QB Magazine Athlete Feature

Ask a quarterback for the most memorable play of his career and you brace for a throw. Kieran Bullington gave us a handoff.

It came in his team’s first game of the season, in Utah — his first varsity action as a freshman. He turned and gave the ball to a running back. That was the entire play.

“The actual play was only a handoff, but it meant a lot to me because my family was watching from home,” the Class of 2029 quarterback said.

That is the whole reason it stuck. He was a thousand miles from Sammamish, in a stadium his parents could not get to, and the people who put him in the sport were watching a screen. The first thing they saw him do at the varsity level was hand the ball off cleanly — and for him, that was enough to make it the play he remembers above all others.

Playing Up

The handoff is a small moment inside a much less common situation: Bullington spent his freshman year on varsity.

That is a significant thing for a fourteen-year-old, and it came with a cost he identified himself.

“Due to playing up on varsity, I would rarely get the opportunity to practice with my freshman teammates, which hurt my chemistry with my receivers,” he said.

This is a real and underdiscussed problem. A quarterback who gets promoted spends his practice reps with older players, then plays some of his snaps with the group he never throws to. Timing is built in repetition, and he simply did not have the repetitions available.

The fix was improvised and unglamorous.

“Ultimately we were able to lock in during warmups and be an effective offense.”

Warmups. That is all the time they had, so they used it — turning the pregame period from a routine into an actual working session. It is a resourceful answer to a scheduling problem no freshman quarterback has any power to change.

Coach JT

Bullington credits all of his coaches, then singles out one.

“Someone that comes to mind is my Offensive Coordinator coach JT,” he said. “He is someone I really respect because he really knows the game well and is a super high quality person.”

The order there is worth noting — football knowledge first, character second, both listed as reasons for respect rather than affection. That is a fairly grown-up way to evaluate a coach.

Four Years In

Bullington has only been playing football for four years, which makes his freshman varsity appearance more notable, not less. His dad got him into it, and what keeps him there is split between the group and the craft.

“I enjoy leading my teammates on and off the field,” he said, “and additionally making a good throw just feels good to me.”

That second half is honest in a way most questionnaires are not. Sometimes the appeal is simply that a well-thrown ball is satisfying.

His definition of the position leaves out anything physical: leadership, determination, and working at your craft. His favorite quarterback follows the same logic.

“Tom Brady inspired me to play quarterback. I really respect his competitiveness and leadership.”

And his goal is a single sentence, stated without hedging: he wants to be a top five quarterback in the state of Washington.

Three more high school seasons to get there, and he has already spent one of them on varsity. The handoff was the start.

Building the Résumé: Why Upgrading Your Membership Matters

Kieran’s goal is explicitly a statewide one — top five in Washington. That is a ranking decided by people who have to know his name first.

Heading into the fall, an upgraded QB Magazine membership puts a professionally designed athlete graphic and feature placement in front of an audience that reaches well past his own following, into the coaches, trainers, and programs who follow quarterback development regionally and nationally. A freshman who saw varsity snaps is a genuinely notable data point — the kind of detail that makes an evaluator look twice — but only if it gets in front of them.

The timing is the strongest part of his case. Kieran has three full seasons left, which means a profile built now compounds the entire way. Every game, every camp, and every measurable gets added to a record with history behind it, rather than one assembled during junior year when everybody is racing to do the same thing at once. Coaches can tell the difference between a page built over years and a page built last month.

And there is the part that has nothing to do with recruiting. The first varsity game, in Utah, with his family watching from home — that exists either as a story Kieran tells or as something written down with his name on it. A membership makes it the second one.

Explore membership options at quarterbackmagazine.com/memberships.

Kieran’s QB Magazine profile: quarterbackmagazine.com/profile/kieran-bullington · Instagram: @kieranbullington · X: @KieranQB10