Pacifica native Anthony Gordon’s days of showcasing his cannon arm on Bay Area football fields will now be mostly limited to when Pac-12 aerial power Washington State visits Cal and Stanford.
After leading City College of San Francisco to the California Community College Athletic Association championship as a true freshman in 2015, Gordon will transfer to Washington State, having signed his financial-aid agreement last Tuesday, en route to playing on full athletic scholarship.
Gordon — the pride of Terra Nova, who set the Central Coast Section single-season passing record as a senior in 2014 while leading the Tigers to a CCS championship — departs for Pullman, Washington next week and is set to report to the university June 18.
During his freshman season at CCSF, Gordon helmed the offense with a state-best 3,864 passing yards to lead the Rams to a 12-1 record and a 26-14 win over Saddleback College in the state championship game. Washington State actively recruited CCSF defensive back Robert Taylor during the season, and inked the sophomore as a transfer upon its completion. It wasn’t until recent weeks Washington State became an immediate contender for Gordon’s services, he said.
“My goal was just to get out of [CCSF] as quickly as possible,” Gordon said. “I was hoping to go back for a second year if there were no other options for me, but this was an option I just couldn’t turn down.”
A big sell for Gordon was the hyper-intensive pass attack of Washington State’s offense. Gordon has long been a fan of Cougars head coach Mike Leach, noting the veteran coach’s successful years at Texas Tech, especially 2006-08 when he coached current Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree.
In his four years at Washington State, Leach— who also serves as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach — has seen the Cougars lead the nation in passing in 2014 and 2015, making the program a perfect fit for the Pacifica kid with the golden gun.
“It fits very well because it correlates to the offense I ran at Terra Nova and at CCSF … the air raid offense that he brought over from Texas Tech,” Gordon said.
Leach said he scouted Gordon as early as high school, but that he was especially intrigued by the growth spurt of the 6-3, 180-pound quarterback over the past two years. But it was Gordon’s ability to serve as a leader on the field that made him a prime recruiting target.
“We’re really excited about it,” Leach said. “He does a great job running the unit. … The single most important thing a quarterback does is elevate the play of the guys around him and I think he does a great job of that.”
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Gordon looks to be slated to take a redshirt for the Cougars in 2016. Returing junior quarterback Luke Falk led the nation with a 380.5 yards-per-game passing average last year culminating in Washington State’s win over Miami in the Sun Bowl.
Gordon said he will likely only see action in the upcoming season in the event of an injury to Falk, who figures to be a high-round NFL draft choice after the 2016 campaign. Leach, however, said no starting job is guaranteed going into the new season.
“All positions are open,” Leach said. “Our starters did a good job last year, but the starting job is wide open. … If [Gordon] doesn’t start this year, then definitely down the road.”
Leach added that Falk “is going to be tough to beat out.”
Leach and Gordon now have their one-and-done community college careers in common. In 1988, Leach coached at College of the Desert-Palm Desert before advancing to the European Football League, then returning to the U.S. to rise through the ranks of four-year schools before taking his first Division I post as the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 1999.
Leach said Gordon’s one season of community college football should serve to adapt him to the speed of the Division I game.
“I think one thing is you have to adjust on the move really quickly, and not just adjust his game but to the players around him,” Leach said. “He showed a lot of versatility. And he’s done it at a high level.”
Gordon is notorious for his career as an outstanding two-way athlete, having played both football and baseball in high school and through his freshman year at CCSF. While Leach said Gordon could conceivably play both sports at Washington State, Gordon said he is hanging up his baseball cleats to concentrate on Division I football.
“It’s going to be different because I’ve been playing baseball every year of my life since I was 4-years old,” Gordon said. “But I’m looking forward to focusing on just one sport from here on out.”
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