Record-breaking Badgers QB recruit Kafentzis focused just on winning
State football records are dropping like flies out in Utah, yet the man responsible for toppling them has little desire to keep pace with his prolific accomplishments. The only thing Jordan High School quarterback Austin Kafentzis will tell you is there are larger goals in play here, and there is no time for basking in the glow of individual accolades.
"I don't know why I don't look into it as much as other people do," said Kafentzis, a University of Wisconsin commit in the 2015 class. "I just honestly care about the main goal and that's just a state championship and being able to have another ring. I remember that was like one of the best feelings I've ever had. If I want to get that feeling again, you've got to go out there and win it again."
Kafentzis is arguably the best quarterback in the history of Utah high school football, and his legend seems to grow with each passing game. As a sophomore, he helped guide Jordan to a 12-1-1 record and the Class 5A state championship. The team faltered last season and finished 7-6, but the Beetdiggers are off to a 3-0 start this season, thanks largely to Kafentzis leading the team already to two come-from-behind victories.
Two weeks ago, Kafentzis pushed his team to a 42-26 victory against East High School in Salt Lake City after Jordan trailed 20-7 in the first quarter. Kafentzis accounted for six touchdowns. Last Friday, he rushed for 255 yards to bring his career total to 5,709, surpassing Naufahu Tahi's state rushing record of 5,663 career yards. Tahi spent four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings from 2007-10.
The reaction from Kafentzis to it all? Ho-hum.
Kafentzis already owns state records for total yards, total touchdowns, rushing touchdowns, most 100-yard rushing games, most passing touchdowns in a game and most passing touchdowns in a quarter, among others.
"All that stuff just comes as you go," he said. "If you don't worry about it, I feel like it happens. But when you start worrying about it, then you start doing bad stuff and start playing the wrong kind of football instead of what you're supposed to be playing for."
Kafentzis' rushing totals would lead some to believe that he's a run-first quarterback who scrambles at every allowable opportunity. But his father, Kyle Kafentzis, who is also Jordan High's defensive coordinator, said that was not the case. All but three running plays this season have been designed calls for the quarterback, Kyle said.
"As a coach and as a former player, I know I've told him, 'You have to be a pocket passer first,'" Kyle said. "If you can't throw from the pocket, it doesn't matter how great you run. So he is a quarterback that is an athlete, not an athlete that is playing quarterback. There's a big distinction there."
If there is one area in which Austin needs to improve, it comes in his ability to improvise, his father said. On several occasions this season, Austin has tried to squeeze passes into a tight window because he is obeying the play call. But there are opportunities for him to take off downfield with no defenders in sight and collect a first down. That is part of the reason Kafentzis has completed just 31 of 67 passes thus far (46.2 percent) for 609 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions. He also noted some of those incompletions came by way of dropped passes as the team looks for more offensive consistency early in the season.
Kafentzis said he spent this week in practice working on being more open to breaking off a play and running. On Wednesday, he said the first-team offense competed against the first-team defense over a series of 10 third-down scenarios, with the winner avoiding a conditioning punishment.
"I threw in a couple curve balls," he said. "I would drop back and everyone would be covered downfield, so I wouldn't try and fit it into a small window. I would take off, get the first down and more. It definitely helps. Once we start throwing it over the top, then the linebackers are going to drop off and then it's just wide open. Then you can run.
"You kind of just play a game with them. They'll come up and load the box and we throw over the top. There's no way you can get stops if you're going back and forth. They have to guess, and we know what it is."
The type of athleticism Kafentzis displays likely already has Wisconsin football fans salivating at the prospect of him wearing Badgers red and white on Saturdays. He was named MaxPreps National Player of the Year as a high school freshman and sophomore, and his arm is like a cannon. Last spring, he shattered a 13-year-old state javelin record with a throw of 217 feet, 10 inches at the BYU Invitational, topping the old mark by more than 15 feet.
The combination of arm strength and speed appealed to Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen and offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig. Andersen's Utah ties helped in the recruitment as well -- Kyle Kafentzis once coached Andersen's son, Keegan, who is now a graduate assistant on Wisconsin's football team.
Austin Kafentzis said he bonded with Ludwig last summer when he participated in one of the team's football camps, which helped to further convince him that Madison was the place to continue his football career.
"He's a really cerebral guy who likes watching film," Austin said. "Really quiet. He's a good coach. When I went out there for the camp, he was really technical with footwork and everything. He knows how to reach out to you and put it in words to explain it. He's really good at connecting with the players.
"It's the same with coach Andersen. I had an offensive lineman go to Utah State, and he loved him. He's definitely a player's coach for sure. There's not many players that don't like him. We have this group message going and everyone likes him. You feel like family when you're talking to him."
Kafentzis, a 6-foot-1, 200-pounder, has kept close tabs on Wisconsin this season and watched the entire LSU game. The fact Wisconsin is now starting Tanner McEvoy, a dual-threat quarterback, shows Kafentzis the direction the staff is moving at the position. And it is a direction that matches Kafentzis' skill set.
"Of course I like it because that's what we do here is we do pass and run," Kafentzis said. "If I can go in there and help out running that kind of offense, it'll open it up more for the offense and just make it harder for defenses to key on certain players and stuff like that, especially when you have a great running back at Wisconsin.
"You're guaranteed a great running back and a great line at Wisconsin, like always. When you have a dual-threat in the backfield as well, it's kind of hard for a defense to go after both of you guys, because that leaves the receivers open. It's another guy on the field that can help make the offense more versatile."
If Kafentzis has shown anything during his playing career, it's certainly versatility. And he can't wait for the opportunity to continue on that track in college, where high school records will mean nothing and winning is paramount -- just the way Kafentzis likes it.
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