October 2009 Archives

The postseason football playoff, which was introduced in 1974, has forever changed the face of the game in Illinois in dramatic fashion--for the good and for the not-so-good. Folks who have only watched high school football for the past 35 years probably aren't aware of the way it was. But old-timers are.

"The state playoffs have ruined conferences and rivalries and common opponents," said Kankakee Bishop McNamara coach Rich Zinanni, who won state championships in 1982, 1985, 1986 and 1987 and settled for seconds in 1978 and 1981.

"Nobody wants to play anybody (good) for fear of losing. It forces you to find wins on your open dates (so you will qualify for the playoff). The way the system is set is you are in if you are 6-3 but if you are 5-4 it depends on points. The reality is you don't get anything for strength of schedule."

As I have written, I don't have a vote in the Sun-Times Player of the Year or All-Chicago Area selections, only recommendations of what I have observed by covering games during the season. But it is abundantly clear that the POY for 2009 will be either Matt Perez of Maine South or John Whitelaw of Hinsdale Central.

But what about Christian Lombard of Fremd and Jimmy Garoppolo of Rolling Meadows? Or Providence's Peter Houlihan, the Catholic League Blue's top-rated player?

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming argues that Lombard, a 6-6, 295-pound offensive lineman who is committed to Notre Dame, should be the choice.

"He is having a dominating year," Lemming said. " He is playing as well or better than any offensive lineman in the country."

I covered the University of Illinois football program in the waning years of the Ray Eliot regime and during the Pete Elliott era and had some interesting experiences with Mike White during his time in Champaign-Urbana. So what is Ron Zook doing wrong and what can be done to save the Illini program? Let me count the ways.

Let's use Mike White as a model. Sure, he wasn't a saint and he violated some rules that created another scandal and put the university in jail. But let's remember the positive things that helped to build an undefeated Big 10 champion and a Rose Bowl team and attract several big-time players to the campus.

At the same time, he changed the face of Big 10 football and high school football in Illinois. He brought in a new passing offense that influenced nearly every high school coach in the state, forever changing the dynamics of the game.

I have covered high school football games for 50 years, from Champaign to St. Louis to Chicago, and I have witnessed some outstanding individual performances...Billy Marek, Ryan Clifford, Eric Kumerow, Dempsey Norman, Howard Jones, Kevin King, Roy Parker, Rocky Harvey, Sean Price, Jon Beutjer, Jordan Tassio and others.

But I have never seen a better single-game performance than Matt Perez' 341-yard, four-touchdown, two-sack spellbinder in Maine South's dramatic 45-34 victory over Glenbrook South last Saturday in Park Ridge.

As a retired sportswriter, I no longer have a vote. But if Perez isn't the Sun-Times Player of the Year, then God didn't make little green apples and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.

I don't often criticize recruiting services or analysts -- everybody has his own way of trying to do the best job he can, I rationalize, and some do it better than others -- but I wish someone could explain to me how everybody came up with such varying evaluations of the Chicago area's top three players this year.

We're talking about tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz of Johnsburg, wide receiver Kyle Prater of Proviso West and offensive lineman Christian Lombard of Fremd.

Fiedorowicz, who is committed to Illinois but has indicated his intention to visit Iowa and Wisconsin, is rated as the No. 13 player in the nation (and the best tight end of all) by Tom Lemming. But he is rated No. 65 by Scout, No. 85 by ESPN and No. 111 by Rivals.

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming has an exhausting schedule, even when he isn't traveling coast to coast from December to June to personally evaluate the top 1,500 football players in the nation.

In recent weeks, he has interviewed Johnsburg's C.J. Fiedorowicz, Proviso West's Kyle Prater and Fremd's Christian Lombard on his television show that is carried nation-wide by CBS College Sports. And he has attended games involving Lombard and Prospect's Miles Osei.

Lemming insists no offensive lineman in the Midwest is playing better than the 6-6, 295-pound Lombard, even better than Seantrel Henderson of St. Paul, Minn., who is widely regarded as the No. 1 player in the nation.

Think about it. You're sitting in front of your television set to watch a football or basketball game--college, professional, even high school--and the analysts begin to size up the opponents, the players to watch. Then it happens. Inevitably, unavoidably, in an obligatory manner, someone brings up the coaches.

"They are well-coached," he says.

When was the last time you heard a coach or TV or radio analyst or sportswriter refer to a team as being poorly coached? I can't remember. If you had, the criticism would have made headlines like Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder and Al Campanis. Every team is well-coached, right?

Not really.

I don't have a vote in the final balloting but, after six games, I have to believe that the leading candidates for the Chicago Sun-Times Player of the Year award are quarterbacks Miles Osei of Prospect and Tommy Rees of Lake Forest, running backs Jahwon Akui of St. Rita and Matt Perez of Maine South and offensive lineman Christian Lombard of Fremd.

Lombard? An offensive lineman? Player of the Year?

"No offensive lineman in the Midwest is playing better than Lombard right now, not even Seantrel Henderson, the No. 1 player in the nation," said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming. "He is 6-6 and weighs 295 pounds and has cut his body fat down to 7 percent this year. He looks like a defensive lineman. He has a nasty attitude that offensive linemen need, that a lot of them don't have."

This is a subject that college football coaches don't talk about in public. And the media doesn't editorialize about it on radio, television or in print. It is too delicate. It has the trappings of racism. It's a "no win" issue, a controversy that people talk about when they don't think anyone else is listening.

It's all about white players who aren't recruited to play wide receiver, running back or cornerback in college. No matter how good they are in high school, no matter how productive, no matter how fast or how big they are, they are rarely if ever recruited by big-time college programs.

"College recruiters talk off the record to me," said recruiting analyst Tom Lemming. "They talk off the record that if an athlete is white, no matter how great his production, they won't recruit him."