After looking modest in Columbia High School’s dark blue and orange for three seasons, Willie Favors II is looking real good in Cedar Grove’s dark blue and powder blue this year.

Through the first four games of the season, the 17-year-old quarterback had scored more touchdowns and accumulated more offensive yards than any other high school football player in DeKalb County, while leading the Saints to a 2-2 record.

After he passed for three touchdowns and rushed for another against his old team, the Columbia Eagles, on Sept. 18, Favors said he is playing his best football ever.

“I have a little better coaching, better players around me and better playmakers,” he said. “One team.”

Heading into the Saints’ game against Dunwoody on Sept. 25, Favors has passed for 613 yards and five touchdowns and has ran for 192 yards and eight touchdowns.

Altogether he has 805 all-purpose yards and 13 touchdowns.

Last season with the Eagles, Favors passed for 409 yards and four touchdowns and as a sophomore in 2007 he threw for 447 yards, seven touchdowns and three interceptions.

Cedar Grove coach Ray Bonner said Favors is talented and brings a different dimension to the Saints’ offense.

“He can run it and throw it,” he said. “We’ve had kids that can run it and throw it all along, he is just a little bit quicker and a little bit faster. Willie is a good quarterback.”

Favors transferred to Cedar Grove in January after he moved to Ellenwood to live with his father, Willie Favors.

Favors’ dad, who walks with a cane, was in a car crash in 1999 and was paralyzed and then wheelchair-bound for some time. The former little league football coach, who still has trouble standing for long lengths of time, said Willie II moved from his mother’s home in Decatur to help him around the house.

The younger Favors said he is glad he moved because he is getting a chance to play in the Saints’ spread offense, which will sometimes have three to four wide receivers on the field.

For the previous three years, Favors had played in a “Bay City” version of the wing T offense, a power running formation that features three running backs, a quarterback and very little passing.

Favors said he likes the spread formation, which is considered to be very quarterback friendly.

“I’ve got more targets, it’s just more spread out,” he said. “Over at Columbia it was more tight. Here we can get more yards and score more touchdowns.”

In the Saints’ first game on Aug. 28, a 20-19 loss to Stone Mountain, Favors completed seven of 14 passes for 138 yards and zero touchdowns.

Then, in the Saints 40-33 loss to Washington on Sept. 5, he ran for 91 yards and four touchdowns on 11 carries and went 8-of-14 in passing for 104 yards, with one interception.

During a 30-0 win over Redan on Sept. 13, Favors went 7-of-12 for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

Against Columbia, Favors delivered four touchdowns while going 6-of-10 for 231 yards in passing and carried the ball five times on the ground for 47 yards.

Favors’ success in the offensive system compares somewhat to the Saints starting quarterback of a year ago, Stanley McBride, who is now playing football at Albany State.

During the 2008 season, McBride passed for 1,053 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for 1,002 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Favors isn’t the only player excelling in the Saints’ offense that has rung up 128 points this season.

Junior wide receiver Vincent Dallas has caught 16 passes for 333 yards and four touchdowns.

The elder Favors said playing with the Saints lets his son show off more of his quarterbacking skills.

“He has always been a quarterback that can run it and throw it,” he said. “It is really just turning him loose and let him show his skills. It is no surprise to the new coaching staff.”

Favors, who sports a 3.8 GPA, has already qualified academically for most colleges by scoring 1600 on the SAT and 24 on the ACT. He said college football programs such as Toledo, Central Florida and Tulane have shown interest in him.

Favors said that it was tough initially transferring from Columbia to Cedar Grove.

“After the first month or two I met new friends and rolled on,” he said.

He said he was a bit nervous in the Columbia game until he scored his first touchdown.

“There was no pressure, I was just a little nervous and had a few butterflies,” he said. “I was playing old buddies, old friends. We all used to play on the same team.”