Northwestern’s Taron Dickens is Miami-Dade 8A-6A Football Offensive Player of the Year
Taron Dickens knew well the expectations he was going to face as the quarterback at Northwestern when he took over in the first weeks of his freshman year in 2019.
The Bulls were two-time defending state champions and Northwestern was expecting a three-peat, no matter who was playing quarterback. For Dickens, the goal was mostly just not to screw it up, and let the Bulls ride their loaded defense and their reliable rushing attack to another title, and he mostly did — at least until the Class 5A championship. In the title game, Northwestern needed more from him and he delivered with one of his best performances of the year.
It was a sign of where his career was going and now there are few quarterbacks in the country more productive than Dickens, who threw for 3,743 yards -- the most in Florida, according to MaxPreps -- to lead the Bulls to a Region 4-6A championship and become the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Offensive Player of the Year for Classes 8A-6A.
“I’ve grown a lot,” said Dickens, now a 5-foot-11, 175-pound junior with a scholarship offer from the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. “Every year I feel like I’ve gotten better and better.”
Dickens also completed 70.3 percent of his passes this season with 42 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and ran 53 times for 487 yards and nine more touchdowns. Northwestern averaged 36.6 points per game, won 10 and reached the state semifinals for the first time since their 2019 championship.
With a state title and now a Player of the Year honor, Dickens joins some elite company in his school’s quarterback fraternity, including Tutu Atwell, who’s now a wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, and won a title as the Herald’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2017.
It also puts him ahead of uncle Teddy Bridgewater, who’s now a quarterback for the Denver Broncos and is one of the best players in program history.
Bridgewater never could quite lead the Bulls to a championship, so he lived vicariously through his nephew in 2019 and still offers mentorship to the young quarterback.
Atwell, who kicked off the three-peat Dickens finished, has also helped out, Dickens said.
“They’ve helped me a lot with the game, being a good mentor, leading the way, showing me what’s the right way, what not to do,” Dickens said, “and just teaching me everything I need to know.”
His leap as a junior, Dickens said, came from committing to the off-the-field aspects of football, including his work in the weight room and film room.
For his first few years at Northwestern, Dickens relied on his natural ability. He has been a day since he started playing the sport, earning his nickname “Tyger” in his first few years of playing because he was “an animal” as a defensive tackle.
At 8, he finally got a shot at quarterback and was already advanced beyond his years. When most youth teams were running the ball as much as possible, Dickens was probably “one of the most passing 8Us in the nation,” he said.
His combination of toughness and playmaking instincts made him the perfect quarterback for the Bulls in 2019, when they didn’t necessarily need him to be a hero.
Two years later, he’s still the perfect quarterback for Northwestern because he has turned into the star the Bulls knew he could be.
“That’s a big role right there. There’s a bunch of high expectations. Everybody’s expecting the best from you at all times,” Dickens said. “I’m used to it. My whole life I’ve been dealing with pressure.”
