The Green Bay Packers will take on the San Francisco 49ers for the 10th time in NFL playoff history Saturday but it will be the first time quarterbacks
Jordan Love and
Brock Purdy go head-to-head.
In high school each took the starting quarterback reins as juniors and immediately shined.
At
Liberty (Bakersfield, Calif.), Love took the Patriots to the Central Section Division I championship game as a junior in 2014. He used his arm and his legs to account for 23 total touchdowns for a 10-win club.
A three-star Class of 2016 quarterback by
247Sports, Love also played basketball and participated in track and field in high school but stopped before his senior year to key in on football.
Brock Purdy took Perry to the Arizona state championship game. His San Francisco 49ers take on Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers on Saturday.
(Photo: Mark Jones)
As a senior signal caller the Patriots reached the mountaintop and won the Central Section Division I title for the first time in school history. Love threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground he added another touchdown along with 79 rushing yards in the 56-21 win. In the state title game, Liberty fell to Del Oro (Loomis, Calif.) in 2015.
Similarly, Purdy and
Perry (Gilbert, Ariz.) also reached the state semifinals in his 2016 junior season. Purdy had played a little bit as a sophomore in 2016, throwing for 1,194 yards and eight touchdowns but 2017 was all his.
The future Iowa State Cyclone threw for 3,333 yards and 42 touchdowns while rushing for 842 with six more scores before ending the season 11-2.
Purdy's numbers exploded off the stat sheet his senior year as he topped 4,400 passing yards with 57 touchdown strikes. He also crossed the 1,000-yard rushing milestone as a senior in the state title game, a 49-42 loss to Chandler (Ariz.) in 2017. Despite the loss, Purdy put up gaudy numbers by accounting for 453 yards and six touchdowns.
He finished his football career as a three-star quarterback in the class of 2018 by
247Sports.
His dad Shawn Purdy won 58 minor league baseball games as a pitcher across eight seasons after being drafted in 1991 out of the University of Miami. Brock played baseball during his freshman and sophomore years before focusing on football. Shawn told
95.7 The Game that his son "was a really good baseball player as a shortstop and pitcher. He loved it but he just had a passion for football."
After leading the 49ers to the NFC Championship game last season as a rookie, Purdy has San Francisco one win away from reaching that plateau again.
The playoffs are new for Love, who became the Packers starting quarterback this season after waiting behind Aaron Rodgers since he was a first round draft choice in 2020.
Jordan Love led Liberty to its first Central Section football championship in school history. Now, he looks to take the Green Bay Packers to the NFC Championship. (Photo: David Dennis)
