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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Publisher

SELMA – Shockwaves are being sent across the state of Alabama when it comes to high school football as more and more people start to hear his name mentioned continuously.

It’s Kole Moody, and if you didn’t already know, he’s the state’s leading passer through the first seven weeks of the season.

Similar to all of the Ryan Williams talk at the University of Alabama—“He’s just a 17-year-old”—Moody is just an eighth grader and his quickly made a name for himself with the numbers he has put up on a week-in-week-out basis.

His most recent accomplishment came on Friday, Oct. 10 when he threw for 375 yards and five touchdowns on 21-of-24 passing.

Get this, that yardage was his fifth best of the season.

That alone shows how dominant and talented he has been throughout the year. The five touchdowns also matched his second-highest single-game total, as his season total now sits at 30 touchdowns.

So far this season, he has thrown for 2,712 yards and 30 touchdowns with just nine interceptions on 201 passing attempts. He has completed 150 of those 201 passes for a completion percentage of 74.6 percent.

Numbers that would astounding for a senior quarterback, much less an eighth grader.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, however, as the young playmaker stepped in to play four games as a seventh grader a year ago, flashing a sign of what might be ahead.

In those four games, he was 30-of-36 for 527 yards and two touchdowns.

Now, he’s leading one of the best offenses in the state this year, which has helped the Panthers pave a path to their best start in school history at 7-0.

Southside is scoring 51.4 points per game on the offensive side, including 44 or more in five of seven, 56 or more in four of seven, 62 or more in three of seven and a single-game school record of 74 points.

Moody has been a key figure in that success with four 400-plus yard passing games and at least three touchdowns in every game.

He’s thrown for 305 or more in every game with a season high of 438 yards in a 56-7 win against Hale County. He also threw for 408 against Thomasville, 419 against Dallas County and 411 against Keith.

The young phenom also put up seven touchdowns in the 74-0 win over Dallas County.

It also doesn’t hurt that he’s got trustworthy targets like Cedrick Simmons and Derrick Surles to get the ball to, among others as well.

Simmons, a junior who will have another year working with Moody next year, has totaled 1,203 yards and 10 touchdowns on 56 receptions to lead the way for the Panthers.

Surles, meanwhile, has totaled 10 touchdowns as well and currently has 743 yards receiving on 41 receptions. Both are averaging more than 18 yards per catch this season.

It’s led to a dynamic passing attack that has Southside ranked No. 4 in the 3A classification as they look to chase down a deep playoff run.

We’ll see how the young quarterback handles the pressure with a big upcoming matchup against Thorsby ahead of a postseason run where the Panthers hope to redeem a semifinal loss last year, but with Moody, it’s hard to doubt his proven ability at this point.