The Irish Roundup

Irish commit Omar Hunter’s Buford (Ga.) Wolves team faces off against Lovett in the class AA state finals on Saturday, and the matchup has been pretty widely discussed in the Georgia media. Here are a couple of the best Hunter-related quotes.

From an AJC article on the Buford defense:

“For every shutout we get, we can come in here the next Monday and brag to the offense,” senior defensive tackle Omar Hunter said. “Like, ‘Yeah, we get our job done on this side of the ball, and y’all can’t even move the ball [from midfield]. We have to give it to you in the red zone.’ ”

From a Gainesville Times column on the Wolves’ winning attitude:

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from a team on its way to the state championship game, but it wasn’t what I saw from the Wolves after the [semifinal] game.

Waiting to do my interviews, I thought the small hallway crammed with teenage football players would be packed wall-to-wall with noise, cheers and the sounds of pads being bumped together in celebration of the statement game to end all statement games.

Instead, a calm, collected group of Buford football players dressed in white jerseys with nary a mark on them walked back to their makeshift locker room and got changed.

Then, the Wolves made their way back out, bags packed, and got ready to watch Lovett and Cook in the day’s second game.

Like a hitman researching a mark.

The Wolves left whatever excitement they felt from their most recent win on the field.

“Our goal is not to beat Dublin in the Dome,” Wolves senior Omar Hunter said. “It is a state championship.”

Good stuff. Get in there and tear it up, Omar!

Scout.com has put up some video of Jamoris Slaughter’s last football game before donning an Irish uniform, last Friday’s 31-28 semi-state loss to Northside-Warner Robbins (more on that here). Jamoris is #8 - check out the way he goes after people on defense:

From a Gainesville Times column in praise of the Buford Wolves, who gave up 89 total yards on Saturday against defending state champ Dublin’s vaunted wing-T attack:

I about left the couch when Buford’s 310-pound lineman Omar Hunter chased down Dublin’s 180-pound quarterback and grabbed him by the back of the jersey for another teammate to come in and finish the tackle.

See, now THAT’S the kind of kids Notre Dame manages to get: not just physically dominant, but selfless as well. Bring the pain, Omar. Bring the pain.

Okay, I’ll bring it.

There were only a few Irish commits in action this weekend, all of them in state semifinal games:

• Jamoris Slaughter and his Tucker (Ga.) team built a 28-7 lead at halftime but ended up falling to Marques Ivory and undefeated Northside-Warner Robbins, 31-28, in the Class AAAA state semifinals. Tucker finishes the season at 13-1.
• Joseph Fauria was held to just one catch - and his Crespi (Calif.) offense to 262 total yards - as they lost, 13-3, to Long Beach Poly in the Pac-5 title game. For a nice review of Crespi’s remarkable resurgence this year - they were the only team to defeat perennial state powers Lake Balboa and St. Bonaventure - check out this piece.
• And finally, Omar Hunter and his Buford (Ga.) Wolves squad did just what they’ve been doing all year: they obliterated defending state champion Dublin, 48-0, in the Class AA state semifinal. Buford will face 12-2 Lovett, whom they beat by a score of 21-0 earlier in the year, in next week’s championship game.

That’s all for this week. Best of luck to Omar and the Wolves next Saturday!

Sorry to be so late getting this up. At this point in the season there are only a few Irish commits still active, but here are their scores from last week’s games:

• Jamoris Slaughter’s Tucker (Ga.) team moved to 13-0 on the year and set up a Class AAAA semifinal matchup with top-ranked Northside-Warner Robbins, as they dominated Bainbridge by a final score of 34-7.
• Omar Hunter’s Buford (Ga.) team avenged a string of three straight playoff losses to Charlton County by beating the Indians, 21-14, in the Class AA state quarterfinal. Next up for the 13-0 Wolves is 11-2 Dublin in the semi-state on Saturday.
• Joseph Fauria had four catches for 49 yards as his Crespi (Calif.) team won their ninth straight game by defeating Servite in overtime, 13-10, in the Pac-5 Division semifinals. The 11-2 Celts, who have a chance to win their first major title since 1986, will play 12-1 Long Beach Poly in the Pac-5 final.
• Mike Golic Jr.’s Northwest Catholic (Conn.) team put up a good fight but fell to top-ranked Ansonia, 25-7, in their Class S semifinal game. They finish the year at 8-3.
• Dan McCarthy watched from the sidelines with a neck injury once again, and his Cardinal Mooney (Ohio) team lost in the state championship game, falling 28-27 to Coldwater. Mooney blew a lead but came back to score a touchdown with 21 seconds left in regulation, but their extra point attempt was blocked. The loss was the first since 2005 for the Cardinals, who finish the year at 14-1.

That’s all for this past week. I’ll try to have the results from this coming weekend’s playoff games up more quickly.

Sorry for the cheesy title. Just thought I’d pass along the news that Irish commit Dayne Crist has been named one of five finalists for the 2008 U.S. Army Player of the Year award:

The U.S. Army Player of the Year award is given to the nation’s most outstanding senior in high school football.

…

The U.S. Army Player of the Year will be crowned during the U.S. Army Awards Dinner on Friday, January 4, 2008, in San Antonio. The winner will be presented with the Ken Hall Trophy, modeled after Ken Hall, high school football’s all-time leading rusher.

Crist was 134 of 232 passing for 2,178 yards, 16 touchdowns, and one interception in ten games this year before having to miss his team’s last game of the season with a concussion.

From a Chicago Sun-Times article on 2008 DL commit and Illinois Mr. Football Sean Cwynar, who will be enrolling early at Notre Dame this coming January:

[Cwynar] carries a 4.2 grade-point average on a 4.0 scale and ranks No. 25 in his class.

Sheesh. Most of football players I knew in high school would have been lucky to pull in a 2.4. Where does ND find these kids?

The article also mentions that linebacker commits Darius Fleming and Steve Filer were named with Cwynar to the Illinois All-State team. Congratulations to all three of them!

Let’s all give out a big shout to 2008 Irish WR commit John Goodman, who joins Sean Cwynar, Michael Floyd, and Dan McCarthy as the fourth Irish recruit to win Player of the Year honors in his home state:

Goodman is The News-Sentinel’s PrepSports Football Player of the Year because his numbers are almost unbelievable. As Bishop Dwenger’s quarterback, the senior completed 95 of 175 passes for 1,697 yards and 16 touchdowns, with only two interceptions.

Goodman was also the Saints’ punter and a starting defensive back and the team’s heart and soul, leading them to the Summit Athletic Conference title, a No. 1 ranking all season in Class 4A and a semistate berth.

He rushed for 535 yards on 98 attempts — including sacks — caught seven passes for 199 yards, and returned eight kickoffs for 191 yards and 22 punts for 309 yards. He also averaged 35.3 yards per punt, grabbed two interceptions and made 28 tackles.

He averaged 17.9 yards per completion and 9.5 per attempt. His combined total was 28 touchdowns.

“There’s only one thing he didn’t do,” Bishop Dwenger coach Chris Svarczkopf said. “He was not on our kickoff team, and if we’d have gone another week, he’d have done that, too, because at that point it doesn’t make any difference and there’s no reason to hold him back. He would have done a tremendous job.”

Svarczkopf charted Goodman’s numbers for his three-year career, including the first two as a wide receiver. Besides earning first-team all-SAC honors twice as a receiver and this year as a quarterback, Goodman gained 5,600 yards in 480 touches, good for 11.8 yards per touch.

…

Goodman threw only two interceptions all season, one in the first half of the first game against Concordia Lutheran, and the other in his last throw in the Saints’ last game against Lowell.

In between, he threw 170 straight passes without a pick, a remarkable number for someone who played receiver the previous two seasons. He’ll return to receiver next year when he starts his college career at Notre Dame.

And there’s more to the player than his mind-blowing numbers:

“The best thing is that he’s someone whom everyone on the team admires and respects,” Svarczkopf said. “He elevated the play of everyone on the team. That’s what you want in your player of the year. He brought everybody else’s play to another level.”

Svarczkopf said his favorite memory of Goodman will be how after making a big play, the quarterback would charge off the field, laughing and grinning from ear to ear, because he was having so much fun.

“As a versatile player, you have to be like that,” Goodman said. “You have to be the type of player that executes in all those situations and the type of player who shows other people what to do, shows them how to do it and be the type of player that kids look up to. They fed off me, and as a leader I tried to show them what to do.”

Congratulations, John! Here’s to seeing a good deal of this on the field over the next few years:

(HT: Carms.)

Here’s the Roundup’s weekly overview of how the players currently committed to Notre Dame’s 2008 recruiting class fared in their high school games this past weekend:

• Michael Floyd had three catches for 85 yards but was kept out of the end zone, and his Cretin-Derham Hall (Minn.) team fell to Eden Prairie, 50-21, in the class 5-A state championship game. Cretin-Derham ends the season at 13-1.

• Jonas Gray had 34 carries for 144 yards, but was largely contained overall - he had only 36 yards on 20 carries in the first half, and was tackled for a loss seven times - as his Detroit Country Day (Mich.) team fell to Marine City, 21-7, in the Div-IV state championship game. The Yellowjackets finish the season with an 11-3 record.
• Dan McCarthy was on the sidelines once again with a neck injury suffered a couple of weeks ago, but his Cardinal Mooney (Ohio) team still managed to make it to their fourth straight state championship game, defeating Pleasant by a final score of 28-0. The 14-0 Cardinals will play 13-1 Coldwater for the state title.
• Omar Hunter (pictured here) and his Buford (Ga.) team moved to 13-0 with a 41-0 blowout of Darlington in the second round of the state playoffs. Next up for the top-ranked Wolves is second-ranked Charlton County (11-0).
• Jamoris Slaughter’s Tucker (Ga.) team is now 12-0, after a 56-10 shellacking of Northwest Whitfield in their second-round game. The Tigers’ next playoff opponent is 9-3 Bainbridge.
• Joseph Fauria had touchdown catches of 23 and 40 yards and played great defense to boot as his Crespi (Calif.) team pulled off a shocking, 48-26 rout of Mater Dei in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Pac-5 playoffs. There’s more on the game, and on the play of Fauria and 2009 QB recruit Matt Barkley in particular, here. Next up for the 10-2 Celts is 9-2 Servite.
• Ethan Johnson watched from the sidelines as his Lincoln (Ore.) team ended their season at 6-6 with a 28-21 loss to West Salem in the state 6A quarterfinals.
• Despite a disappointing three-loss regular season and an early exit from the state playoffs, Darius Fleming and his St. Rita’s (Ill.) team still have something to cheer about, as they beat Morgan Park, 31-7, to claim their first Prep Bowl title since 1997. The Mustangs end the year at 10-4.
• Hafis Williams’s Elizabeth (N.J.) team ends their year at 6-4 after a 39-24 victory over Scotch Plains in their regular-season finale. Their loss to Hunterdon Central in the previous week was actually a playoff game, so that ends their season.
• And finally, Mike Golic Jr.’s Northwest Catholic (Conn.) team earned themselves a a Class S playoff berth, with a 36-12 victory over Plainville that moved them to 8-2 on the year.

Best of luck to Golic, Fauria, Slaughter, and Hunter, and to McCarthy’s Mooney squad, in their remaining games!

Happy 18th birthday to 2008 WR commit Michael Floyd, who just this morning was announced as Minnesota’s 2007 high school football player of the year by the Pioneer Press, for the second straight season:

The only thing missing is the Class AAAAA state championship. Eden Prairie quashed that opportunity for Floyd with a 50-21 victory over the Raiders in Friday night’s title game at the Metrodome.

The disappointing end to Floyd’s prep football career won’t damage his stature as one of the best high school receivers in Minnesota history. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound senior drew comparisons the past couple of seasons to former Holy Angels star Larry Fitzgerald Jr., now in his fourth NFL season with the Arizona Cardinals.

Floyd, who has committed to Notre Dame, finished the season ranked No. 81 among the nation’s top 100 seniors by Rivals.com, a leading national scouting service for high school football. Rivals.com ranks Floyd at No. 13 among receivers nationally.

Despite double-team coverage and a variety of defenses geared to stop him, Floyd had 56 catches for 1,211 yards and 17 touchdowns to help Cretin-Derham Hall finish with a 13-1 record. He averaged 21.6 yards a catch and ran for three touchdowns.

Floyd is the first two-time winner of the award in over a decade, but he hasn’t let the hype that comes with being a hotshot athlete go to his head:

[Cretin-Derham coach Mike] Scanlan said the Golden Domers will be getting a receiver with the physical skill set comparable to that of Hall of Famer Michael Irvin - a big, strong, workhorse with exceptional hands.

“He lifts weight like he’s a lineman,” Scanlan said. “Most skill guys, they don’t like the weight room. But he understands that if he is going to play at the next level, he can’t rely on his natural ability alone.”

The difference between Irvin and Floyd, who was unavailable to comment for this story due to a meeting with Notre Dame officials, is the ego. Floyd hasn’t let all the attention, and there has been an awful lot of it, change him, his mother said.

“Michael really is more embarrassed by all the attention,” [Floyd's mother Theresa] Romero said. “I think people think it’s difficult for him to be level-headed. It’s really not. He tells me that he’s a man now. I tell him, ‘I don’t see any paycheck here yet. So you’re still my son.’”

The Pioneer Press article also contains this tidbit:

The national signing date for high school football players to make formal commitments to colleges isn’t until Feb. 6. That’s plenty of time for Floyd to re-think his plan to attend Notre Dame in the fall of 2008, but no chance.

“I won’t be changing my mind,” he said.

Exactly what we want to hear.

Congratulations, Michael. And Irish fans, if you haven’t read the profile that I excerpted right after Floyd’s commitment, now’s a good time to do just that.