ESPN RISE

The offense that helped Arundel's (Gambrills, Md.) Billy Cosh become Maryland's high school single-season touchdown leader (48) is the same offense that almost kept him from attending the school.

[+] Enlarge

Mike Loveday

Billy Cosh shattered the single-season TD mark.

In middle school, Cosh ran a wing-T offense, and when his family moved to Maryland, Arundel's wide-open set was not his first choice.

"In Kansas, I played eight-man football in the wing-T offense, like an Archbishop Spalding offense. I came here and I thought about going to Spalding or DeMatha. I never thought about going to Arundel," Cosh said. "I met coach [Chuck] Markiewicz in the summer of my freshman year. I really liked him a lot. I went to their camp and I loved it. I loved throwing it around and I really grew into the system."

Grew into the system seems to be an understatement. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound junior surpassed the public school record for touchdown passes, set by former Wildcat Nick Elko, in 10 games, and it took only 11 games to break the overall state record. He has thrown for at least five touchdowns in five straight games and has the chance at several more state records before his season is through.

Through 11 games, Cosh has thrown for 3,190 yards, only 145 yards from surpassing the public school record set by Westminster's Kevin Clancy in 2005. He needs only 401 yards to surpass Keith Ricca for the most in a season. Ricca threw for 3,591 yards for St. John's Prospect Hall in 2004. Depending on how many games remain in Cosh's season, he also could break the record for most pass attempts in a season (431, also held by Ricca).

Not bad for a guy who over the summer said he just did not want to mess it up for the rest of the team.

"I just want to win as many games as possible. We have great talent around us, our receiving corps and some good running backs coming back and three offensive linemen coming back," Cosh said in a previous interview. "I don't care about stats. I just want to win as many games as possible for my team."

Cosh added, "Watching Nick [Elko, Arundel's record-setting quarterback of 2007] do everything he did was amazing. I just want to try and emulate that this season."

Arundel's Alec Lemon, who has a chance at a few state records of his own, played with both Elko and Cosh and is not surprised at Cosh's success -- and can see him getting even better.

"I knew he [Cosh] had the capability to do it [break the record]. I didn't know if he was going to do it his junior or senior year," Lemon said. "Nick being a senior, he had a little more composure in the pocket. Billy being a junior, he gets a little excited. Billy's been working on that. Billy does throw the ball a lot harder. Nick could put some touch on it and Billy's learning to do that."

Only Cosh knows whether he came into his first season as a varsity quarterback truly trying to do what Elko did last season, but he has raised the bar for all Maryland quarterbacks and has been receiving recruiting interest from several Bowl Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) colleges.

East Carolina, Bowling Green, Maryland, Stanford and Northwestern all have expressed early interest. Cosh said ECU is the favorite.

But with Nebraska going back to the option offense that won the Cornhuskers national titles -- is Cosh interested in heading back to his roots and a run-first offense?

"I'm a spread guy now. I just love the spread offense. I think the wing-T wasn't for me. I just love chucking the ball around -- it's so fun," Cosh said.

Mike Loveday covers high school sports for ESPN RISE.