Undersized and overlooked, Gibbons QB Brody Palhegyi caps career with second state title
Brody Palhegyi has made his final case.
The quarterback — all of 5-foot-9 or maybe 5-10 — is one of the best in Florida. He proved it Thursday in the Class 4A championship, when he led Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons to a 35-21 win against Jacksonville Bolles with four touchdown passes and more than 400 total yards.
The senior has that intangible knack for winning. He’s now a two-time state championship after leading Cardinal Gibbons to its first ever state title as a backup in 2018.
Now it’s time for some college coaches to give him a shot to continue his career.
“Nobody wants to give him an opportunity, but he’s playing at the highest level of football in the United States of America and he just gets the job done,” coach Matt DuBuc said. “These college coaches — even the [FCS] guys — they’re missing the boat.”
His final line in a dominant win Thursday in Tallahassee: 29 of 33 for 358 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, plus 12 carries for 66 yards and a fumble.
His final case: He’s the dual-threat director of one of Florida’s budding dynasties, and the two medals he wore around his neck as he celebrated at Doak Campbell Stadium speak for themselves.
It was the complete Palhegyi experience DuBuc and his players have come to expect. In the red zone, Palhegyi simply did his job and threw short touchdowns on one-read plays. In the open field, he scrambled to extend drives and set up scoring plays. When the Chiefs (8-1) faced third-and-long situations, he almost always delivered the throw Cardinal Gibbons needed to keep the possession alive.
The Chiefs went 11 of 15 on third downs, and Palhegyi went 4 of 5 for 132 yards and a touchdown when facing third-and-9 or longer.
“Overall, he’s just a winner,” DuBuc said, “and when you play with winners you usually win, too.”
It has never been a surprise to DuBuc, who first watched Palhegyi play when he was in middle school, playing for the Plantation Wildcats. Even then, Palhegyi was sort of like the player he is now. He was small for a quarterback, but he had the same alchemy of attributes which have made him one of Florida best — yet least celebrated — quarterbacks.
Troy Stellato can vouch for it. The star wide receiver, who signed a national letter of intent with the Clemson Tigers on Wednesday, has played with Palhegyi since they were in the fifth grade. They played together on junior varsity as freshmen and then Stellato watched his close friend take the reins for a state champion in the 2018 postseason. The whole time, Palhegyi was like the player Stellato first got to know in elementary school.
Even then, Palhegyi was the small, tough quarterback and Stellato was his big, deep-threat receiver.
“Kind of the same, running around, chucking the ball — he’d have plays like ‘Troy, go,’” Stellato said. “He plays the same way. He’s a scrappy player, he gives it 115 percent every time and it really shows out here because without him, we wouldn’t have done this.”
Palhegyi first took over in the Region 4, Class 5A semifinal in 2018. Former quarterback Nik Scalzo, who now plays for the Kentucky Wildcats, tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Cardinal Gibbons turned to its sophomore backup to close out the win. Palhegyi, though, threw an interception and let Orlando Jones back into the game, so the Chiefs turned back to Scalzo, playing on one leg, to finish out the game.
The next week, Palhegyi led Cardinal Gibbons to a blowout win against Plantation American Heritage in the Region 4-5A championship, and the quarterback never relinquished his starting job. He threw for 141 yards in a state title rout of Citra North Marion, then led the Chiefs to 10 wins and another appearance in a region final last year.
Still, college coaches weren’t convinced. Palhegyi has one scholarship offer from Edward Waters College, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program in Jacksonville.
“My turnover ratio, my size might question everything for people not to be a fan,” Palhegyi said, “but this staff right here is the only ones that had to believe in me and we proved it all year.”
Palhegyi finishes his senior season 107 of 158 for 1,242 yards, 17 touchdowns and four interceptions in just eight games. He also ran 41 times for 263 yards and two touchdowns.
The virtuoso performance against the Bulldogs (10-3) on Thursday might have been Palhegyi’s best. It was in the eyes of Stellato, at least.
DuBuc doesn’t expect it will be his last.
“I won’t be surprised in two or three years, you turn on ESPN, he’s either playing quarterback or receiver somewhere, putting the ball in the end zone,” DuBuc said. “It will not surprise me because the cream rises to the top and obviously that’s how much I think of him.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 6:23 PM.
