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Message: [QUOTE="BillSU, post: 4521184, member: 6809"] Maybe the Mississippi version. More on Ty Keyes: [HEADING=2]Dandy Dozen: Ty Keyes has high aspirations for himself, family and hometown[/HEADING] [HEADING=2]Meet the first member of the Clarion Ledger Dandy Dozen for football[/HEADING] [URL='https://www.clarionledger.com/staff/2684254001/rashad-milligan/'][IMG]https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/03/26/PJAM/3ce690f8-a137-474e-b1c3-8eb2dd8168fe-Rashad-200x300.jpeg?crop=199,199,x0,y49&width=48&height=48&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/IMG]Rashad Milligan[/URL] Mississippi Clarion Ledger [LIST] [*]He has been named Mr. Football in his classification for two years in a row. [*]Ty Keyes has led Taylorsville to two state championships. [/LIST] He doesn’t speak much. He doesn’t boast about his status or accomplishments. He just wants to play the game he loves, and win every time. "There's not a single person in this town who wouldn't know who Ty Keyes was or know what kind of kid he was, how he acts in school or how he acts out of school," Taylorsville head football coach Mitch Evans said. "Fridays at 11 a.m., we've got people out there cooking and getting ready for the game. That’s just how tight-knit this community is." [IMG alt="Taylorsville High School Tartars quarterback Ty Keyes stands outside the Tartar's football field in Taylorsville, Miss., June 28, 2020.'s football field in Taylorsville, Miss., June 28, 2020."]https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/06/30/PJAM/85bff7c8-0d49-4695-aca9-fd2e8443819c-tykeyes4.jpg?width=660&height=496&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/IMG] On the old stomping grounds of former NFL quarterback Jason Campbell, Keyes is the best quarterback Evans said he has seen in his 30 years of being around Taylorsville football. In Keyes’ first three seasons, he's completed 658-of-978 passes for 12,134 yards and 125 touchdowns compared to 22 interceptions. He has led the Tartars to a 44-2 record and state championships in 2017 and 2019. He has missed one game in his high school career: the 2018 state championship game when Taylorsville lost 21-7 to Scott Central. He had suffered an ankle injury in the previous game. “I didn’t know if I was going to come back 100%,” Keyes said. “I thought I was going to have a lot of surgeries. Once they told me I was cleared, I was ready to play.” What “ready” resulted in was another stellar season. He was named the 2019 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year. [IMG alt="Taylorsville High School TarTars quarterback Ty Keyes is set for his senior year on the field after being named the Gatorade Player of the Year for Mississippi in 2019."]https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/06/30/PJAM/6cdfd963-f99c-48a7-9bb3-c706912e971f-tykeyes1.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/IMG] Keyes grew up as the youngest around his brother and cousins. His mother, Stacy Sullivan, said there was nothing more he wanted to do than play football with the older kids. Once he started playing football, he always played in a higher age group, which Sullivan believes gave him the maturity to perform so well now. Keyes played quarterback in elementary school, but became a wide receiver and running back in middle school. One day in gym class as an eighth-grader, Evans watched Keyes throw a football and approached him. At that time, Keyes was the running back. Evans wanted to try him at quarterback and did. "Eighth grade, he took off, and little did we know going into his freshman year he was going to be the guy," Evans said. "He took off, and there was no stopping him then.” One of the first memorable performances Keyes had was in 2017 at Bay Springs. The Tartars were down 40-39 when they got the ball with less than a minute to go on their own 30-yard line. Keyes swiftly led the offense into field-goal range, and Taylorsville won 42-40. “That right there let me know there wasn’t going to be a moment too big for him,” Evans said. “He can handle it all, and from there we started putting everything on him and he took off.” [IMG alt="Taylorsville High School TarTars quarterback Ty Keyes is set for his senior year on the field with his ultimate goal to bring home the championship title for 2020, pictured here June 28, 2020."]https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2020/06/30/PJAM/519d55be-c58e-4beb-89a1-f726d4c23660-tykeyes7.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/IMG] Keyes wears the No. 8 because of Lamar Jackson. He started following the reigning NFL MVP when he was on his way to becoming a Heisman winner at Louisville. Although Keyes runs a time of 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, Evans said the rising senior tends to sit back in the pocket more than scramble. Opposing teams often try to blitz Keyes, but he said it doesn’t affect him. “We want them to blitz, actually,” Evans said. “I mean seriously. It gives us 1-on-1 with our outside guys. We’ve got two guys already on the outside who have offers from Division I schools. We have good players on the outside, and he does a great job of getting it to them.” Outside of winning a state championship, Keyes said his biggest goal is to set a good example for the kids in the Taylorsville community. His mother said Keyes grew up learning to be kind to others and stay rooted in his faith. “Kids will be like, ‘Ty, how do you do it?’” Keyes said. “I’d be like, ‘Man, it just takes the work ethic. Just put in the work.’ The kids, they motivate me to go harder, knowing that they look up to me.” Keyes is also motivated to be the first one in his family to play on the professional level. His mother played basketball at Jackson State for a season before transferring to William Carey University, where she’s made the school's Hall of Fame. Keyes’ father was an athlete as well. His cousin Dominique Sullivan played wide receiver at Southern Miss. Sullivan stays in touch with Keyes during his recruiting process to guide him along the way. [B]More:[/B][URL='https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/high-school/2017/12/01/taylorsville-takes-2-a-title-behind-freshman-phenom-ty-keyes/913365001/']Taylorsville takes the 2A title behind freshman phenom Ty Keyes[/URL] [B]More:[/B][URL='https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/2019/12/07/taylorsville-second-title-three-years-northside-mississippi-high-school-football/2588665001/']Taylorsville wins second title in three years with rout of Northside[/URL] When he hangs up the cleats, Keyes wants to be known as the best to ever come through Taylorsville. “Hopefully, I’ll make it to the league, so I can come back and give back to them,” Keyes said. “That’s my main goal. I have that dream to give back to the people that helped me.” [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/2020/07/06/ty-keyes-taylorsville-dandy-dozen-football-humble-winner/3252026001/[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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