FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott‘s first throwing coach was his middle brother. On the Coach2Coach podcast with Jason Garrett, who coached Prescott for his first four NFL seasons, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback said Jace Prescott taught him in the yard and in the street, and that the laces never came into it.
Garrett opened the episode with the question of who taught him to throw.
“My middle brother, Jace. Just growing up, just in the yard, in the street, always sports, whatever it was,” Prescott said. “So anytime we got the football, it was just line up in the street, throw it, back up from mailbox to mailbox. And believe it or not, when I first learned and Jace told me, I didn’t even throw with the laces. And so it wasn’t until I got ready to go into high school that the coach said, you need to start using the laces. But yeah, my big brother.”
Jace Prescott was the middle of the three brothers, with Tad the oldest. From 2008 to 2010 he played offensive line at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Their mother, Peggy Prescott, died of colon cancer in 2013. Jace was 31 when he died April 23, 2020, in Orange, Texas, and the Cowboys announced his death that night from the first round of the NFL Draft.
Jace Prescott And The Over-the-Top Throw
Prescott told Garrett later in the episode that he never went to a quarterback specialist before the NFL and that his mechanics through high school and college were whatever came naturally.
“None of that. Just, I remember not using the laces. Everybody’s saying that was different and that was weird,” Prescott said. “At the time, always being a fan of the game, being a fan of quarterbacks. And I remember growing up though, over the top was very big. People wanted you to throw over the top, so I just remember really emphasizing anytime I was throwing with Jace or throwing around is trying to make sure I threw over the top so as I got later in my life it wouldn’t be, ‘Oh, you can’t throw over the top, you can’t play.'”
Near the end of the episode, with a ball in Prescott’s hands, Garrett brought the conversation back to what Jace had shown him.
“Just grab the seams. Complete disregard for the laces,” Prescott said. “If you can get them, get them. If not, those seams work too.”
The Laces Rule At Haughton High School
At Haughton High School in Haughton, Louisiana, the coach who put him on the laces was Rodney Guin. Guin had seen Prescott play as a middle schooler. Prescott did not start for the Buccaneers until his junior year. The 2010 season, his senior year, went 12-1 and ended in the state quarterfinals.
From there Prescott signed with Mississippi State, where he spent five years and left with 38 school records. He was a two-time first-team All-SEC pick and placed eighth in the 2014 Heisman Trophy voting.
Dallas drafted him in the fourth round in 2016, No. 135 overall. In his rookie season he posted a 104.9 passer rating, which is still the NFL record for a first-year quarterback, and won Offensive Rookie of the Year. He has since been to four Pro Bowls and won the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award in 2022.
The Cowboys open the 2026 season next Sunday at the New York Giants. Kickoff is 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
