This is an opinion piece.

One of the state’s best and most underrated high school football players will miss the postseason.

Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa quarterback Ethan Crawford tore his ACL in last week’s win over McAdory and will have surgery Thursday, according to coach Jamie Mitchell.

Crawford, a Southern Miss commit, led the Patriots to a 10-0 regular season.

“I think Ethan may be as dangerous an offensive player as I’ve seen in the state of Alabama this year,” Mitchell said. “I’ve done this for a long time, and I don’t know if I’ve seen a guy impact the game as much in every game we’ve played. It’s a major, major loss.”

Hillcrest is idle this week before hosting Calera in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs on Nov. 4. Crawford led the Patriots to the state semifinals a year ago before the team lost to eventual runner-up Hueytown.

On Tuesday, I called Mitchell to talk about how I thought we the media had underrated his team all year. (I still think that, by the way). He delivered the difficult injury news, and it was two-fold.

Not only did Crawford go down in last week’s win but star tailback Ja’Marian Johnson suffered an ankle injury as well. He will be examined by a doctor on Thursday to determine the severity of his injury.

“We’ve been told 4-6 weeks,” Mitchell said. “We are praying and hoping for a miracle out there somewhere. I think the absolute best-case scenario would be getting him back for the second round of the playoffs, but if he has to have surgery, he’ll be done. He is a flat out college football player as well. He’s tough as nails.”

Johnson has good genes.

He is cousins with former Alabama running back Brian Robinson.

“We lost our two best offensive threats in a game that was basically meaningless,” Mitchell said. “We already had the region won.”

Crawford completed 56-of-94 passes this season for 1,063 yards and 13 TDs. He also rushed for 794 yards and 14 TDs on 91 carries. He didn’t play in the second half of six of Hillcrest’s 10 games due to the lopsided scores. He certainly could have been in the running to be the state’s Mr. Football with a deep playoff run.

The 6-foot, 208-pound Crawford was injured on Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa’s first offensive drive of the game.

“We had it on about their 15, and he breaks a run and — like so many ACL injuries you see – it wasn’t a vicious hit or anything like that,” Mitchell said. “He just came down awkwardly. I’ve seen him twisted, contorted in about every position he could be in, and he always got up. He just wasn’t getting up from that one.”

Crawford may not have gotten up immediately and may not be back for the playoffs, but he will get back up. There is no doubt in my mind. Mitchell told me his quarterback was “broken” about the injury. I hate it for him as well, but there will be brighter days ahead.

He’ll have the surgery, enroll early at Southern Miss and Mitchell said he will be ready to go for spring training with the Golden Eagles. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about Crawford’s athletic ability but also his personality. I’ll be praying for him to come back better than ever.

“I’ve been very careful to say this,” Mitchell said. “I try not to overexaggerate about players. I’ve coached a lot of really good ones in three different states. With that said and in my opinion, Ethan is the best quarterback I’ve ever had, and I’ve coached multiple Division 1 players and two guys who played in the NFL.

“I just think he has the most impact on a football game of anyone I’ve ever coached at the position. I would expect him to be super successful at Southern Miss. I’m good friends with (USM coach) Will Hall. I coached against him when he was in high school. I don’t think Ethan could be in better hands.”

The question for the rest of this high school season is how will Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa handle the losses. Mitchell said sophomore Bryson Kimbrough will move into the starting quarterback role. He’s played a lot already this year when the Patriots had big second-half leads. Mitchell thinks Kimbrough is a future college quarterback as well.

At running back, junior Jayshon Land and senior Darren Petty will likely get more carries in Johnson’s absence. Mitchell said not much will change schematically with his team’s offensive attack. Johnson has rushed for 896 yards and 19 TDs on 120 carries – an average of 7.5 yards per carry.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in both of those guys,” Mitchell said. “Without Jay, it will force us to be a little cleaner and a little better in some areas. We might not be able to overcome some of the mistakes we might have been able to with Ethan and Ja’Marian. But our offensive line is one of the best I’ve coached and our defense is super good. We still have some good pieces. We plan to lean on those guys and see what we can make happen.”

As Mitchell pointed out, teenagers are usually much more resilient than adults. I have no doubt his team will be ready to play on Nov. 4, and I look forward to seeing how they respond.

My guess is it will be impressive.

Ben Thomas is the high school sportswriter at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at [email protected]. His weekly column is posted each Wednesday and Friday on AL.com. He can be heard weekly on the Cooper Restaurants “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays.