ESPN will air six high school football games, including matchups with top-10 teams Bishop Gorman, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Bosco and Chaminade-Madonna.
As prep football gets back into full swing, the Worldwide Leader in Sports will bring back its ESPN High School Football Kickoff for the 15th year.
From Aug. 16-25, ESPN will feature six games featuring 28 players ranked in its top 300 for the classes of 2025 and 2026. According to the press release, eleven of these players have committed to Div. I college football programs.
Though it’s just the first week of the season for many teams, this event will showcase some of the best matchups of the season, including two games between top 10 teams: Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nev.) plays St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), and St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) goes up against Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.).
Below is the full schedule and the channels on which the game will appear. All times are Eastern Time. The rankings align with the USA TODAY High Sports Super 25 preseason rankings, released earlier this week.
Friday, Aug. 16
No. 12 Carrollton (Ga.) at Woodward Academy (College Park, Ga).
Game time: 8 p.m.
Channel: ESPN2
Thursday, Aug. 22
Grayson (Loganville, Ga.) at Thompson (Alabaster, Ala.)
Game time: 8 p.m.
Channel: ESPN2
Friday, Aug. 23
No. 10 Milton (Ga.) vs. No. 16 American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.)
Game time: 7 p.m.
Channel: ESPN
Saturday, Aug. 24
No. 3 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) at No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
Game time: 4 p.m.
Channel: ESPN
No. 5 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) vs. No. 6 Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.)
Game time: 8 p.m.
Channel: ESPN2
Sunday, Aug. 25
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, (Ga.) at Baylor School (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Game time: 1 p.m.
Channel: ESPN
Gavin Owens, 2025 pro-style quarterback from Rabun Gap Nacoochee High, participates in drills from during Dabo Swinney High School Camp (USA TODAY Network)
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LSU landed a bigtime recruiting win for Derek Meadows.
On Saturday, LSU landed a commitment from five-star wide receiver Derek Meadows.
A 6-foot-6, 205-pound wide receiver from Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nevada), Meadows is the top-ranked player in the state and the No. 32 overall prospect in the nation according to 247Sports.
ESPN has Meadows at No. 188 in their top 300 players in the nation.
The addition of Meadows gives LSU the third-best class in the nation according to On3. The class now has eight committed players in the top 100 of the On3 Industry Rankings.
This includes quarterback Bryce Underwood, who is the top-ranked recruit in the Industry Rankings.
Meadows was a big part of Bishop Gorman finishing last fall 12-0. They were the top-ranked team in the nation in the final USA TODAY High School Sports Super 25.
It was the fourth time that the program has been named the best team in the nation by USA TODAY.
USC tries to stack offensive line recruits and establish real heft up front.
Alai Kalaniuvalu is a 6-foot-4, 300-pound four-star interior offensive lineman. He plays at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas. He holds offers from 25 Power Four programs, including Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Washington. He visited Nebraska in April and Cal in May. He has additional visits scheduled for the next three weekends with Utah, Michigan and finally Oregon on June 21. USC is also on his radar screen. He is a prime USC recruiting target. Josh Henson would love to bring him to Los Angeles.
The Trojan coaching staff emphasized the importance of culture, development, and preparing for the next level, which resonated with Kalaniuvalu. This was consistent with the comments made by Aaron Dunn, a four-star, 6-foot-8, 285-pound offensive tackle from Spanish Fork, Utah, who also visited USC during the past weekend. Elite offensive linemen are showing interest in offensive line coach Josh Henson’s teaching techniques, which has been a noticeable trend in this recruiting cycle.
“For me, the biggest takeaway is the culture and the history and then coach Josh Henson, the offensive line coach,” Kalaniuvalu said in an interview with Trojansports.com. “ Just sitting down and talking with him, he really knows and understands the game. it was crazy to me all the things that I learned as he was teaching me how to recognize a blitz.”
Head coach Lincoln Riley has consistently stressed the importance of size in meeting the program’s highest goals. USC’s priority for elite size in the trenches, on both sides of the ball, aligns with this goal in the 2025 class.
This would be a huge get for the Irish. Both figuratively and literally.
Notre Dame football has had an uptick in recruiting the wide receiver position recently but still has room to grow. That’s what the Fighting Irish are looking to do with one of the few remaining spots in their top-ranked 2025 recruiting class.
The good news for the Fighting Irish and wide receivers coach Mike Brown is that Notre Dame is in the running for one of the nation’s very best in the 2025 recruiting class.
[autotag]Derek Meadows[/autotag], who 247Sports recently rated as a five-star wideout, has Notre Dame in his final top-five and is set to make an official summer visit this June. Meadows has previously participated in Notre Dame’s Irish Invasion camp last June.
Notre Dame has a seat at the table but will have to outwork several bluebloods as Michigan, Georgia, LSU, and Alabama are also set to host Meadows this summer.
Meadows is listed at 6-5, 200-pounds and hails from national powerhouse Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. He helped lead Gorman to their latest national championship in 2023, hauling in 15 receptions as a sophomore. Over half of those went for a touchdown as he scored eight last fall and averaged over 26-yards per reception.
Bishop Gorman took the No. 1 spot on the national high school football rankings. To maintain it, they’ll have to win the state championship.
Midway through Bishop Gorman’s (Las Vegas, Nev.) second game of the season, coach Brent Browner realized one of his sophomores had not adjusted to the personnel switch. He ran the plays backward, reading them for a different personnel group. The Gaels got it fixed. But even if they hadn’t, it likely wouldn’t have mattered, at least in that individual game.
Bishop Gorman blew out Long Beach Poly (Calif.) 60-15 at the Nike Kickoff Classic at the Nike headquarters in Portland, Ore., that day. And that wasn’t some scrub opponent, either — Long Beach Poly is now 7-1 and ranked as a top 50 team in the nation on MaxPrep’s expanded rankings.
Much of that outcome showed how dominant Bishop Gorman could be, with the expectations matching that distinction from the sidelines and in the locker room.
“We put a ton on these kids,” Browner said after the game. “These kids are doing college-level stuff — we’re switching personnel, we’re doing zone — the amount of stuff that we do, even to me, is very impressive.”
It’s a demanding program, but the players understand the concepts.
The Gaels have beaten a handful of Super 25 teams since then, including Corner Canyon (Draper, Utah) by a score of 63-42, former top 10 Miami Central (Fla.) 39-35, and Centennial (Corona, Calif.) 56-28. Through nine games, they are outscoring opponents by an average margin of about 47-19.
The regular season success has thus far culminated with some help from another powerhouse, as then-No. 9 St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) beat former No. 1 team Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) last weekend to give the final push for Bishop Gorman to ascend to the top of the Super 25.
It marked the end of an impressive run.
(USA TODAY Network)
Since Bishop Gorman won three straight national championships from 2014-16, those two California teams have dominated the Super 25 rankings. USA TODAY High School Sports has named Mater Dei the national champion four times and St. John Bosco twice in the seven seasons since 2017. The only outlier was in 2020 when the eight-win IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) earned the recognition. (Due to COVID restrictions at the time, not all states allowed competition in high school sports such as football.)
After that IMG championship, Mater Dei or St. John Bosco have been ranked No. 1 on the Super 25 weekly.
Until now, with the Gaels opening up at No. 1 this week.
Mission accomplished?
No.
Bishop Gorman isn’t resting its laurels by any means at pole position. The team watched St. John Bosco shut out Mater Dei together on a bus ride, and Browner reminded the group not to put stock into the No. 1 ranking. That it couldn’t change their primary focus of winning the Nevada state championship, as he conveyed to the Las Vegas Sun.
Much of the national championship is out of an individual team’s control. Last year, the Gaels were in consideration at the end of the season as they outscored opponents 857-92 and ran to the state championship in blowout fashion. A three-point early-season loss to Mater Dei spoiled their chances for national recognition, though, and they finished No. 2 behind one-loss St. John Bosco.
This year, they’re in the driver’s seat, aiming to end the regular season with a 10-0 record this Friday before the playoffs start and the real test begins.
“There’s a belief in themselves that they’ve culminated not just because of what happened last year but because of all the work they put in on the offseason,” Browner said. “You don’t expect to win, but you expect to do what you’ve been practicing. If you do what you’ve been practicing, you should be successful.”
Near the beginning of the season, Browner said that experience from last year helped younger players adjust. This has been true for the receiving core, for instance, which lost leaders like Trech Kekahuna and Zachariah Branch. Senior Audric Harris, who last year appeared in just two games and had four receptions, according to MaxPreps, has become the favorite of quarterback Micah Alejado, and has a team-high 834 receiving yards and nine receiving touchdowns. Fellow receiver Elijah Lofton, who was a top-three receiver last year and rushed for seven touchdowns, is up to 15 total touchdowns this year.
Alejado is as electric as last year, eclipsing 2,000 passing yards with a 77.5% completion rate while throwing 26 touchdowns to zero interceptions through nine games.
The defense relies on extremely young players for key roles, with sophomore Prince Williams leading the team with 70 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks and freshman Tamatoa Gaoteote’s 64 tackles.
This isn’t a crowning of Bishop Gorman. Their success must continue if they are to hold off other undefeated foes like No. 2 Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.), No. 3 Duncanville (Texas) or No. 5 IMG Academy. Browning, for his part, recognizes that.
“We don’t stop coaching. It doesn’t matter what the score is, we’re not worried about any of that stuff, every play is the play,” Browning said. “We do want to play good football. We want to make sure everybody that’s worked since January gets a chance to show for their families and their fans what they can do on this football field. We just keep that simple goal.”
That was the answer to a question about keeping composure and focus during blowout victories. It’s also applicable to this goal of winning the state championship. They cannot get complacent. Since that August game and interview, that simple goal has not changed.
Elija Lofton has a strong touchdown run for Bishop Gorman that left one fan simply amazed.
Elija Lofton seemingly broke through half of the opposing defense on Friday, the Miami football commit putting together quite the angry run for a touchdown. In the process, Lofton left a fan speechless and with a priceless reaction.
Lofton had three total touchdowns (two receiving, one rushing) for No. 2 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas, Nevada) in a 56-28 win over No. 15 Centennial (Corona, California). It was his rushing touchdown that was most impressive.
The fourth-quarter touchdown run from Lofton may have been just one yard, but the four-star tight end had to break three tackles to get into the end zone. When he did, the camera panned to the crowd.
A student-fan in the stands had a priceless reaction of unbridled amazement at Lofton’s touchdown run. Wait for the reaction:
BEAST MODE: This man @ElijaLofton is an absolute monster!
Watch the @CanesFootball commit run through the entire #6 team in the nation.
The Gaels are the real deal, and backed it up tonight.
Let the arguments…commence.
Vegas power Bishop Gorman only needed to hold off an impressive comeback by Mater Dei in early 2022 to make a strong case for the top spot in the final Super 25 rankings.
Instead, the championship nod went to St. John Bosco (Calif.). Although the Braves lost to Mater Dei, they did manage to flip the script on the Monarchs at the Rose Bowl later in the year.
Meanwhile, the Gaels continued to steamroll teams, ending 2022 with one loss. The same as Mater Dei. The same as St. John Bosco.
That left the simple argument at the season’s end—one that was by no means a new area on the national stage—and included the scenario of three one-loss teams that could easily make a case for overall supremacy.
Add in the seasons of Central (Miami, Fla.) and Duncanville (Texas) and voila: you’re trying to solve a puzzle that would make even Pat Sajak shake his head and drop the mic.
(Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
And here we are again. Again.
The 2023 opening Super 25 rankings have featured all three teams at the top, with Mater Dei currently at No. 1, followed by Bishop Gorman and then St. John Bosco.
All three are impressive — offense, defense, recruits, the works.
Unlike last season, however, we won’t benefit from any direct data (actual games) to decide what’s what between the top Vegas team and the two top California teams.
Sure, we’ll have the CIF battle on October 13 between the Braves and the Monarchs. But it’ll be hard to toss out the loser of the game from the trio, because, well, See: 2022.
To that, all the SoCal outcome will really create is a subjective whirlwind of opinions that echo over state lines, where there’s zero chance Team X could beat Team Y. And vice versa.
The proof?
Pat, I’d like to buy a vowel, please.
(Errrgh!)
So, where does that currently leave the HS football collective?
The Nike Kickoff Classic returned to Nike headquarters in Oregon for the first week of high school football in a partnership between the brand and NFL.
As high school football teams around the nation played their first games of the season, Nike and the NFL partnered for the second year in a row to host a formal kickoff experience at Nike headquarters in Oregon.
Headlined by the boys football and girls flag football teams of Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) and Long Beach Poly (Calif.) High School and the girls flag football teams of Willowbrook High School (Villa Park, Ill.) and Irvington (N.Y.) High School, the Nike Kickoff Classic was an effort to celebrate youth football and increase opportunities for girls in the sport.
“Growing things from a grassroots standpoint shows that you care about the future of the game in a tangible way, and celebrating it by actually playing a game on (Nike’s) campus is the best tribute to that,” said Roman Oben, a former NFL player who is the vice president of NFL Football Development.
Three games were played on Thursday and Friday, but a key factor to the experience was being at Nike HQ. Retired NFL players and Nike athletes were in attendance as kids were involved in training, mentoring and activities like the uniform reveal. They got tours of the Nike facility and saw the business side of sports, first-hand exposure toward avenues to stay in the game even if they don’t go pro.
Bishop Gorman head coach Brent Browner, whose team took down Long Beach Poly 60-15, called the experiences “poignant” and said that one of his college-bound athletes was in awe of the facilities.
“He said, ‘Hey, what degree do I got to do to work here? He’s going to go off and play college football and that was the impact,'” Browner recalled. “That was just amazing. That’s probably the biggest blessing for a football game.”
“You really feel like you’re part of something that’s become a game-changer in American sports,” Oben said. “The cultural significance of the brand itself, they’re always pushing barriers and innovating — one of the most important parts for [the student-athletes is] being on that campus.”
Bobby Taylor, a former NFL player who is co-chair of the NFL Legends Youth Advisory Committee, said last year was his first time being at Nike headquarters, even though he was a Nike athlete.
“I couldn’t have imagined playing in high school and being able to get the opportunity to do something like this,” he said.
Events like these involving youth football athletes are significant focal points that highlight how things have evolved since Oben or Taylor were in the NFL. The league is hosting kickoff events alongside Nike throughout the country, so even teams not at the facility this weekend have a chance for a unique opener. (August is the NFL’s Play Football Month, in which all 32 clubs host activities related to youth football.)
The Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders, Chicago Bears and New York Jets were sponsoring their respective local teams competing in the Nike Kickoff Classic.
The event is also a high-profile showcase for girls flag football.
There is a growing movement among high school sports associations to officially recognize flag football in the state-sanctioned landscape, and the Nike Kickoff Classic aims to facilitate more growth. Browner said Nike, led by league athletes and grassroots brand manager Matt James, has been actively working to grow flag football for years and can “galvanize” girls like Browner’s daughter, who grew up watching football film with her dad and is now getting an experience to play on the Bishop Gorman flag football team.
Oben and Taylor said there is vocal support from the boys athletes at the event.
“I always think about the Olympics and when the women’s basketball team is playing and then you see the guys — I mean, these are professional NBA guys watching the women, cheering them on and vice versa — it’s a similar feeling for me when you see that,” Oben pointed out. “The support of the game and putting on the same stage and seeing them compete.”
“I hope these young women and young men cherish this opportunity, don’t take it for granted, and hopefully as each year goes by, it gets bigger and better,” Taylor said.
The games were aired on the NFL YouTube page. Replays can be found here.
The 2023 high school football season has arrived, with teams kicking off across the country in August.
That means the first USA TODAY Sports Super 25 is nearing, which marks another start to an iconic franchise that began back in 1982.
Last year’s Super 25 was one of the tightest races of all time, as St. John Bosco narrowly won out over Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman, among others.
How will things stack up this season? Ahead of the opening Super 25, USA TODAY HSS is looking around the country at the five regions we use to create the national rankings:
Jason Richardson’s son Jaxon takes after the former NBA dunk contest champion — just see this highlight video as evidence.
Jason Richardson gets a bit overlooked in the channels of basketball history. Despite somehow never making an all-star appearance, he had a five-year stretch in the mid-2000s with averages of about 20 points, six rebounds and three assists per game while being a good 3-point shooter. He was a key part of a few playoff appearances, including the Phoenix Suns’ run to the Western Conference championship. Where he truly built his legacy, though, was in the dunk contest.
He won it back-to-back years in 2002 and 2003, his final dunk of 2003 getting NBA players from the bench to mob him and the announcer to exclaim, “I’ve seen something I’ve never seen before!”
Anyway, here is his 15-year-old son Jaxon throwing down a slam dunk:
He’s got down the 360. The one-hand. The power off two legs. I’m not sure we ever saw his pops combine the three into a single dunk, though.
It’s an incredible feat for a kid his age. Richardson, a 6-foot-5 small forward, is entering his sophomore season at Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) alongside his older brother Jace, a 6-foot-2 guard ranked as a four-star player.
Jace has 14 college offers, according to 247Sprorts, while Jaxon has yet to receive any — but with his size and with athleticism, that could start to change sooner than later.
Here’s to hoping we get to see him in the NBA dunk contest someday, too.
