Kane Archer's 2024 season stacks with the best any quarterback has had in Arkansas high school football history.
Any decade, any program and just about any measurement, what Greenwood's quarterback did in his junior campaign is up there with the best of them.
Archer passed for 3,880 yards and 57 touchdowns, rushed for 795 yards and 10 touchdowns, threw just 2 interceptions and set the state completion percentage record (81.5%).
For that, Archer is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's All-Arkansas Preps Offensive Player of the Year.
"The more I think about it, the more I realize just how special (of a) year he had," Greenwood Coach Chris Young said. "I think he had arguably the greatest high school football year of a quarterback in history.
"I've never heard of the numbers he put up this year. I've been in this business for a long time, and we've had some really, really good quarterbacks at Greenwood, but I've never heard of the completion percentage and the touchdown-to-interception ratio that he had this year. And I think it's just phenomenal."
Archer kicked his junior season off with a bang, completing 24 of 30 passes for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns and rushing for 108 yards and another score in a little more than a half in a 70-35 win over 7A Bentonville West.
He followed that with back-to-back games with more than 300 passing yards and a combined nine touchdown passes. He missed the second half on Sept. 27 against Shiloh Christian with an injury, but backup Cooper Goodwin led the Bulldogs to the win.
Two weeks later, Archer had a season-high 393 passing yards and seven touchdowns -- all in the first half. On Nov. 1, he passed for 368 yards and eight touchdowns in a half. Archer is one of two players in the state to throw for seven or more touchdowns in a half, joining former Pulaski Academy quarterback Thomas Thrash -- and Archer did it twice in 2024.
Prior to the Class 6A state championship game, Archer did not have a game with more than six incompletions. His season-high came in the title game against Shiloh Christian when he went 22 of 29 for 321 yards and 3 scores.
With seven incompletions and three touchdowns in the championship game, Archer finished his season with more passing touchdowns (57) than incompletions (56).
"I've never even heard anybody talk about that stat before," Young said. "In 25 years of coaching, I've never heard that stat mentioned. When I heard it the first time, maybe week seven or eight, you thought, 'Wow, that's unbelievable.' But reality set in, and you thought, 'Well, that's only going to last another game or two, because surely he's going to throw three or five or seven incompletions. And there's no way that can hold up.' "
Greenwood rarely let Archer run during the regular season as a precautionary measure, But he rushed for 131 yards and four touchdowns as Bulldogs defeated Shiloh Christian 61-35, leading Greenwood to a 12th state championship -- a state record in the playoff era.
Through Archer's two seasons as the primary starter, Greenwood is 26-0 with 2 state championships and Archer has won championship game MVPs. He has helped lead the Bulldogs to a perfect 13-0 record in both seasons.
With Archer at the helm, Greenwood averaged the fifth-most points (54.7) of any team in the nation. Greenwood's 712 total points is the eighth-most in state history and a program record.
While the physical abilities are obvious, Archer's maturity and mental capabilities stand out to Young.
"I think we probably take it for granted as coaches," Young said. "It just continues to get better every game, every week, every year, and it allows us to really open our playbook up to a level that we've never been able to do before. We can put a lot of decision-making in his hands. You hear that sometimes coaches have trust in their kids, but it's a whole different level with Kane, because he's just performed so well in the past with his decision-making that we truly give him the keys to the car and give him full trust to make good decisions."
Archer began receiving scholarship offers in the eighth grade with Florida State, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan and seven other schools offering scholarships before he even hit high school. Since then, nine other schools have offered Archer, with the latest being Arkansas State on May 25, 2024. He is now list as a 4-star prospect, according to the 247Sports Composite.
"The pressure they put on this young man when he was 13 years old and in the eighth grade and these Division I schools offering him was unfair and unrealistic," Young said. "Well, he's exceeded their expectations. I think that's probably the coolest part of the story, is that they put him in an unrealistic situation, and then he exceeded even those expectations."
KANE ARCHER
POSITION Quarterback
SCHOOL Greenwood
CLASS Junior
NOTABLE Passed for 3,880 yards and 57 touchdowns. … Rushed for 795 yards and 10 touchdowns. … Threw just two interceptions and set the state completion percentage record (81.5%). … Had more touchdown passes (57) than incompletions (56). … Led Greenwood to a state-record 12th playoff era championship. … Completed his second straight undefeated season as a starter.
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