Higley QB Malone hopes to make big jump
Freshman building on foundation with Zubey
When Gilbert Higley coach Eddy Zubey sent Noel Mazzone the highlight film of freshman QB Jamar Malone, after viewing it, the former Arizona State offensive coordinator called Zubey back.
“Three more years with this kid?” Zubey said Mazzone told him. “All right, I’m in.”
That’s all it took for Zubey to get the Scottsdale resident to join his Higley football staff for next season as the offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach.
Mazzone, known as the quarterback whisperer, helped Nicco Marchiol with advice during his last two years at Chandler Hamilton, where it culminated in winning the Ed Doherty Award, given to the most outstanding player of the 2021 season. In his acceptance speech, Marchiol gave credit to Mazzone.
Higley football announced the addition of Mazzone to the coaching staff at the start of spring football early in the week. But he won’t be with the team until after the completion of the USFL season. He is the New Orleans Breakers’ OC. Mazzone, 65, a former New Mexico quarterback, who has more than 40 years coaching experience, has coached in the NFL and at various colleges, most recently at UConn, where he was an offensive assistant.
He was the OC at Ole Miss (1995-98), Auburn (1999-2001), Oregon State (2002), North Carolina State (2003-04), Ole Miss again (2005), ASU (2010-11), UCLA (2012-15), Texas A&M (2016-17) and Arizona (2018-20).
The other other time he helped a high school program was at Panther Creek in North Carolina in 2009, after three years serving as the NFL New York Jets’ wide receivers coach.
Zubey also brought in former Casa Grande wide receiver standout Trevor Russell to be his receivers coach. Russell just finished playing at Louisiana Lafayette.
Zubey said Mazzone will be back in June to work with Malone and the rest of the Higley offense.
“We worked all February and March and installed all of his offense,” Zubey said. “I’m running the offense until he gets back.”
Zubey was planning on running the offense after his OC Brandon Large left to his alma mater to become Mesa Westwood’s head coach. Through recruiting and a friendship, Zubey and Mazzone have had a good relationship.
“We were kind of joking about it,” Zubey said about Mazzone going to work for him. “He said he was serious. He said he was going to come over and do (the offense). I said, ‘Heck, yeah, I’m not too proud.’ “
Malone has a chance to take off in
Mazzone’s offense and with his insight into playing the position.
Can Malone eventually get there? He picked up an offer Thursday from the Oregon Ducks, his biggest offer to date.
Zubey believes the kid is oozing with big-time, Power 5 potential, and showed a glimpse of that last season playing a tough 6A schedule as a freshman starter on the varsity.
“He’s a big, strong kid,” Zubey said. “He can throw the ball. He’s very smart. He understands defenses. He has the arm talent. He can make any throw on the field. And it’s crazy to think he’s only a freshman right now.”
Higley is making the move back into 5A, after being placed in 6A, where it went 2-8 last year, winning its only games against Desert Ridge (44-29) and Perry (57-20). In those games, Malone passed for a total of 482 yards and four TDs and ran for 266 yards. He also ran for 100 yards in his last game, a 27-23 loss to
Red Mountain.
Malone, 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, finished his freshman season on varsity with 1,562 yards and 12 TDs with 13 interceptions passing, and 627 yards and six TDs rushing.
“We had some ups and downs through the season,” Malone said. “I feel like playing that tough competition and coming into 5A prepared me for this.”
Malone’s first varsity game wasn’t memorable, but he felt it was helpful to allow him to understand how he needed to slow the game down. In the 49-14 loss to Williams Field, he was intercepted three times, completing 8 of 12 for 68 yards. He saw how Basha quarterback Demond Williams progressed during his freshman year on varsity and then took off last season as a sophomore, leading the Bears to an undefeated 6A regular season.
“That’s my boy, right there,” Malone said about Williams. “I talked to him a little bit. He said it’s all right playing a tough schedule. He said, ‘Settle down, and you’ve got this.’ “
Malone figures to develop fast under Mazzone’s guidance.
“It’s a day-to-day thing,” Malone said. “I told the guys we’re going to take it a game at a time. Don’t put any expectations on anything. As long as we work hard and stay disciplined, we can achieve anything we want to achieve.”
Zubey figures his team will be much better a season after he started not only a freshman quarterback, but a freshman linebacker (Kamarion Peete), a freshman right tackle (Cidro Guillen) and three sophomores defensive backs (Nijrell Eason, Donovan Aidoo and Chansyn Mapa).
“We’re set up for the future,” Zubey said.
Aidoo believes this will be a big bounce back for the Knights.
“I feel the work in the offseason has helped,” said Aidoo, who has offers from Iowa State, Northern Arizona and Washington State. “Our chemistry is really good.”