Top Quarterbacks in Orange County (1-5)

Orange County has produced outstanding quarterbacks in its history. Former USC quarterback and Buffalo Bills starter Rob Johnson played his high school years at El Toro High. Heisman Trophy winner and former Bengal Carson Palmer was dominant at Santa Margarita before he had success on Saturdays and Sundays. Matt Leinart and Matt Barkley donned the three stripes at Mater Dei before their dominant years at USC. Mark Sanchez was winning CIF championships at Mission Viejo before he led the Jets to an AFC championship. Sam Darnold was enjoying cool Friday nights at San Clemente before excelling at USC and becoming a first round draft pick. You get the picture. Orange County is once again loaded with top tier talent at quarterback. This list of top signal-callers this upcoming season was decided based on past performance, team success, future projections and college appeal. Last week, I highlighted the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2020/09/top-quarterbacks-in-orange-county-11-15/">quarterbacks ranked 11-15 in Orange County.</a> Last Friday I wrote about the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2020/09/top-quarterbacks-in-orange-county-6-10/">quarterbacks ranked 6-10.</a> Here are the top five quarterbacks in Orange County for the upcoming 2021 football season: 5. [player_tooltip player_id="25193" first="Colt" last="Fulton"], Santa Margarita, Rancho Santa Margarita, 2021 Fulton is a big pro-style quarterback who has the tool to succeed at the next level. He is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and threw for 1,361 yards in his junior year, in which he missed some time due to injury. He has been working out with former Santa Margarita and Florida State star Chris Rix and has become the leader of the team. When there was a recent change at the head coaching position at the school, Fulton was the one who had a quote in the Orange County Register. When other kids were skipping their senior season to enroll early in college, Fulton had a quote about how he can’t wait to play with his friends and teammates. He is the top <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2020/06/regional-rankings-ocs-top-5-uncommitted-senior-quarterbacks/">uncommitted senior quarterback</a> in the county. He holds five offers from Bucknell, Florida Atlantic, Northern Colorado, San Diego and Yale. https://twitter.com/coltfulton_/status/1300888790685212677?s=20 4. [player_tooltip player_id="25326" first="Emmett" last="Brown"], Mater Dei, Santa Ana, 2022 Replacing Alabama signee Bryce Young was no easy task for Mater Dei. [player_tooltip player_id="25028" first="Miller" last="Moss"], a USC signee was slated to be the starting QB for the Monarchs, but he has not filed transfer paperwork and will likely forgo his senior season and enroll early at USC. Brown <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2020/02/01/san-marcos-quarterback-emmett-brown-announces-he-is-transferring-to-mater-dei/?utm_content=tw-InsideSoCalSpts&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow">transferred to Mater Dei from San Marcos</a> and looks to be in line to be the starting quarterback. He is a hair under 6-feet tall and is 190 pounds. He is a dual threat QB who can break for short runs and moves very well in the pocket. He throws on the run better than most high school quarterbacks and he does an excellent job of keeping his eyes down the field even when the pocket breaks down. Brown threw for 2,043 yards and rushed for 109 for San Marcos last season and with the talent around him at Mater Dei, he will garner national recruiting attention. He has been working out with esteemed quarterback coaches Taylor Kelly and Danny Hernandez and throwing with Mater Dei teammates [player_tooltip player_id="25281" first="Quincy" last="Craig"] and [player_tooltip player_id="25224" first="CJ" last="Williams"]. Brown has an offer from Old Dominion and has drawn interest from Maryland, Nevada, Toledo and UNLV. He will most certainly be piling up offers when he has success for the top high school football program in the country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrelquDAr8Y 3. [player_tooltip player_id="25419" first="Malachi" last="Nelson"], Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos, 2023 If this list was titled "Quarterbacks with the most upside," then Nelson would be a clear number one. Nelson is the number two 2023 prospect in the state according to 247Sports and the sixth overall best prospect in the nation. He has offers from major schools like Alabama, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas and USC among countless others. He only threw for 883 yards and eight touchdowns while splitting time last season as a freshman, which is why he isn’t number one on this list yet. He throws a beautiful ball, stays poised in the pocket and knows when to throw a bullet and when to take some steam off the ball. Greg Biggins of 247Sports compared him to Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and predicts he will be a Power 5 starter. Los Alamitos has the talent on the offensive line and running game to not put too much pressure on Nelson to do everything, and he will have a monster season for the Griffins. https://twitter.com/UTRScouting/status/1286395798528225282?s=20 2. [player_tooltip player_id="25286" first="Noah" last="Fifita"], Servite, Anaheim, 2022 Fifita was <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2019/12/20/all-orange-county-football-second-team-third-team/">Second Team All-County last season</a> as a sophomore and was the third best quarterback in Orange County only behind Bryce Young and Ethan Garbers, who are both at Power 5 schools now. He completed 61 percent of his passes for 2,892 yards and threw 37 touchdown passes to just four interceptions. He only struggled in two games last season: Bishop Gorman and Mater Dei; and was excellent against JSerra, Orange Lutheran and Mission Viejo. He and receiver [player_tooltip player_id="25227" first="Tetairoa" last="McMillan"] will be the best QB and receiver duo in Orange County this season and possibly the state. With a few top players from Mater Dei and St. John Bosco sitting out this season, watch for a sneaky Servite team to possibly climb into the top two in the Trinity League. He has offers from Hawaii and Idaho State and is drawing interest from several top programs. Fifita will certainly pile up Power 5 offers after his junior season. https://twitter.com/UTRScouting/status/1232526508641488896?s=20 1. [player_tooltip player_id="25053" first="Peter" last="Costelli"], Mission Viejo, Mission Viejo, 2021 Costelli didn’t have gaudy numbers for Mission Viejo last season, but if you pay attention to the games, it’s because the Diablos’ defense and special teams always gave him short fields to work with. I covered a game last season where he only had two possessions start in his own territory. Costelli threw for just under 2000 yards in 12 games last season with 23 touchdowns and led Mission Viejo to an 11-1 season. He was going to opt out of the season to enroll early at Utah, but changed his mind recently and will play for the Diablos. He is surrounded by Division 1 talent with [player_tooltip player_id="25164" first="JT" last="Hand"] leading the offensive line, Jacquez Robertson and [player_tooltip player_id="25061" first="Easton" last="Mascarenas"] in the backfield, [player_tooltip player_id="25046" first="Mavin" last="Anderson"] and [player_tooltip player_id="25278" first="Cooper" last="Barkate"] at receiver. Mission Viejo is the best public school team in the county and Costelli will have a very successful season and be on several All-American lists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgBk6ACJK8Y