Trainer | Sky's The Limit For 2027 Notre Dame QB Target Teddy Jarrard

Ron Veal started working Teddy Jarrard‍ when Jarrard was in middle school. The quarterback trainer saw the potential of the signal-caller right away, but soon, it would go to a new level.

“Early on,” Veal says of when he noticed Jarrard had a chance to be really good.

“But he had a growth spurt. He was a small kid at first in middle school. Then he hit a growth spurt and when the growth spurt happened, that's when everything started to take off.”

It hasn’t stopped.

The 2027 Georgia quarterback has been piling up scholarship offers for over a year now and currently counts schools like Notre Dame, Georgia, Clemson, Ohio State, Florida State and Michigan among dozens of others on that list. 

Veal, who has trained quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields, said Jarrard’s mind allows him to play the game faster. 

“The biggest thing is his ability to see it before it happens,” Veal says. “Anticipation and timing. He has great accuracy. He can put the ball where he needs to put at any point in time.

“First of all, he gets the ball out of his hand on time and that eliminates hits. You just see it before it happens. He throws with great anticipation. He has great anticipation on out-cuts, breaking routes, things like that.”

It also allows his ball to arrive quicker, which, when combined with his arm strength, makes him even more dangerous as a passer.

“He can cut the ball,” says Veal. “He has great velocity on it, but his ball is very catchable. It's not a hard ball. He has great velocity, but the accuracy's high and a very, very catchable ball. 

“Some kids have a lot of velocity and throw hard and it makes the ball very hard to catch. His ball is easy to catch.”

Veal said he and Jarrard have been working on the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder’s footwork and ball-handling at the moment.

“That has to continue to improve so he can play off of sets when he's doing ball-action, getting to his spots on his drops, like his three-step drops, five-step drops, obviously gun, working his quick game steps,” says Veal. 

In terms of intangibles, Jarrard has that confidence and certainty about himself, but not overconfidence or cockiness.

“He's a very humble guy,” says Veal. “He understands what he wants to do. He's a great teammate, great kid. He engages you well with conversation. He wants to learn, he wants to get better. 

“No cockiness, none of that. Very humble.”

With Jarrard transferring from North Cobb Christian to North Cobb for this upcoming season, those traits will be important.

“It helps him because he can display that in the locker room,” says Veal. “He's on a new team this year, so he has to gain their trust and the way he gains their trust is by working. 

“He's a hard-working kid. He's not a rah-rah type of quarterback. He just works hard, leads well and leads by example.”

Veal stays out of the recruiting process for the most part, but understands what would benefit Jarrard most.  

“He would have to be in a situation where he is able to use his complete talent set, that's what he needs to do,” he says. 

“I think they would put him in a system where he can play under the center, and in and out of a shotgun, where he can use playaction and drops off of that, use the whole shotgun game, quick game, stretch plays.”

Veal says Jarrard’s potential is essentially limitless.

“Sky's the limit,” he says. “He can be as good as he wants to be. That's the thing. He's always trying to find the little things that make him better. He's not looking for the certain things here and certain things there. It's just how can I get 1 percent better today, tomorrow, next day?”

And whoever gets Jarrard in the end will be making their program better because of it, according to Veal.

“They're getting a great person, a solid quarterback who wants to learn and grow and as he gets strong and older, he's going to get better.”

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