Diesel Taylor hasn’t yet played a minute of official high school football in California.

But clearly the word has already gotten out about Del Norte’s new quarterback, an intriguing senior transfer from Perry (AZ).

Fans have voted Taylor the top quarterback in the CIF-San Diego Section entering the 2024 California high school football season, and they did it with oomph. Taylor received 3,145 votes to collect 91.1-percent of the votes.

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Starring for one of Arizona’s better teams in 2023, Taylor threw for 2,296 yards and 29 touchdowns against eight interceptions, completing 58.2-percent (178-306) of his passes, and also ran for 110 yards and two more touchdowns.

And there’s plenty of reason to believe that he’s only scratched the surface. Taylor is 6-5 with serious downfield arm strength, so if he parlays a very good junior season into an amazing senior season, he’ll be impossible for scouts to miss. Especially joining the defending CIF-SDS Division 2 champion.

Another compelling characteristic of Taylor is his knack for producing against top opponents. All four of Perry’s losses last season came against powerhouses well within Arizona’s top 10 teams and arguably within the nation’s top 100 – Basha, Hamilton, Chandler, and Saguaro. Despite losing, Perry managed at least 27 points in three of those four games thanks in large part to strong showings from Taylor, especially a season-high 406-passing yard effort in the Pumas’ 59-34 loss to Hamilton.

Del Norte went 11-3 last season and won its first CIF-SDS title last year, which was its first under head coach Nick Barnett, who played 11 years in the NFL as a linebacker. Despite graduating many of their top players and losing star receiver Ty Olsen to Lincoln via transfer, the Nighthawks may well be ready to build on last season’s success.

They come in ranked 11th in SBLive’s preseason San Diego Section countdown, and pair Taylor with one of the section’s top returning running back tandems in Ryan Remigio and Anthony Mattar. Del Norte’s defense was arguably its strongest suit last year, and while it graduated most of its core on that end as well, we could see another staunch Nighthawks defense with defensive backs Kaden Barnett and Charlie Bowers and defensive lineman Marcus Hernandez back as seniors.

Del Norte opens the season on Friday at Point Loma.