1 / 7

2 / 7

Jaxson Theurer, Bear River

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

3 / 7

Kadyn Reyes, Box Elder

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

4 / 7

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

5 / 7

Manase Tuatagaloa, Fremont

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

6 / 7

Ledger Wight, Syracuse

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

7 / 7

Carter Payne, Weber

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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Nowadays, accessing your favorite music is easier than lacing up your cleats.

Streaming services have put a generation of listeners onto a seemingly endless discography, with almost anything and everything available through the internet. So it begs the question, what’s behind the noise emanating from parking lots and locker rooms on fall Friday nights?

To get to the bottom of this, we’ve gathered six of Northern Utah’s top returning quarterbacks and put them on the spot. Each gunslinger named their favorite artist and album, and shared why their particular record gets their blood flowing every time they hit play.

Cue the season’s playlist:

Jaxson Theurer

Bear River

If Looks Could Kill (2023) — Destroy Lonely

From the critic: “Me and my buddies, we kind of found him before he became mainstream. So when he droppped that, we were all bumping it really before anyone else. It’s like a favorite album of all time, I listened to it a lot sophomore year,” Theurer said.

Kadyn Reyes

Box Elder

Led Zeppelin IV (1971) — Led Zeppelin

From the critic: “The guitar solo (Stairway to Heaven), that’s my favorite part. I can just remember asking (my dad) the song and then him telling me what it was, and then I started listening to (Zeppelin), AC/DC, and more of that stuff,” Reyes said.

Tradon Bessinger

Davis

Never Enough (2023) — Daniel Caesar

From the critic: “Before a game, that’s what I’m going to listen to is this album just because it’s soothing, it’s good music. The guy’s got a great voice. I bet if you asked half these guys, they’d say the same thing about (Caesar),” Bessinger said.

Manase Tuatagaloa

Fremont

Here, My Dear (1978) — Marvin Gaye

From the critic: “The story behind it’s good. (Gaye) and his wife are getting a divorce and then, in court, it’s like all the money he makes from the album, it would go to her. So, it’s ‘Here, my dear,’ and he’s talking about her in all these (songs). I listen to a lot of old-school R&B from the 90s and 2000s,” Tuatagaloa said.

Ledger Wight

Syracuse

Utopia (2023) — Travis Scott

From the critic: “The lyrics have to be good. When I’m listening to it, I don’t have to neccesarily relate to the words, but the feel, you know. I also like the beat in a song and the way it flows… (Uptopia)’s got some features in there, some other big guys like Drake’s in there. A song that’s one of my favorite’s is “My Eyes,'” Wight said.

Carter Payne

Weber

Rebels Kick It/AI YoungBoy 2 (2019) — YoungBoy Never Broke Again

From the critic: “Gameday comes along and I like rap. I think NBA YoungBoy just gets me in that mode before the game. Gets me locked in, ready to go. He gets me in that mode. I put it on the locker room speaker, and we get the boys right to it,” Payne said.

Connect with reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.