Athlete Spotlight: Tyler Roberson

Nowhere on Tyler Roberson's school schedule does it read "Quarterbacking 101." Not officially, anyway.

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That doesn't mean the Augusta Christian sophomore doesn't spend countless hours doing his homework on the subject.

"He's such a student of the game," coach Keith Walton said. "He'll sit out here and study it. I'll have to make him go home. He'll get aggravated when he can't get enough boys to come out there and throw.

"But they know he'll sit out here forever and throw. He's not the one running the routes," Walton said jokingly.

Roberson is in his second year as the Lions' starting quarterback. That's significant in itself, because it means he started in the high-profile position as a freshman.

After learning on the fly in that capacity, he pulled off an impressive feat heading into this season: He got bigger and significantly faster.

Roberson put on 20-plus pounds, but the extra mass didn't stop him from improving his time in the 40-yard dash.

Walton said Roberson was running the 40 in about five seconds, give or take a tenth of a second. Before the start of this season, he was down to 4.7 seconds. Walton noted that he wasn't timing him on that occasion; that time came from an independent source at a combine.

"The weight has helped with just being able to take a lot more punishment," Roberson said. "I've been able to be a lot more physical running the ball. So the weight's definitely helped me to be able to take the hits and even be able to deliver them."

Walton said he has seen steady growth from Roberson. He raves about his quarterback's abilities to run and to throw, saying he suits the Lions' offense perfectly.

Roberson has enjoyed Augusta Christian's varied offensive attack.

"We've got the spread. We've got the Georgia Tech triple-option. We've got a lot of stuff we can work with, mostly because we've got the athletes to do pretty much anything we want.

"My personal favorite is the triple-option. It's just a lot of fun with the different things you can do."

Roberson's vast array of targets include seniors Matt Rogers, Christian Croft, Josh Dennis and Brian Sweeting. He also has junior Eric Fogle and freshman Thomas Banks.

"He has the timing down with all of them," Walton said.

The Lions opened the season 1-2 but responded with five wins in their next seven games. On Friday, they lost to Hammond, the top team in the South Carolina Independent School League's AAA classification.

That set up a trip to Columbia for a rematch with Ben Lippen on Friday in the first round of the playoffs. The Lions fell to the Falcons in Week 3 and now get a chance at redemption.

They will also be trying to better a first-round exit from last year's playoffs.

"That was a great game for our offense, and our defense did very well the first half," Roberson said of the 40-34 loss to Ben Lippen earlier this season. "We broke down mentally when they scored and kind of got down on ourselves.

"We've gotten better about that this whole season, and I think we'll be able to overcome them."