When Keon Hutchins graduated from Union last year, one of the fastest players in school history was off to play college football.
But coach Jordan Wren didn’t have to look far to find his replacement. Wren hopes that Zi Buckley is able to give the Yellowjackets the vertical threat in the passing game that Hutchins so aptly filled.
Buckley started the season as a receiver, where he had 16 catches for 198 yards, being a backside alternative to Keon Hutchins who had 990 yards on 43 catches. But the majority of Union’s record-setting offense from a year ago is gone, leaving Buckley as one of the main threats on offense along with Mason Tucker.
“Offensively he is going to play outside receiver and of course he will be the deep threat,” Wren said. “And he will play wing back in our double wing, two-tight end set. He will be the deep threat for us. His top-end speed is very high and he will also get some handoffs in our double-wing set. I expect him to play free safety for us on defense. He will call the back end and coverages.
With his speed, Buckley will remind opposing coaching of Hutchins, who signed to play at Pearl River. But Wren said Buckley, who is 6-foot-1 and 165 pounds, is already ahead of where Hutchins was at heading into his junior year.
“Him and Keon are different football players,” Wren said. “If you are comparing the two players at the same part of their career, Zi is ahead of Keon at this point in his career. Keon’s big breakout year was his junior year where Zi’s big year and breakout year was his sophomore year. On the speed chart, I would say that Zi is ahead of Keon when you put them at the same age. I think by the time that Zi continues to build strength and flexibility and all that, I think he will bypass Keon in speed by his senior year.”
To bypass Hutchins, Wren said the biggest thing for his junior receiver is to believe in himself. Wren said he and his coaching staff have been working on Buckley’s mental game.
“Zi is is still a real quiet kid and we are trying to get him out of his shy stage,” Wren said. “Zi is one of those kids if he really understood in his mind how good and how much God has blessed him, he would excel even more. He is one of those kids that likes to stay in the shadow a little bit and that’s the biggest thing we have worked with him in the last year. He has elite talent so now we have to work on him having an elite mindset. He has done well with that and has been more vocal this summer.”
If there is one thing that Buckley and Hutchins have in common, it’s game-changing speed. Hutchins ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash. He has been GPS timed of running 21.8 miles per hour.
“In season as a sophomore, the GPS said he was at 21.2 miles per hour,” Wren said. “He went to camp at Lafayette this summer and they put the GPS on him and he was third in top speed there was 21.8. he does have elite speed and he finished first in the 200 in district and regional and tightened a hamstring in the north half. I fully expect him to take over the 100 and 200 in track this year for us.”
Buckley started the year at receive last year but after the Yellowjackets gave up 45 points and more than 400 passing yards to Newton County, Wren decided that some changes had to be made on defense. One of those was moving Buckley to safety.
“Zi is one of those kids that we knew going into last year that we can put him anywhere on the field and he is going to succeed,” Wren said. “Collegiately, I think he is going to be a corner but for us, having him in the back end that if somebody were to break a long run so it puts him on the back end where you can’t run away from him. That’s why we transitioned him to safety so we could put him back there, somebody may bust one back there but you are still going to have to snap it again, because he is going to take a good angle and is going to make a tackle. We knew that going into last year that if we got into an issue of we needed him on defense that he could help us. He ended up playing seven games back there and was good enough to make first-team All-state in 2A.”
Wren said the college coaches have been calling and talking about Buckley. He has received interest from Southern Miss and Louisiana-Lafayette as a defensive back, where he was recognized as a Class 2A All-state safety last year.
“I think he can get that Division I offer,” Wren said. “From what I can tell and the conversations I have had, they are looking for defensive backs that are 6-1 with long arms that can run and jump. And he fits every description. We talk about his speed but his flat-foot vertical was in the low 30s. The one thing he is going to have to work on is a high point and his ball skills. That’s an area that he struggles with for some reason and something he has to have more reps at.”
And most of all, Wren said Buckley isn’t somebody that he has to worry about off the football field.
“He is a kid the I lay down and go to sleep and don’t worry what Zi Buckley is doing,” Wren said. “I do have him on my academic watch list but I don’t ever have to follow up with him on his academics because he is going to take care of business. He is a fair student, has a 3.4 GPA but he is going to be right there academically."
