page_title: Mitch Mustain
section_title: High school career
hierarchical_section_title: Mitch Mustain / High school career
caption_attribution_description: Kenneth Hall with Mitch Mustain
context_page_description: Mitchell Stewart Mustain is a former professional football and baseball player. He did not play baseball in college, opting instead to pursue a football career. He played baseball at Springdale High School in Springdale, Arkansas, and football under present Auburn University head football coach Gus Malzahn. Mustain also played college football at USC. Mustain played his first year of college football at the University of Arkansas in 2006 before transferring to USC in 2007. Under NCAA transfer rules, he sat out the 2007 season and started playing for USC in the 2008 season.
  Since junior high school, Mustain has accumulated a record of 62–3 as a starting quarterback.
context_section_description: By the time he left Southwest Junior High School, Mustain was already the object of high expectations; however he did not start for the Springdale High School varsity team until the first game of his junior season.
  In 2004 as a junior, Mustain was 139-of-222 for 2,169 yards and 20 touchdowns as Springdale posted a 12–1 record and reached the Arkansas Class 5A semifinals. He threw only five interceptions in 222 attempts and rushed for 350 yards and 14 touchdowns.
  In 2005 as a senior, Mustain threw for 3,817 yards and set an Arkansas Class 5A single season record with 47 touchdowns and completed 69.3 percent of his pass attempts. Springdale went undefeated with a record of 14–0 and won the Arkansas Class 5A state title, including three wins over nationally ranked opponents and a No. 2 ranking in one national poll.
  On January 7, 2006, Mustain was the starting quarterback for the West team in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, where he was awarded the Hall Trophy as National High School Player of the Year.
  PARADE named him High School Player of the Year in its January 1, 2006 issue. He was then named Mr. Football in Arkansas by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He was also named the 2005–06 Gatorade National Player of the Year and the 2005 USA Today National Player of the Year, the first-ever from the state of Arkansas. Scout.com ranked him as the top high school recruit for the class of 2006. Mustain had told reporters he planned to play for either Notre Dame, Tennessee, Alabama, or his home-state Arkansas Razorbacks.
  Mustain was the top quarterback in the nation coming out of high school in 2006, and was considered a better prospect than eventual Heisman-winner Tim Tebow. In recognition of his accomplishments, Springdale Mayor Jerre Van Hoose declared December 6, 2005 "Mitch Mustain Day" in the city.
  In December 2005, Gus Malzahn, Mustain's coach at Springdale, was hired to be the new offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas; this was widely taken to signal the Razorbacks willingness to shift their offense to adapt to Mustain's style of play. The hiring enabled the Razorbacks to recruit the highly touted quarterback. On January 16, 2006, Mustain informed Malzahn of his decision to commit to Arkansas, but only after Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis opted to offer quarterback recruit Jimmy Clausen over Mustain. In addition to Malzahn, Mustain joined six of his high school teammates at Arkansas.
caption: Mustain receiving the annual Hall Trophy from high school football legend Kenneth Hall.
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