Its so tough to guage who is going to be the better D1 player. At the JC level Masoli was a throwing machine. But he showed the ability to run the zone read to perfection. If we get either or I will be excited to see what they can do on the football field.
In my opinion you can't really compare Harper to Gonzalez, because if you look at film on Harper you could see he was an athlete trying to play QB, whereas Gonzalez is more of a QB with athletic ability and a HUGE upside. From what I have seen of Gonzalez he can still make the tough throw if necessary and although he isn't as polished as Legeaux is at passing, he is a better runner, which is extremely important for us and he has that "IT" factor. I don't really know how to explain it, but if you read the ESPN write up on him you can get somewhat of an idea as to what I mean.
