Jeremiah Smith is a special talent and has a legitimate claim to be the top recruit in the nation. The Ohio State football commit is a five-star wide receiver who on Friday showed himself to be a five-star quarterback.
And also a five-star running back for No. 2 Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Florida), who once again looked unstoppable.
Maybe the game plan for Ohio State football and head coach Ryan Day next fall to beat Michigan is to line Smith under center, have him heave the ball down the field and then let him run down the field and make his own catch.
And then midway through the third quarter, he took a direct snap and went 65 yards for a touchdown. Impressive stuff from Smith, who is just such a unique athlete.
Jeremiah Smith makes a strong touchdown catch for Chaminade-Madonna.
The most complete wide receiver to come out of high school in the last five years, Jeremiah Smith put together a very nice performance in his playoff game on Friday night. The Ohio State football commit is truly an elite talent.
No. 2 Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Florida), behind a strong performance from Smith, rolled to a 40-0 win over Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach, Florida) in the 2023 FHSAA Football State Championships.
Smith, a five-star wide receiver, made a tremendous touchdown catch on Saturday night, battling off Kevin Levy to make the catch. Levy is a three-star defensive back who is committed to Rutgers.
Committed to Ohio State, there have been rumors that Smith could be a candidate to flip. Florida State is presumed to be the program with the inside track to get Smith if he re-opens his commitment.
JoJo Trader produces a special touchdown catch for Chaminade-Madonna.
All that future Miami Hurricane wide receiver Jo Jo Trader does is catch touchdown passes. That’s what it seems like at least, when watching the future Miami Hurricane perform for Chaminade-Madonna on Friday night.
Chaminade-Madonna is ranked third in the nation in the latest USA TODAY High School Sports Super 25 and they continued their hot streak with an impressive 55-20 win over Dillard (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) on Friday night.
Five-star Jeremiah Smith is dominating on Friday night against Bergen Catholic.
Jeremiah Smith is making a statement to be the nation’s top high school football player, putting together a crisp and impressive performance on Friday night. The Ohio State football commit has lived up to the hype, and then some.
No. 5 Chaminade-Madonna Prep (Opa Locka, Florida) is putting on an absolute clinic at home, going up 40-7 at halftime against No. 20 Bergen Catholic (Oradell, New Jersey). And Chaminade-Madonna is being paced by their talented wide receiver, who is backing up his high national ranking.
Through the first three quarters, Smith had 16 catches for 316 yards with three touchdowns before being pulled from the game. That he is doing this against a team ranked in the USA TODAY HSS Super 25 is borderline absurd.
Five-Star Plus+ WR Jeremiah Smith put on a SHOW tonight🤯 (pulled late in 3rd quarter)
But what Smith is showing in this game goes beyond the gaudy numbers. His route running is crisp and fluid. He gets in and out of his breaks and he accelerates almost effortlessly, catching the ball in stride and then hitting another level of speed in the open field.
The heat may affect the start of the 2023 season, slated for this coming weekend for many schools.
The start of high school football season comes at the hottest time of year for many regions across the United States. One of the hottest states in the bunch is Florida, which like many parts of the country, has experienced extreme weather and heat throughout the summer. At one point last month, Florida’s waters were measured to be over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Playing any sport in these conditions is risky, especially one as intense as football – to say nothing of the added burdens of wearing helmets, pads and uniforms. The heat may affect the start of the 2023 season, slated for this coming weekend for many schools.
According to Dan DeLuca at the Fort Myers News-Press, some Florida high school football games may be delayed or postponed if the heat exceeds certain thresholds.
“At 82 degrees or below on the wet bulb, athletic practices and games can be held without restrictions. Up to 86.9 degrees, they can proceed with discretion. At 87 degrees or higher, practice times are limited, rest breaks are increased and football players are instructed to remove some protective equipment, which would result in game delays. A wet bulb temperature above 92 degrees means all outdoor activities are suspended and cannot resume until temperatures cool.”
The first major game in the state will come on Saturday, Aug. 26, between two top-ten national teams from the 2022 season in St. Frances (Md.) and Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.).
That contest will be broadcast live on ESPN from Ft. Lauderdale. Google’s forecast for the day is currently showing a predicted temperature of 88 degrees to go with 77% humidity. That comes out to a wet bulb temperature of 81.92. Kickoff is at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time.
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Over the last two seasons, Trader has totaled 73 catches, 1,335 receiving yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
The last several weeks of the 2024 recruiting cycle have seen several unexpected commitments from high-end prospects.
On Thursday night, we got another when Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) five-star wide receiver Joshisa “Jojo” Trader announced his commitment to Miami (Fla.).
“It’s like a brotherhood down there… It’s like a family. I can relate to a lot of people down there and stuff like that. When you play together as a team, it gets real… I feel like they got a good group coming up right now. They’ve been doing a good job recruiting me and I can’t wait to see what they do this season.”
Over the last two seasons, Trader has totaled 73 catches, 1,335 receiving yards and scored 13 touchdowns. He has also put in work on the other side of the ball, posting two interceptions.
Nobody is higher on Trader than ESPN, who has him ranked No. 3 at his position, No. 4 overall in the state of Florida and No. 11 nationally in the class of 2024.
Trader coming in makes 17 hard commits so far for Miami’s 2024 class, which ranks No. 16 in the nation.
It’s not cheap funding a high school football team and [autotag]Ohio State[/autotag] wide receiver commit Jeremiah Smith is trying to help his Chaminade Madonna raise money.
One of the most outspoken Buckeye commits on Twitter went to the platform to ask for help. The 5-star commit is using his social media presence for good, which is a refreshing sight to see.
When Smith signs he will be one of the highest-rated recruits to ever enroll at Ohio State, which says a whole lot about his playing ability. He might be an even better person.
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If you can, please help out Smith’s cause in the link below and show him how much Buckeye Nation cares.
Hi! I'm raising money for Chaminade Madonna Lions Football 2023. Would you please consider donating? Thank you! https://t.co/J749YqELQu
ESPN will be broadcasting a couple of major high school football games at the outset of the 2023 season.
ESPN will broadcast several prominent high school football games at the outset of the 2023 season.
Sportscenter NEXT shared the announcement today on their Twitter page – the two games will feature St. Frances (Md.) vs. Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.), followed by St. John Bosco (Calif.) vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.).
The first major HS football event of the 2023 season will feature a STACKED doubleheader on ESPN August 26th from St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) 👀📺 pic.twitter.com/tzaE3rZ4VB
St. Frances may be the best high school team on the east coast. Last season they posted a record of 9-1 and finished at No. 10 in our final Super 25 of 2022. Meanwhile, Chaminade-Madonna went 13-1 and finished one spot higher.
St. John Bosco spent most of the season in second place in national rankings, but a win over Mater Dei (Calif.) in November helped them climb the top of the pile. They ended the 2022-23 season with a 13-1 record and ranked first on the final Super 25 list. Meanwhile, St. Thomas Aquinas went undefeated at 14-0 and finished in the No. 6 spot.
More often than not, that question seeps into the conversation when looking over the country’s top high school football programs. Where one team’s dominance might be impressive, enough to land them in the upper echelon of nationally ranked teams, but the reality of the high school football schedule leaves much of the placement to hypotheticals.
That’s to say, the No. 5 team is excellent, maybe as great as the No. 4 team… but they don’t play, so — what?
Time after time, the collection of answers is nothing more than subjective zigzagging, a typical progression based on the state, the recruits, what “they” think, and ultimately, a cascade of wishful thinking—What if Team A did play Team B?
The 2022 version of that thought process has a handful of examples, but also introduces one of the more intriguing outliers as the season nears an end: No. 3 Bishop Gorman (Nev.) vs. No. 6 Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.).
(USA TODAY Network)
Gorman has bulldozed teams all season. The Gaels have scored over 800 points while allowing less than 80. That’s a wild stat. In any state. In any division. With or without a roster that features players with four or five stars attached to their names.
The team’s lone loss this year? An epic battle against Mater Dei (Calif.), the perennial power that was the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports Super 25 at the time. Even though it was only late August, the game ended as one of the best of 2022, with the Monarchs overcoming a 7-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win on a game-ending field goal, 24-21.
The outcome set the tone for much of the early action. And until St. John Bosco (Calif.) won its revenge game against Mater Dei at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Nov. 25, it set the order for the top teams in the country.
Since then, the “wishful thinking” has been simple—it would be incredible to see St. John Bosco line up against Bishop Gorman.
That’s not happening.
But not all is lost.
Enter the Lions out of the Sunshine State…
(Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports)
Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) has been equally impressive, stingy on defense and powerful on offense. The Lions have navigated the tough Florida high school football calendar with a perfect 13-0 record that included wins over Northwestern (Fla.), Cardinal Newman (Fla.), No. 10 American Heritage (Fla.), plus the 1M state title. They also defeated St. John’s (D.C.).
Tops in the land, worthy of a top 3 or better, ahead of Gorman? In most circumstances, we’d look at such juggernauts with geographical perplexity, pointing to the different corners of the country as we rehash the aforementioned back-and-forth.
Saturday’s GEICO State Champions Bowl Series will help resolve some of that typical gray area. To some degree, so will the American Heritage-Central (Fla.) and the Duncanville-North Shore (Texas) outcomes.
And while the final scoreboard might not create a dynamic shift in the year-end USA TODAY Super 25, it’s not to say that it won’t either.
Six schools from the state are in the latest USA TODAY Super 25 rankings.
Talent can be found all around the country if you know where to look, but the truth is that much of the elite football prospects are concentrated in a few places.
In Texas high school football is more of a religion than a hobby, and they usually have several of the best teams in the nation.
Florida is also a hotbed of high-quality recruits and teams, though. Six schools from the state are in the latest USA TODAY Super 25 rankings. Here’s who they are and where they rank compared to the competition.
