BATON ROUGE - As Madison Prep quarterback Jacobe Shannon Jr. pelted U-High for four total touchdowns in the Chargers' 38-21 win over the Cubs, you wouldn't know that he's the first freshman to start at quarterback for MPA since 2018. You'd think he was a bit more seasoned.

After all, the talent speaks for itself, and it didn't take long for the youngster to show his head coach that he was his QB1.

"We had a little shoving match when one of the guys hit him late," said Madison Prep head coach Landry Williams. "When I saw the guys rally to protect him, I knew he was our guy at that point."

The guy most definitely has the talent, but what got him to starting on Friday nights so young is something else.

"I've always been bigger, faster, stronger," said Shannon. "I just always had the mentality to let no one be better than me or be better than me so I just focus on that."

No one is more aware of how young Shannon is than his head coach, but that's part of why Coach Williams is so excited about the player Shannon could become.

After all, he's seen this type of talent before back in 2018, when Zeon Chriss-Gremillion started for the Chargers his freshman season.

"It's the same thing, some of the same qualities," said Williams. "It's not a real challenge to trust him, because I've been through this before, and I liked the results at the end. If he [Shannon] plays up to that kind of standard, I don't have a problem with it."

While at Madison Prep, Chriss-Gremillion led the Chargers to the 2020 3A state title.