Taylor Powell Named Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year

Taylor Powell originally committed to play quarterback for Wake Forest in June, and followed up that commitment with an outstanding senior season. He led his Fayetteville High School Bulldogs to the team’s second consecutive 7A state championship in the state of Arkansas. He finished the season with a whopping 44 touchdowns and 3,473 passing yards, and as a result was named Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year.

Powell finished his high school career with 10,413 passing yards and 113 yards, and 3 trips to the state championship game, including 2 victories. 247 Sports Composite ranks him as the 33rd best pro-style quarterback in the 2017 recruiting class, and the 753rd best overall prospect in the class. He chose Wake Forest over Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Purdue, Vanderbilt, and Washington State.

Wake Forest, and other Power Five programs, typically take one quarterback in each recruiting class. The Deacs currently have two in this class, with the other being Tayvon Bowers from Pennsylvania. Despite the competition at the position, I expect Powell to start for the Deacs for multiple seasons throughout his career. He has the accuracy to be a very effective quarterback at the ACC level, and I can’t wait to see him in the gold and black. Congrats to Taylor on this honor!