Armed and Ready: Coach Battle, Lynch look to switch the style up

Gnats buzzed in bunches across Rocky Mount High’s practice football field. The flying insects parted when an athlete barrelled through a swarm. Heavy rains washed through hours earlier, and the thick, humid air seemed to suspend the flying annoyances.

No grouping seemed safe from disruption as Jaquan Lynch sent footballs all over the field during a practice in early August. It was as if each cluster was a target.

The junior quarterback showed off a strong arm by zipping a tight spiral to a receiver on his right. The next play called for Lynch to attack the secondary. He tossed a downfield pass that traveled close to 50 yards before landing just out of reach.

“Touch, it’s all about touch,” Lynch said after the practice. “That’s all I’ve been hearing since last season ended. I’ve been working on it and getting better. The big thing is reminding myself to not throw it 100 mph every time.”

Important work is being done on the back fields behind the bricked school. The Gryphons and coach Jason Battle have spent the past couple years working with the young quarterback with the hope that he will guide the team back from its first losing season since 2011.

And there’s reason to believe he’s the guy to do so. A successful first year as a starter made a promising project turn into a safe bet with great upside. As a sophomore, Lynch showed he has the physical tools to make difficult throws, and the mental acuity to make proper decisions.

It’s the blend of attributes that Battle has been searching for.

“You always look for that kid, you look for kids that got it. I always say, of all the positions, it’s difficult to build a quarterback because there’s so many parts to the position,” Battle said. “The kid has to be a confident kid, he’s got to have ice water in his veins, stay even keeled, but also has to have leadership skills. This biggest thing now is our team follows (Lynch). They trust him as a guy who will get us in the right position.”

***

Jaquan Lynch caught the eye of Rocky Mount High football coaches when the young quarterback was in the eighth grade. At that point, it was Lynch’s ability to comprehend what was being asked of him that drew the interest of Gryphons coach Jason Battle.

The two talked often, and it was during those conversations that Battle knew he had something in the young athlete. Everything just seemed to click. Battle found himself being able to speak about passing concepts, what different defensive alignments look like and what they are trying to take away, as well as emergency plans once a play breaks down.

It was clear that Lynch wasn’t overwhelmed by the wealth of information spewed his way.

“Some kids, they play quarterback in middle school or wherever and you just talk football to them and everything just looks and sounds foreign,” Battle said. “But with him, we were throwing things at him and five minutes later he got it. The next day, you’re building on the things you talked about. You’re not going back. You might review, but you’re not re-teaching.”

Since that initial meeting, Battle began envisioning scenarios where Lynch would be the quarterback of the future for a Gryphons team that hadn’t had, or needed, a true passer in years. Oh, the opportunities this could create.

During the Gryphons’ state championship-winning season in 2015, Forrest Bell threw for over 1,600 yards, but tossed just eight touchdowns with five interceptions on a team that was carried by a group of talented running backs and a hard-hitting defense.

The following year, when RMH advanced to its second consecutive title game, the team did so on the same merits — tough defense and hard running. A pair of senior quarterbacks split time in that 2016 season, and the tandem combined for 1,199 yards, eight touchdowns and four picks.

Lynch could be the answer to a more balanced approach.

***

Jaquan Lynch was frustrated. Quarterback is a tough position and he was figuring that out on the fly.

Lynch got his first varsity start in the 2017 season opener on the road in Apex. The outcome was a 33-15 loss to Middle Creek. Though the box score suggested he had a strong game — passing for 210 yards, a touchdown and an interception — it could have been so much more.

A series of overthrows, missing open receivers, and the lack of the ever-important touch on his passes all amounted to a stressful Friday night. Frustrations began to boil over. Then a sophomore, Lynch admits that he couldn’t escape his emotions and his play would be altered.

Lynch’s solution? Throw harder. He was wild at times, but if he threw the ball hard enough, he thought, it would get to where it needed to go before the defense could react. Only it didn’t work out as planned.

“Early on I would try to throw the ball 100 mph every throw,” Lynch said. “I know that’s why I had a lot of overthrows. Or I’d hit guys before they had time to react. Especially in the Middle Creek game, oh my, I overthrew like five touchdowns.”

Lynch can smile about those errors now, mostly because he knows how to fix the problem in a more constructive way. The junior looks back at those games and sees a kid learning the ropes of the most important position on the field.

“It’s OK to make mistakes. I know that now,” Lynch said. “As long as I don’t make the same ones again.”

***

Those around the Rocky Mount High program see Jaquan Lynch’s ascendance to starting quarterback, and his future, as a fulfilling project taken on by Jason Battle. Long before he became the Gryphons coach, Battle was a stellar two-sport athlete at Senior High.

Battle went on to play baseball and football at N.C. A&T, and played quarterback for the Aggies from 1999-2002. Battle ranks eighth in program history in career passing yards, and ranks ninth in career completions.

It would be fair to say that the education of Jaquan Lynch is being handled by the ideal man for the job, seeing as how Battle, himself, did it at a high level for years.

“It’s a real comfortable setting knowing that he’s already been there and played the position before,” Lynch said. “He does a good job of knowing how I feel, and what questions I have, and because he’s done it before he is a good person to talk about it with.”

The two haven’t always had a smooth relationship. Sometimes the growing pains and failures that come with learning the intricacies of the quarterback position would cause tension.

Battle had to teach himself patience, and to look for another avenue to get through to a young mind. And Lynch had to come to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t become an elite passer overnight. Both parties grew and came to understand the other a bit better.

“I feel like one of the biggest things of playing as a sophomore in Game 1 last year was he did get frustrated and rattled,” Battle said. “It’s going to happen because he’s never been there before.

“And at first it frustrated me to the point that me and him got off the same page. But I learned how to coach the kid better. He still gets frustrated at times, he’s just an incoming junior, but I can see growth in him. He’s got a lot more growing to do but he has the opportunity to be real good.”

***

Jaquan Lynch threw for 1,415 yards to go with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions last year, which was good enough for the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the area. To do that as a sophomore is encouraging.

The Gryphons are hoping Lynch can improve on those gaudy numbers, and lead a team in a year where the offense is populated by a number of young, unproven athletes. If the quarterback can make things happen, RMH will follow suit.

Even more encouraging is that Lynch is a willing participant. He wants to work on his craft.

“I’ve always wanted to play quarterback and I knew what it would take to play it successfully,” he said. “It sounds off, but it’s not all about throwing. It’s about reading defenses and knowing matchups, and basically that’s what I’m interested in learning about. It’s how I’ve always been.”

As for Battle, he will make sure to keep a close eye on his protege.

“More importantly than him being a quarterback, he’s a great kid and phenomenal student,” Battle said. “Just a good guy all across the board. Just a model kid that I appreciate having in our program.”

This is a condensed version of our story that will run in next week’s football preview magazine. Look for it in Sunday, Aug. 26’s Telegram edition, and at next Friday’s football games.