By, Matt Alkire – National
Director of Football Operations
The Roseville Area Raiders
haven’t necessarily been regulars in the state playoffs lately. As a matter of
fact, they haven’t won a conference championship since Bush was in office and
their last playoff run was during the Clinton administration. This year hopes
are high though. The Raiders return many starters and among them is starting
signal caller Jacques Perra, a 6-foot-3.5, 210-pound gunslinger with a wealth
of experience under his belt.
Perra took over the reigns at
the Roseville, Minn. school as a sophomore much like many other players being
offered scholarships around the country. Last season as a junior, he completed
150 of 270 passes for 2,054 yards and 15 touchdowns. He added 315 yards and six
scores on the ground.
It was a long road to get to
this point though. Perra explained his maturation process to us and how he
became the teams’ leader.
“My freshman year I only
played on the freshman team – not junior varsity – so going straight to varsity
as a sophomore was a big jump,” Perra stated. “I ended up top ten in the state
in passing yards that season and was first in all-purpose yards within our
conference, so I caught on pretty quick in terms of individual performance. I
did know most of the seniors pretty well and had already build close
relationships with them. We had some solid talent around us, so while I had a
lot to learn as a leader I think I did a good job in moving the offense up and
down the field and helping out while the team captains did their jobs on a day
to day basis.”
As anyone who has played the
sport knows however, going from star player on the team to a captain and team
leader is a much different dynamic. It demands respect from every single player
on your team and also, ultimate sacrifice. Not all star players are true
captains on the field. Perra talked about moving into his ultimate role as one
of the leaders of the Raiders.
“Starting my sophomore year affected
things because the guys that were older than me began to look up to me because
of my performance on the field,” Perra explained. “It allowed me to start to be
a vocal leader, however I quickly learned that I do a better job of simply
leading by example and action both on and off the football field. When I say
that, I don’t just mean in the classroom either. I do carry a 3.85 GPA, but I
play three sports as well and really push myself in conditioning in the
offseason which the guys started to follow.”
There are different styles of leadership and Perra expanded on how he feels he fits best.
“I’m definitely not the Ray
Lewis of the team out there screaming in the huddle before kickoff, I can say
that,” Perra added. “I don’t yell at people, but when we get in the huddle it
is my job to make sure everyone is in the right place and knows their
assignments. Honestly, it came pretty natural to me. During the offseason I
went to team passing camps and watched the quarterback before me handle the
team, so I simply did the same things he did and invested time and energy into
helping my teammates the best that I could. This never became an area that I
struggled in at all thankfully.”
Speaking of where Perra struggles and where he excels, his film is readily available in this article.
Perra's Junior Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmuqdzGBik&feature=youtu.be
He is a quarterback that is very
accurate on short and intermediate routes. His ball placement ranges from very
good to excellent at times. Perra is generally quick to get the ball out of his
hands and will also do false stare downs of other receivers to throw off safety
coverage, something that helps him in the seams of his spread offense. He is
generally accurate on the run, although I’d like to see him square his
shoulders more to drive on the ball instead of float his passes to receivers.
While his timed 40-yard dash speed may not be highly impressive (4.8), you do
see a player that will be able to buy his receivers time and move around and
out of the pocket at the next level which is a plus. He’s not a scrambler by
any means, but the athleticism is there.
Improvement areas with Perra are in
his mechanics and his deep ball. Frankly, fixing the mechanical flaws would fix
95-percent of what I don’t like on film. Perra tends to throw the ball almost
exclusively with his upper body and many times off his back foot, leading to
the ball floating. You see a lot of low velocity passes. That makes him a very
accurate quarterback, but at the next level he’ll be vulnerable to
interceptions. He needs to get his lower body involved and step into his
passes. Again, his deep ball comes up short quite often. This is simply a lack
of drive on the ball as he’s not using his legs. Some work with a quarterback
coach could make him into a very precise passer with a much more zing on his
passes.
Perra does play with his eyes
downfield at all times even though he could run quite a bit of the time which
is the sign of a true quarterback, something I was most impressed with. He
spoke about that in our time together.
“This past year I think I got
a lot better at keeping the play alive instead of staying in the pocket and
just hitting my check down,” Perra stated. “The year before I was dumping the
ball off, so this year I worked on getting out of the pocket when it broke down
and finding receivers that got open a lot more. That just resulted in a lot
more big plays downfield for us. The other thing that I like about having some
mobility is being able to draw the intermediate coverage to me as I approach
the line of scrimmage and then dumping the ball off to that receiver that has
been freed up so they can make plays with the ball in their hands after the
catch.”
Perra says he loves running over linebackers in high school. Apparently it’s one of his favorite things to do. We asked him if he’ll continue that in college.
“I don’t think I’m
necessarily a true dual-threat like these running quarterbacks are at the elite
level, but I’m confident I’d be able to get out of the pocket and do some
things with my feet that maybe others wouldn’t be able to do. Obviously I
wouldn’t be trying to run over any linebackers though, no. That’s not something
I’m attempting.”
Apparently his 3.85 in the
classroom also carries over to common sense as well.
After going 4-6 last year,
the goals for this season are pretty clear for Perra and the Raiders.
“We need to win our conference,
simple,” Perra said. “It will be our first conference championship in eight
years. Also, we want to be in state this year as it’s been 15 years since this
school has gotten to celebrate that. For me personally, the results will come
as long as our team does well as will the colleges which have been recruiting
me hard. My senior season is about the last three years of hard work coming to
fruition for our team. I’m really only worried about our record at the end of
the season, not my individual stats.”
Perra will be looking for a
college as well and he’s looking for either a small private school or just
going all out and attending a Big Ten school for the life experience. His
passion is Business Management, so strong ties in the community for his major
is the plus. He wants to stay where he goes to school after graduating to
contribute.
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