A fun question I always enjoy is, is “who is the best high school football player you ever saw play in person?”
That doesn’t mean who had the body to go play at a D-1 powerhouse, it’s as simple as who was the best player at the high school level that you ever spent a Friday night in the fall watching? Think about that for a minute, I’ll share mine at the bottom.
In the meantime, Jaylon Smith was named the best recruit one scout had ever come across. 247Sports put together a roundtable discussion of different scouts and analysts discussing the best prospects they ever saw or covered while on the recruiting trail. Allen Trieu of Midlands Recruiting said the following of the former Notre Dame megastar:
He was one of those guys where, if you just saw him warm-up, you had almost seen enough. He was so fluid and naturally athletic. He was at a Sound Mind camp and ran through one drill and a bunch of big schools offered him off of just running around some cones. The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Bishop Luers star would go to camps and play cornerback and he played defensive back in some 7-on-7s and he wasn’t just out there doing it, he excelled at it. I struggle to think of any other midwest prospect that had that kind of jaw-dropping natural athleticism. Had he not gotten injured at Notre Dame, he was going to be a top 3-5 pick and even though the injury moved him out of the first round, he is now showing what a freak he is that even after that serious of an injury. He is now starting and excelling in the NFL.
Smith was as talented of player as I’ve seen wear blue and gold since I started watching games in the early nineties. I’m also left a little bit in wonder, not because of his injury and how high he may have wound up being drafted, but I’d have loved to see Clark Lea get his hands on him as a player instead of spending the time he did with Brian Van Gorder.
With that said, it’s not like Smith struggled. He racked up 284 tackles, 23.5 sacks, an interception, three forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and five passes defended in his three years at Notre Dame. He also walked out of 2015 as a Consensus All-American and winner of the Butkus Award for being the nation’s best linebacker.
He was great, but I wonder how much greater things could have been in 2015 had someone else been calling the defense.
…now back to the question I asked at the start of this:
Mike Goolsby (Joliet Catholic/Notre Dame), JR Zierwynski (Joliet Catholic/Penn State) and Eric Steinbach (Providence (New Lenox, IL), Iowa) are all on the very short list but a guy who never played a down of college football was my all-timer, that being John Dergo of Morris, Illinois. I can’t find any highlights of him unfortunately but what he did against Joliet Catholic in the IHSA Playoffs in 2005 is the stuff of legend. Now let me know yours – leave a comment here or send me a tweet @NickShepkowski.