By Robert Wilson
Jay McQueen is an outstanding baseball player, who had a .394 batting average and had a team-high 12 stolen bases as a sophomore outfielder for Brandon last spring and has verbally committed to Southern Miss.
But the college football recruiters will be looking at McQueen after what he did last week.
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound quarterback converted wide receiver caught five touchdown passes – one short of the Mississippi record – and had eight receptions for 158 yards to help Brandon to a 42-20 victory over Rankin County rival Pearl Friday night in a key MHSAA Class 7A, Region 3 game before and overflow crowd of 6,000-plus at Pearl’s Ray Rogers Stadium.
For his outstanding performance, McQueen has been named the Junction Deli/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Football Player of the Week.
McQueen, who played backup quarterback to Landon Varnes last season, moved to wide receiver this year and had caught only 15 passes for 217 yards and two TDs in Brandon’s first seven games going into Friday. But McQueen was the star against Pearl. He scored on TD receptions of 85, 20, 12, 8, and 5 yards. McQueen broke the school record for most TD catches in a single game, previously held by Ashton Nickleberry, who caught four in 2019.
McQueen played quarterback in five games and completed 6 of 8 passes for 59 yards last season.
“Jay has always been a tremendously talented athlete since he arrived at Brandon,” Brandon athletic director and football coach Sam Williams said. “He has progressed so much as a football player and is such a student of the game. We decided after last football season where he played as a backup quarterback that we were going to move him to wide receiver to get a talented kid on the field. All he has done since then is balance being a phenomenal baseball player with developing into a great wide receiver. He shows up every day and works his tail off and that’s why he has seen so much success coming his way.”
“Jay was Landon’s backup last year at quarterback and we saw flashes of his athleticism in practice and decided to try him at wide receiver this spring,” Brandon offensive coordinator Wyatt Rogers said. “He didn’t get to practice spring football much because of baseball but had a good spring game. He’s been coming into his own this fall.”
“Jay is a super athletic guy who is very under the radar right now,” said Brandon senior quarterback Landon Varnes, a Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College commitment who completed 22 of 33 passes for 264 yards and five TDs, all to McQueen. “Jay made huge plays all night.”
Making huge plays is nothing new for McQueen in baseball. In addition to his outstanding batting average, McQueen led Brandon with 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts. He also had a .487 on base percentage, second highest on the team, and didn’t make an error all season. McQueen was one of two sophomores on the PriorityOne Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Baseball Team last spring.
McQueen is the son of Ze and Kristi McQueen. Ze is his third year as an assistant baseball coach at Brandon. He played football, basketball and baseball at Carthage High, played baseball at East Central Community College and was drafted by the New York Mets and played five years of minor league baseball. Kristi played basketball at Choctaw Central High. The McQueens have three boys, Jay, Tre, a freshman football and baseball player at Brandon, and Jadevion, a fifth grader who plays baseball.
Brandon – the Class 6A state runner-up for the past two seasons – has won six straight games and is 6-2 overall and 3-0 and in first place in region play heading into Friday’s game against Meridian, 5-4 overall and 2-1 in region play, at Brandon.
Mississippi Scoreboard selects a football player from Hinds, Madison, or Rankin counties each week. Coaches can nominate a player by text or call to Robert Wilson at 601.506.2276.
2023 POW winners:
Week One: John White, MRA
Week Two: Jacob Clearman, Tri-County Academy
Week Three: Ryan McCall, Madison Central
Week Four: Brayden Bullock, Central Hinds Academy
Week Five: Nate Blount, Brandon
Week Six: John White, MRA
Week Seven: Tyler Arrington, Wingfield
Week Eight: Damarion Snow, Pelahatchie
Week Nine: Ny Johnson, Germantown
Week 10: Baker Craig, Park Place Christian Academy
