Team: Mesquite Horn
Gunslinger: Chris Robison
2014 season stats and end results: 3,891 pass yards, 60 % completion rate, 44 TDs, 17.4 average per completion. Lost in the third round of the 6A Division I state playoffs.
Chris Robison makes it into TexasHSFootball.com’s top three for a few reasons.
1. He’s ranked the No. 8 pro-style quarterback in the country, according to 247Sports Composite.
2. Robison is just entering his junior year and has already verbally committed to Oklahoma. He was the Sooners’ first oral commit in the 2017 class.
Im officially committing to The University of Oklahoma #OUDNA#boomersooner ?⚪️ @LincolnRileypic.twitter.com/16O9CE959q
— Jay Gatsby (@OfficialChris_R) June 27, 2015
3. Robison has two more years under a high-octane offense and will only improve.
The 6-foot-2, 183-pounder chose the Sooners over offers from SMU, TCU, Oklahoma State and Kansas, to name a few.
Last season, Robison amassed 3,891 yards through the air and tossed 44 touchdowns. Such stats made him the Metroplex’s leader in both categories, which made it all the more reasonable for fellow District 10-6A coaches to unanimously vote Robison the district’s Most Valuable Player. His efforts gave Horn their best regular-season record, best overall record and their first district championship in the program’s history.
Although he was an underclassmen leading a team stacked with seniors, his presence and leadership were praised by his players and especially his head coach, Mike Overton.
“Last season, he was more of a leader by example,” Overton said. “I saw him become more of a vocal leader last spring and I expect him to be even more vocal in the fall. For him, the guys are going to follow someone who has had success, and 44 touchdowns is success.”
“I think the biggest thing that he showed us as coaches was his ability to survey the field, read the different coverages our opponents threw at us, and the tremendous amount of consistency he displays doing both.”
Robison is a premier passer not only because of his God-given talent, but his quarterback coach and offensive coordinator expects him to play up to his standards—and his standards are high.
Robert Hall played quarterback at Texas Tech and was the signal-caller for the 1988 Class 5A state championship team, Dallas Carter. The team in the popular film Odessa Permian loses to in “Friday Night Lights.” Hall was placed in Tech’s Hall of Fame and coached multiple Division I quarterbacks.
Overton said Robison was even better at his age than next season’s runner for the Heisman Trophy, TCU’s quarterback, Treyvone Boykin. Boykin graduated from West Mesquite, where Overton coached Boykin along with Chason Virgil at Fresno State.
“I think Chris’s game is even better than Treyvone’s when he was a sophomore,” Overton boldly claimed. “His driving force is to be the best quarterback he can be. Once his time at Horn is done, he wants to be the best quarterback in the Big 12.”
Robison heads into his junior season with a lot of confidence and ability. His head coach noticed that after spending many hours on the field and watching film since the end of their 2014 campaign.
“I think the big thing that he’s done to better himself is the amount of work ethic he puts toward everything,” Overton said. “He’s spent time with his receivers because he wants to perfect his craft to ultimately take it to the next level.”
“He knows the offense, he knows what we [as coaches] expect, he knows the heat of battle. I think it’ll come easier to him next season and the numbers will display that. Defending what we do [on offense], we’re going to get everybody’s best efforts when Chris is at the helm.”
