Long before he was named the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, Buster Faulkner first made an impact on the landscape of football in the state of Georgia as a high school sophomore in 1997. A junior varsity quarterback at Parkview High, Faulkner was made the starter midway through the season as Panthers coach Cecil Flowe determined that he needed to move his quarterback to wide receiver to add a deep-threat dimension to the offense.
“Of course, everyone in the stands thought I was crazy,” Flowe said.
But Faulkner validated the decision, leading Parkview to its first state title, a championship that foretold Gwinnett County taking control of high school football at the largest classification. In the state semifinal, Faulkner led a game-tying drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, throwing a touchdown pass with four seconds remaining, before winning it in overtime with another touchdown pass.
“He was the consummate leader,” Flowe said this week of Faulkner in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It is not only for his role as a championship-winning quarterback that Flowe and others are thrilled for Faulkner’s opportunity to run the offense for Yellow Jackets coach Brent Key, the most significant job in the 41-year-old Faulkner’s career. It is more so for the person who Faulkner was at Parkview and has been in years since, walking on at Division II Valdosta State and becoming an all-conference quarterback and then advancing his career to this point.
“You won’t find a better guy,” Flowe said of Faulkner. “You just won’t.”
For Faulkner, the tie to Parkview remains similarly tight. In an interview given in 2016 at the start of his three seasons as offensive coordinator at Arkansas State and posted on YouTube, Faulkner called Robert Hill, his offensive coordinator at Parkview, the biggest influence in coaching and said the two remain close.
“He’s the reason I wanted to coach,” Faulkner said of Hill.
For Hill, any guidance was a push in the right direction.
“With Buster, if you could go back and give some kind of aptitude test, it would say, ‘Be a college football coach,’” Hill told the AJC this week. “We knew back then.”
Credit: AP file photo
Credit: AP file photo
Hill was aware of Faulkner as he came up through Parkview’s feeder program and attended camps at the high school. Faulkner was, in Hill’s words, “somebody that was just eat up with football.” As a quarterback in Hill’s offense, Faulkner wanted to know the whys behind play-calls and schemes. He also became a leader to teammates and someone coaches trusted fully.
“If you needed a group of kids to go do something, you’d say, ‘Buster, get those kids and y’all go over there and work X, Y and Z,’” said Hill, now teaching and coaching at Athens Academy. “And he’d take them there, and it would be like one of the coaches was over there with them. Even way back then.”
At Parkview, Faulkner was an instrumental player in a dynasty. Beginning in 1996, Faulkner’s freshman season, the Panthers reached the state quarterfinals of the state’s largest classification for 11 consecutive seasons, four times winning the state title. Their most prominent alumni were Matt and Jon Stinchcomb, who both starred at Georgia before playing in the NFL, and former Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur. Another set of brothers went on to successful careers at Tech – Jon and Jeremy Muyres. Jeremy, in fact, was the quarterback who was moved to receiver to make room for Faulkner.
Faulkner infused his teammates with his competitive instincts.
“That was his whole deal – ‘We’re not losing,’” Flowe said. “There were others – Jeff Francoeur. They were all, ‘We’re not losing. I don’t care what the dang score is.’ There were a lot of games where we were down in the fourth quarter. And, by God, we’d just find a way to win. It was uncanny.”
Flowe’s ball-control philosophy made a lasting impression on Faulkner.
“Back then, the motto was 3-3-4,” Faulkner said in another interview posted on YouTube, this from his one season at Southern Miss. “We’ve got to get 3 yards, we’ve got to get 3 yards, third down – we’ve got to get 4 yards. Then I got to college, and we throw the ball. I still say we won because we were able to run the ball. That’s something that’s always carried over to me. Coach Flowe means a lot to me, means a lot to my family. He’s one of the best.”
Credit: Jonathan Newton/AJC file
Credit: Jonathan Newton/AJC file
Being a local hero from 25 years ago is no guarantee that Faulkner will design clever, well-timed plays that keep defenses guessing.
But having the unequivocal endorsements of coaches who were there at the foundation of his football career and remained in touch does offer a window into who Faulkner is.
“He’s not going to leave a stone unturned, and he’s going to get the max out of the offense,” said Flowe, who in recent years has been an assistant coach at North Forsyth High.
“His character is beyond reproach,” Hill said. “He’s going to do things the right way. If he has to choose between the shortcut and getting things done the right way, he is going to do things the right way.”
Asked if it would have surprised him, when Faulkner was a high schooler, to be told that one day he would ascend to his position at Tech, Hill answered, “Not at all. Like, at all. I wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up on a level even higher than that.”
Besides that, Tech can count on at least two more fans.
Said Flowe of Faulkner’s hiring, “It makes me the most proud human being in the world.”
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