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Connor Shaw with father (and head coach) Lee Shaw at Flowery Branch High School in Flowery Branch, Ga.
GoGamecocks.com
Connor Shaw: USC's next great QB?
USC's pledge for 2010 has his family's support with each big decison
Connor Shaw with father (and head coach) Lee Shaw at Flowery Branch High School in Flowery Branch, Ga.
Kimberly Smith/AJC
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson @thestate.com
Posted on 05.03.09
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Connor Shaw bio
POS.: Quarterback
HGT./WGT.: 6-foot-1, 198
HIGH SCHOOL: Flowery Branch (Ga.) High
40-TIME: 4.53
KEY STATS: Passed for 2,200 yards and 22 TDs as a junior while rushing for 941 yards and 11 TDs.
RECRUITING: Committed to USC on April 11. He had offers from Stanford, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Wake Forest and East Carolina.
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — On a clear, sunny April afternoon, spring fever has set in at Flowery Branch High School.
It is the last period of the day, and one class has moved outside to the football stadium to take advantage of the weather. A group of male students is standing in a circle on the concourse kicking a Hacky Sack, while another pack of boys is booting a soccer ball on the field below.
At the other end of the field, a broad-shouldered teen in a South Carolina T-shirt drops back a few yards, steps forward and launches a football into the blue sky. Connor Shaw’s pass is a tight-spinning spiral that comes down into the hands of a receiver 50 yards away.
None of the dozen or so kids reading in the shaded stands looks up. The Hacky Sack and soccer games continue uninterrupted.
The strong arm, the nice pass — these kids have seen it before. For as long as they have been at Flowery Branch, there has been a Shaw at quarterback.
But the Shaw show will wrap this year once Connor finishes his senior season. On track to graduate in December, the second of Lee and Dawn Shaw’s three children will head east to Columbia to enroll at USC in January.
Many thought Connor would join his brother at Georgia Tech, where Jaybo Shaw is a sophomore quarterback. Connor often drives into the city to stay with Jaybo on campus, and the two are “as tight as two brothers can be,” according to their father.
So close that Connor thought it best for them to be apart.
“We’ve had a very, very good relationship since we were little,” Connor said, a few minutes after his throwing session. “And I didn’t want to mess anything up with me competing with my brother for playing time.”
There were other reasons that convinced the younger Shaw to commit to the Gamecocks at last month’s spring game.
First, he felt USC’s pro-style offense was a better fit for him than Paul Johnson’s triple option at Georgia Tech. Then there was the Steve Spurrier factor.
Growing up in the mountains of north Georgia, Connor was a Gator living in Bulldog country. His bedroom was painted in Florida’s blue and orange color scheme, and Connor liked watching Spurrier’s Gator teams fling the ball around in his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense.
When Spurrier first visited Flowery Branch, he told Connor he heard he grew up a Florida fan.
“No, coach,” Connor said. “I grew up a coach Spurrier fan.”
The two have at least one thing in common.
“My family has never been Dawg fans,” Connor said. “I can’t stand Georgia.”
ATHLETIC GENES
From a sports standpoint, the Shaws are the first family at Flowery Branch, a 1,300-student school along Hog Mountain Road, 45 miles from downtown Atlanta. Lee Shaw started the football program in 2002, two years after the Atlanta Falcons moved their headquarters to Flowery Branch, a half-mile from the high school.
Jaybo was the starting quarterback for four years. During Jaybo’s final two seasons, Connor was the top receiver for the Falcons (the school borrowed the color scheme and logo from Atlanta’s NFL entry, which helps outfit Shaw’s teams).
About that time Lee Shaw switched from an option to a spread offense, and watched his sons torch opposing defenses with their uncanny chemistry.
“It was like freaky timing out there,” Lee said. “They had thrown so much in the yard” they did not have to rely on hand signals when changing the play at the line of scrimmage.
Lee was a pretty fair option quarterback at Rabun County High who had a scholarship offer to Clemson before tearing up his knee in a playoff game his senior year. He ended up at Western Carolina, where he played receiver and returned punts.
After college he returned home and married his high school sweetheart, who played basketball at North Georgia College. When the two boys came along two years apart, a sporting sibling rivalry was born.
“We’ll go at it in anything — video games, anything,” Jaybo said. “We want to win in whatever we do. It could be horseshoes and dadgum it, we’re going to find a way to win.”
That competitive spirit is alive in each family member. Beach trips to Panama City, Fla., featured late-night tennis matches and putt-putt tournaments where there were no gimmes.
“We compete rolling up the window in the car,” Lee said.
Connor said his friends would joke that “you’ve gotta try out to be a Shaw.”
There is also the expectation that Shaws will earn athletic scholarships. Lee, who teaches physical education at Flowery Branch, held both boys back a year when they were younger to help their athletic careers.
Far from wilting under the pressure, the Shaw kids have thrived. The boys’ sister, Anna Kate, was 12-0 as an eighth-grader playing on the high school’s girls varsity tennis team.
“That’ll be her ticket,” Connor said.
WHERE HE WANTS TO BE
Connor has already punched his ticket. After sitting in on a couple of quarterback meetings with Spurrier last month, Connor returned to USC with his girlfriend for the spring game.
When he called his dad and told him he was ready to commit to USC, the family was at Georgia Tech watching a spring scrimmage. As soon as the scrimmage ended, everyone piled in the car — Jaybo included — and drove to Columbia to be with Connor.
While some wondered whether Connor acted too hastily, he had the full support of his family.
“I’m not much into the hats on the table and tricking everybody,” Lee said of scripted Signing Day antics. “I just said, ‘If that’s the place where you want to play, pull the trigger.’”
In addition to Spurrier, Connor felt a natural bond with new quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus, who recruited Jaybo while at Middle Tennessee. Jaybo initially committed to Middle Tennessee, but changed his mind after Johnson was hired at Georgia Tech.
Connor, who has offers from Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Wake Forest and Stanford, said his commitment to USC is solid.
“A lot of people thought it was too early. But I’m graduating early and enrolling in January,” he said. “And I knew South Carolina was the place for me, so no need to wait around.”
A week after committing Connor wore a Gamecocks’ hat to Georgia Tech’s spring game, and was surprised by how friendly the Yellow Jacket fans were.
“They came up, shook my hand and said there’s going to be two chances to beat Georgia with a Shaw at quarterback. I said, ‘That’s right.’”
Shaw passed for 2,200 yards and ran for 941 last season in leading Flowery Branch to the Class AAA title game, where the Falcons lost to Cairo in the Georgia Dome. He plans to get back there as a collegian.
“I want to be that quarterback to come in (to USC) and set records under (Spurrier),” Connor said. “I know Carolina hasn’t won an SEC championship yet, so I’d definitely like to come in and lead them to the Dome.”
The Dome also could be the setting for a Shaw brothers showdown. With Georgia Tech not on the Gamecocks’ future schedules, the only way the Shaws would square off would be in a bowl game pitting ACC and SEC teams, such as the Chick-fil-A in Atlanta.
In the meantime, the two will continue to compete on the tennis court and putt-putt course — and root for each other on weekends in the fall.
“I couldn’t be a prouder big brother,” said Jaybo, the Jackets’ No. 2 quarterback behind Josh Nesbitt. “Yeah, I would have loved for him to be at Tech. But I think South Carolina’s a great fit for him and I think he’s going to go up there and shine.”
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Top dual-threat quarterbacks
Some of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation who have already committed to major colleges, according to rivals.com. Players are listed in alphabetical order.
| Player | Hgt., Wgt. | Hometown | College choice |
| Matt Brown | 6-0, 175 | Allen, Tex. | Arizona |
| Brian Carnes | 6-0, 181 | Bradenton, Fla. | South Florida |
| Johnny Deaton | 6-3, 195 | Sand Springs, Ok. | Oklahoma State |
| James Franklin | 6-2, 218 | Corinth, Tex. | Missouri |
| Devin Gardner | 6-4, 195 | Detroit | Michigan |
| John Kinder | 6-3, 190 | Cedarhurst, N.Y. | Syracuse |
| Case McCoy | 6-2, 169 | Graham, Tex. | Texas |
| Tom Parish | 6-3, 200 | Huntland, Wis. | Minnesota |
| Connor Shaw | 6-1, 198 | Flowery Branch, Ga. | South Carolina |
| Nathan Sorenson | 6-2, 185 | Texarkana, Tex. | Oklahoma State |
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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