Coach: UMass QB Signee Aedan McCarthy "Most Underrated Recruit" In Nation

Bluffton High School head coach Hayden Gregory is a firm believer in UMass QB signee Aedan McCarthy

According to Bluffton High School head coach Hayden Gregory, UMass got an absolute steal when it signed 2026 South Carolina quarterback Aedan McCarthy last week.

“I think UMass got the most underrated recruit in the entire country, I really do,” said Gregory. “The kid is a victim of how the transfer portal and all NIL have affected recruiting because the kid was #10 in the country in passing yards.

“He’s 6-foot-5 and he runs a 4.6 40 and yet he wasn’t a Power-Four recruit. I personally think that he is a future NFL football player, I really do. I think he’s a first-round draft pick level talent. UMass got a really, really special one.”

In three seasons, McCarthy completed 431 of his 664 passes for 6,643 yards and 69 touchdowns. He added another 1,400 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns on 200 carries.

“The kid has a 34-inch vertical,” Gregory said. “He also has the strongest arm of any player I’ve ever coached and I’ve coached two quarterbacks who have gone to Power-Four schools and he has a way stronger arm than all of them. I’ve seen him throw a football from the minus-40 and hit the uprights with it. So that’s a 65-yard throw in the air, just messing around at practice.

“It’s just natural to him. He didn’t grow up playing quarterback. He didn’t have a quarterback trainer. He didn’t go to a bunch of quarterback camps, all that stuff that guys do nowadays. He didn’t do travel 7-on-7, none of that. He played a lot of sports growing up and he picked up a football one day and was really good at throwing it and it’s kind of been his story.”

With the physical gifts present, McCarthy simply needed to learn more about playing the position at a high level.

“That was his hardest growth because he didn’t really undergo quarterback training as a kid,” Gregory said. “But ever since we got ahold of him, we run a college-style offense and we’ve taught him all that. We’ve taught him how to make reads, how to have proper footwork, all that stuff. He’s grown a lot from the time he was a sophomore to now to where he is a really polished football player, but he still hasn’t even scratched his potential. He’s only going to get better from where he is right now.”

That’s where Gregory expects to see the most continued growth from McCarthy.

“Going through reads, going through progressions, getting the ball out a little bit quicker,” he said. “He made a lot of plays in high school just relying on his athleticism. Getting more efficiency out of just doing the simple stuff and not having to make a crazy 70-yard pass will be where he really grows, but he’s going to be able to handle all that stuff really good too.”

McCarthy represents the kind of prospect the Minutemen monitor continuously, ready to scoop up when they do fall between the cracks.

“He got about 10 Group of Five offers in the spring, UMass was one of them, and immediately he was really interested in UMass,” Gregory explained. “Coach (Matt) Layman came down here and offered him. Coach Layman’s from Hilton Head, so he’s from the area. That was pretty cool for Aedan to have a local coach offer him because there are not that many coaches from our area coaching college football.

“He had some Power Four schools show a lot of interest in him in the spring, but none of them ever pulled the trigger on him. When it came down to making a decision, he wanted to choose the school that kind of wanted him the most. And UMass has never wavered in how much they’ve liked him. So, that was a really big piece in him making his decision.”

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