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LOGAN — Utah’s next NFL quarterback played three years of high school football in the Cache Valley.
Former Logan High quarterback Luke Falk was selected by the Tennessee Titans as the 25th pick of the sixth round in Saturday's NFL draft, becoming the first quarterback from Utah selected in the 2018 draft.
Falk, a native of Logan, played three seasons with the Grizzlies before enrolling at Washington State. He attended Oaks Christian School in California as a junior, but returned to Logan High as a senior, and set Utah high school single-season records for pass attempts (562) and completions (330).
His uncle Eric played defensive end at Utah State, and another uncle, Jeff Anderson, played basketball for the Aggies. But no Division I offers came out of high school, and Falk enrolled at Washington State to study.
Falk redshirted the 2013 season while he worked on campus, and appeared in six games, with three starts, in 2014 after receiving an invitation to walk on from head coach Mike Leach a year later.
The 6-foot-4, 215-pound signal caller went on to have a decorated career with the Cougars, amassing 14,486 passing yards with 119 touchdowns and 39 interceptions en route to all-time Pac-12 records in completions, attempts, completion percentage, yards and touchdowns.
More important, Falk led the Cougars to a 9-4 record as a senior (including a 33-25 win at Utah in November) a third-straight bowl game, and a spot as one of the top teams in the Pac 12 North. He attended the 2018 NFL Combine, but only performed in the vertical jump (26.5 inches) and broad jump (103 inches).
Durability was always his concern, though. Falk only missed two starts in his college career, but he struggled through a broken wrist as a senior and took sacks for negative yardage in nine games of his final year.
“Falk’s lack of protection and average mobility has lead (sic) to a tremendous amount of sacks and quarterback hits that may have taken a toll on him,” NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein said. “While he can throw with touch and accuracy, his deep and intermediate accuracy dipped this season.
“There are some holes that could be hard to correct in Falk’s game and ‘average starter’ may be his ceiling.”
