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Santa Margarita featured a tough quarterback competition before Fletch Palmer emerged as the starter ahead of Matthew Smith, Eagles football coach Carson Palmer said.
Fletch Palmer, a junior, is the son of Carson Palmer, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from USC. Smith, a senior, is a transfer from Villa Park and Vanderbilt commit.
Over the summer, the quarterbacks rotated series at the Battle at the Beach and South County Classic passing tournaments.
“(Smith) came in kind of as the leader and it was very competitive from the beginning of spring (and) got more and more competitive the closer we got into June and then July,” Carson Palmer said before the Eagles’ 21-20 win at Centennial last week.
“They went head-to-head,” the former NFL All-Pro added. “It was a really good competition. Both guys had really good summer sessions and we ended up going with Fletch. It was competitive at a bunch of spots (on our team).”
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Fletch Palmer enters Friday’s game against Highland (0-2) completing 61 percent of his passes for 294 yards and two touchdowns as a first-year starter. The game will be played at Saddleback College.
After its victory against Centennial, Santa Margarita (2-0) climbed to No. 4 in the national rankings by MaxPreps and No. 3 for High School Football America.
Carson Palmer remains high on Smith, who was ranked as one of the top quarterback to watch in Orange County this season.
“Matt is a great player as well,” the coach said. “He’ll be ready to play. He handles it really well. Studies well so really confident in him if he needs to play.”
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