By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan quarterback Brant Graham hasn’t had the monster senior football season that he hoped to have and was expected to have.
There are reasons for that. He missed most of the Concord game and a good chunk of the Carson game with an injury.
With the emergence of Devaunh White at running back, Graham hasn’t thrown as much as he did the last two seasons.
There have been games like the South Rowan game where Graham didn’t need to throw and games like the Walkertown game where he just didn’t have it.
Graham. who threw for 1,550 yards as a sophomore and 1,844 as a junior, didn’t reach 1,000 passing yards this season until the Falcons’ ninth game.
But Graham had everything clicking in West’s recent 23-21 win against Northwest Cabarrus. It was one of the best games of his career, as he prepares for his last playoff run. He led the Falcons (5-4, 4-2) to an upset of the best team West has beaten in a while. The loss knocked Northwest down to 7-2. Graham was 12-for-21 for 237 passing yards.
“Brant executed at a high level against Northwest Cabarrus,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “We expect a lot from him every week, whether that be physically delivering the football or mentally making sure the play call we are in is a good one. There’s a side of QB play that is managing the play when the defense has a better call than us. Whether that be the front, the blitz or the coverage, a good QB can manage the bad play calls at a high level. And the really good QBs can turn the good play calls into explosive plays. That’s what Brant did against Northwest Cabarrus.”
Graham’s most explosive play of the night was a 58-yard completion to Brennon Stevenson.
“We run the ball so well that defenses usually are heavy in the box against us and have man coverage with the receivers,” Graham said. “We had a good call on that long pass to Brennon. We ran play-action, and Brennon ran by his guy deep. Then I cut it loose.”
When he’s on, there aren’t many high school QBs who throw a prettier ball than Graham. He has good size and his right arm is strong enough that he was recruited by Catawba’s baseball program as a pitcher.
“In a game like the one we were in with Northwest Cabarrus, you’re only get one chance at executing a certain play against a certain defense at a certain time in the game and in a certain field position,” Kraft said. “You really can’t afford to the miss the decision or the throw because it probably won’t be there again. The defense will adjust and take it away. There were key moments in that game where Brant had the opportunity to make a big play. He didn’t miss it.”
Graham credited the coaches for making shrewd play calls. He executed, and Stevenson (7 catches, 185 yards) gave the Falcons a career night.
Graham even scored on an option run, something that doesn’t happen all that often. That rushing TD was his sixth in three seasons.
“I pulled the ball down and made the right read on the option,” Graham said. “I don’t think they expected me to run. I got out the backside.”
While the post to Stevenson was beautiful and the rushing TD was sweet, Kraft said Graham’s biggest play of the night may have been a slant pass to Dillon Smith for a first down. That play allowed West to keep the ball and start a pivotal, time-eating drive. A running play had been called, but Graham changed the call at the line of scrimmage, and Smith came through with another big catch.
Graham also serves as the holder for kicker Carter Durant. That was a critical role in the Northwest game. Durant kicked three difference-making field goals and two PATs.
“The Northwest game was a game littered with big moments, Brant Graham moments,” Kraft said. “He’s played a lot of ball in his time. It’s a blessing for West Rowan to have that experience still out there steering the ship.”
It’s been a roller-coaster season for the Falcons. They’ve had a three-game winning streak and they’ve had a three-game losing streak. They’ve been written off twice, after the shaky loss at Concord when Graham got hurt and after the ugly 49-0 shellacking from Robinson, but they responded to those losses with their two biggest victories — against Carson and against Northwest Cabarrus.
After everything, West is still likely to tie for second in the South Piedmont Conference.
“We’ve looked at each situation that has happened as an opportunity,” Graham said. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’ve stayed together and we’ve never lost our belief in the coaching staff.”
Entering Friday’s game with Salisbury, Graham has 4,453 career passing yards (he had a few for the varsity as a freshman) and 40 touchdown passes.
