Arizona is known nationally for producing a disproportionate amount of college and professional quarterbacks. This year, the story of Brock Purdy took the NFL by storm.
After injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo, the Perry and Iowa State alum, who had been the last selection of the 2022 NFL Draft, was forced into action. Not only did he put together seven consecutive multiple touchdown games, he won every start for the San Francisco 49ers en route to an NFC Championship game appearance.
As Purdy made his magical run, NFL prognosticators began asking how it was that General Managers all across the league could have let Purdy slip as far in the draft as he did?
To Arizona high school football media, it was par for the course. We spent the majority of 2016, 2017 and early 2018 loudly lamenting the failure of FBS college coaches to make a committable offer to the record setting QB that had won Arizona Cardinals Player of the Year as a junior, and led Perry High to a 6A championship as a senior.
It wasn't until two weeks after the completion of Purdy's senior season that his first Power 5 offer came in. The rest is history.
One would hope that college football coaches would learn their lesson. That if another Arizona high school quarterback playing at the highest classification came along, and despite not meeting the classic height expectations of a traditional FBS prospect, was mercilessly SHREDDING the state's top defenses while garnering several of the state's top awards as a mere junior, that the deserving opportunities afforded to several of that player's peers would be made available to him.
But those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it- and repeat it they have.
The state's big-school leader for the loaded class of 2024 in passing yards per game, completion percentage, touchdowns, and QB rating sits without an FBS offer.
Despite winning an Arizona Cardinals Player of the Year honor as a junior, just like Brock Purdy did.
Despite being our very own 6A Offensive Player of the Year as a junior, just like Brock Purdy was.
As far as Arizona high school football recruiting is concerned, there shouldn't ever be another Brock Purdy. But if you're looking for one, he's over on the west side.
And his name is Navi Bruzon.
I'm not saying Navi Bruzon, the 5-11, 185 lefty Liberty High QB that led the Lions to an 11-1 record while leading his 2024 peers in nearly every statistical category and cleaning up during awards season, will be an NFL starter.
What I am saying is that I fully expect the same emails and text messages that I get to this day from college coaches explaining their side of missing on Brock Purdy to be flooding my inbox about Navi Bruzon.
The truth is, the college coaching profession incentivizes playing it safe. It's a lot easier to explain to your boss why you're the second person to offer a scholarship to an undersized kid than it is to be the first.
There's no shortage of 2024 offers out there for sub-6-foot quarterbacks, and the leading passers for both Univarsity of Arizona and Arizona State University in 2022, as well as the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, are all within two inches of the same height.
When it comes to the quarterback position, if you can play, you can play.
And Navi Bruzon? Well... he can play.
Which quarterback had the only win against Open Division Champion Basha? Navi Bruzon.
Which quarterback was the only player to throw for more than 240 yards against Basha in 2023 despite the Bears schedule including THREE contests against five star (projected NFL first round pick) recruits and another against an FBS Mountain West commit? Navi Bruzon.
Which quarterback had the most touchdown passes against a Brophy defense that gave everyone fits this year? How about 6A runner up Pinnacle? Or the mighty Saguaro Sabercats? Or the stingy O'Connor defense? And which quarterback was on the field to give perennial Colorado powerhouse Valor Christian their worst loss since the school's opening year?
Navi Bruzon. Navi Bruzon. Navi Bruzon (tied with Beckham Pellant), Navi Bruzon (tied with Devon Dampier, but Bruzon did it all in one half), and you guessed it... Navi Bruzon.
Maybe you're saying to yourself, "perhaps college coaches see him as more of an athlete." I mean, he did rip off an eye-popping 715 rushing yards as a sophomore QB in spot duty, and run an 11.7 in the 100-yard dash in track.
But that doesn't explain why he's not getting offers as an athlete. Nor does it explain how he "athleted" his way into better passing stats than all of his 2024 contemporaries.
Maybe you're saying to yourself that "LIBERTY IS STACKED! OF COURSE HE'S PILING UP STATS!"
And while I agree that Liberty is stacked, college coaches do not. One player, offensive lineman Layton Vining, committed to a D1 scholarship in the 2023 class.
Or, there's always the idea that I'm wrong. I can accept that. I've been doing this for over a decade, and I'll admit that there have been three times that I advocated for a quarterback to be a scholarship D1 recruit out of high school and it never came to fruition. Zach Werlinger of Basha, who walked on at University of Arizona and spent three years on the depth chart. Brock Hall of Casa Grande, whose injuries led him to commit to Scottsdale Community College. And Trenton Bourguet of Marana, who had himself a pretty decent year in 2022.
I encourage you to watch Navi's film, and decide for yourself. Watch for the accuracy on the 40-45 yard sideline ball. Watch him hit seam routes in stride. Watch him take calculated risks and trust his receivers in traffic. Watch him escape pressure. It's all there.
I decided to reach out to Navi Bruzon and ask him about how he feels about his situation. Everything I've heard from others about his demeanor is that he's every bit the leader you'd expect of a Liberty Lions team that has managed to accumulate a 6A title and three Open Division Playoff appearances over the last four seasons without a single offensive skill position player receiving a major college scholarship out of high school.
He expressed disappointment at not being prioritized as a recruit by the college coaches he's spoken with, but added that he takes every suggestion he's been given to heart, and is working out daily, and spending time with multiple private coaches to address any concerns college coaches might have about his game.
He feels he can elevate beyond what he was able to accomplish this year, and pointed to Liberty's win over Centennial, a game where he threw half of the six interceptions he had on the season, as the turning point for his mindset.
"I was pressing and trying to do to much, and it hurt my confidence. The next two games after that were big, because it let me know that if I stay within the gameplan and trust my coaches and teammates, the results will come."
Where Bruzon became emotional, was at the subject of his teammates potentially missing out on opportunities because they weren't at a priority destination for college coaches that visit the state of Arizona. He used his interview time to praise others. Something, ironically, Brock Purdy used to do.
I'm going to print what he had to say word for word.
"I don't know what it is. Maybe it's that we're on the west side. But my teammates deserve better. Guys like Rune (Lepolt) and Prince (Zombo) found spots (Black Hills State, and a BYU walk-on, respectively) but they deserved a lot more. Layton (Vining) is the smartest offensive lineman I've ever played with, and he's going to Idaho but he should have had twenty offers despite his measurables. Grant Brunelle had a tremendous season, he deserves to play college football somewhere. People critique (ArizonaVarsity.com 6A Defensive Player of the Year) Anthony Ruiz by saying he's probably only ever going to be an edge rusher from the boundary, but I have to practice against him. He killed everybody in every situation. Noah Hopkins is a 6-2 corner and is the most athletic player I've ever played with. LJ Hunter had a tough past couple of years with his mom passing, but he fought through that to be the vocal leader of our defense. Blake Thompson is 6-3, 250 and he's the strongest person I've ever met. He's a hothead on the field and an incredible person off of it. Dom Ochoa switched from QB to DB and killed it, he's just scratching the surface of what he can do. And it's not just the seniors. I don't think Keaton Stam has anything right now, and that's ridiculous. He has the size and all he does is make plays. We still have (6A Tight End of the Year) Braylon Gardner too.
It's frustrating because we had (Oregon commit) My'Keil Gardner, who deserved everything that came his way, but because of him, I know coaches are seeing everyone else on film. But they need to come out to the west side and see us. We're a top program, beating other top programs. Everyone at Liberty can ball."
Bruzon knows there's nothing he can do to convince college coaches that don't see past height. Even this past week, with college coaches out on the hunt, he can sense the hesitation.
"I have coaches telling me I'm a good football player, and a good athlete, but when I walk the same room in I see them look at me sideways. I know they're thinking about how tall I am, but it's just not anything I can control."
Hmm. Reminds me of a similar quote Brock Purdy gave after his junior season:
"I just think it's the height factor," Purdy said. "They're looking for that tall frame on a quarterback. I have what it takes to go D-I. Right now, we're just focused on the team and winning a state championship."
Again, I'm not out here to say that four years from now we'll be talking about Navi Bruzon winning a Fiesta Bowl in his home state, as Brock Purdy did, or that six years from now we'll have ESPN flying out to interview Liberty coach Collin Thomas about his run as an NFL rookie starter, the way they did with former Perry coach Preston Jones.
What I am saying is that the same coaches that are kicking themselves for not going with their gut instinct when they saw Brock Purdy embarrass the state's best defenses week after week are going to be doing the same thing with Navi Bruzon. But this time around, they'll be doing it with plenty of prior warning, and on the heels of four of the last six NFL Drafts having a QB 6-0 or under be one of the first two signal callers picked, and a just-under-6-1 Brock Purdy start an NFC Championship game.
"I look across the valley at all the great quarterbacks. They deserve everything they have, and they worked very hard for those opportunities." said Bruzon. "I feel like I can compare to the top tier ones with my play, but where I can't compare is they have a chance to play at the next level, and right now, I don't. I'm not out to diminish the joy that brings them, but I'd like to experience that joy as well."
