Lakeland's Pleuss all business as he prepares for title game

LAKELAND — Zach Pleuss called his decision to transfer from Ridge Community to Lakeland in January a business decision, and he has one more piece of business to complete.

The senior quarterback will lead the Dreadnaughts into the Class 4S state championship game at 1 p.m. Saturday in Fort Lauderdale and hopes to bring back to town the Dreadnaughts' eighth state championship.

If he does, he will be the eighth Lakeland quarterback to win a state championship game, joining Shane Willis, Lewis Grier, Kedrick Frazier, who replaced the injured Johnny Jones in the '99 title game, Chris Griffin, Billy Lowe, Blair Castle and Dywonski McWilliams.

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Pleuss downplays the pressure of playing in a title game.

"We've been out here working hard all week and last week even when we didn't have a game, and I feel like everyone is working together so we'll be all right," Pleuss said.

The starting quarterback position became open with the graduation of Mason Martin. Pleuss made the decision to transfer in January after finishing his junior football season at Ridge.

"It's just the culture here," Pleuss said. "You look up there (Bryant Stadium press box) and you see seven state titles and now we're fighting for our eighth. It's not just the football program, the city is behind everyone. ... It was a tough decision, but I feel it was a business decision at the end of the day. I did what was best for my future."

Coming over in January gave Pleuss plenty of time to learn the offense by the time spring practice rolled around. He credited Martin with helping him learn the offense.

He used time in his second-period weightlifting class to study the offense after he lifted weights. In addition to knowing the plays, he had to learn new terminology.

"I'm a quick learner, and I dedicated myself to learning the offense," Pleuss said. "I understand that I'm the biggest part of the offense knowledge-wise and so when I came into spring, I was just focused on learning the playbook and getting to know my guys and getting more connected to them."

By the spring game, he felt comfortable with the offense, although he noted that coach Bill Castle didn't open up the entire playbook for the spring. More pieces were added over the summer and in fall practice.

On the field, the biggest adjustment was playing under center. At Ridge, he ran a spread offense and was always in the shotgun. Lakeland will run a lot of spread, too, but will also run a lot of sets where the quarterback is under center.

"It was just getting back used to being under center again because I hadn't run that since little league," Pleuss said. "It wasn't anything major. When you have a great coach like coach Castle, he's willing to adapt and help you out to make sure you're ready for that."

Castle agreed that Pleuss picked up the offense quickly.

"He's a 4.0 smart kid who understands what's going on out there with defenses," Castle said.

Pleuss was a prolific passer at Ridge Community for the past two seasons. As a sophomore, he completed 152 of 249 passes for 2,464 with 28 touchdowns and six interceptions in 10 games. Last season as a junior, he completed 126 of 229 passes for 2,156 yards with 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

For Lakeland, Pleuss has completed 101 of 151 passes for 1,470 yards with 13 touchdowns and just four interceptions in 13 games.

"It is a team game," Pleuss said. "I'm not worried about throwing for 3,000 yards and leading the state. I just want to win and get that state championship."

Castle couldn't be happier with what he has gotten from Pleuss this season.

"I like him a lot," Castle said. "I like his personality. He's a really, really intelligent kid. He's smart, athletic. I'm really really shocked he hasn't gotten more (college) opportunities at a higher level. I know it's his height, but there are a lot of short quarterbacks who are playing good right now. He's a fun guy to coach. He gets it."

Castle said the 6-foot-tall Pleuss has all the tools he likes in a quarterback — a strong arm, accuracy and vision.

"He's got everything and all the intangibles you want in a quarterback," Castle said. "He can run. We've been limited in the backups, so I've been real cautious about running him. I like a running quarterback because when you use the wildcat, they know where the ball is going to. It ain't no surprise so I love using the quarterback as a runner because you have an extra blocker in the box."

As much as anything, Castle likes Pleuss' work ethic, and there's no doubt that Pleuss put in the work. Over the summer, four days a week at 7 in the morning he was at workouts. Pleuss said Tyler Williams and Daidren Zipperer would often call him to go out to Bryant Stadium so they could work together.

"They helped me more than I helped them," Pleuss said. "Every day after practice, the guys get here early, stay late — I couldn't thank them more."

While Pleuss has led the Dreadnaughts to an undefeated season so far, he said he has improved individually since coming over to Lakeland.

"I would definitely say I'm a better quarterback mentally," Pleuss said. "Coach Castle, he has been doing it for so long that he helped me understand the game from a different perspective that I've never seen the game before. He's opened my game as a running quarterback. A lot of times, I didn't run the ball at Ridge. Here at Lakeland, we have a lot of designed quarterback run and he's opened my game with that as well as understand play action."

The final payoff for his improvement and his decision to become a Dreadnaught is Saturday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland QB Zach Pleuss all business as he prepares for title game