Kyle Williams is considered the best high school football player in the state and is rated the No. 2 linebacker in the country by SuperPrep Magazine of Laguna Beach, Calif.
Undefeated as a wrestler, Williams never has been any stronger or faster in his life. And yet he chuckles at the notion of pulling a LeBron James and going straight from the Bolingbrook Raiders to the Oakland Raiders.
“I’m not ready to play anything against grown men,” Williams said Thursday after a judge ruled that Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett must be allowed to enter the NFL draft after just one season of college football. The ruling also clears the way for high school players to jump to the pros.
“Clarett may be ready for the NFL, and I think he’ll do all right,” said the 17-year-old Williams, who measures 6 feet 2 inches and 220 pounds. “I’m pretty big, but by the time I’m 21 or 22, I’ll be much bigger and stronger.”
High school coaches, administrators and recruiting analysts strongly opposed Thursday’s judicial ruling, raising the specter of an overly ambitious 18-year-old sustaining a serious injury after making the unprecedented leap.
“I would hope the responsible adults in the NFL would simply ignore that high school kid and refuse to draft him,” said Mt. Carmel coach Frank Lenti, whose teams have won 10 state titles. “That’s the way they can control it.
“You’re talking about an 18-year-old kid trying to play football against a 33-year-old man who has been lifting weights since the kid was born.”
In 20 years of evaluating talent, SuperPrep publisher Allen Wallace said he never has come across a high school phenom ready for the NFL.
“Sure, there were guys like Jonathan Ogden and Orlando Pace who might have been physically ready to hold their own,” Wallace said. “But so much of pro football is mental strength and toughness.”
Public League football coordinator Mickey Pruitt remembers being a 6-0, 185-pound linebacker at Robeson in 1983 who could barely bench-press his body weight, yet earning a scholarship to Colorado. Four years later, he was 6-2, 230, could easily bench-press more than 250 pounds and wound up playing three seasons for the Bears beginning in ’88.
“It’s different in a sport like basketball because the high school kids can play all year round and develop their skills,” Pruitt said.
“You can’t do that in football. In basketball, the kids play against the pros in summer leagues and pickup games.”
Lenti, who counts Tampa Bay defensive end Simeon Rice and Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb among his former players, said neither player was ready for the pros upon graduating from Mt. Carmel.
“Does this open the doors for all the freshmen that want to come out and jump straight into the league?” McNabb told the Associated Press. “The thing about football, you can’t just come out of high school and play with grown men.”
But, according to Hubbard coach Elton Harris, it’s inevitable that some teenager will take the chance.
“The only type of player I could see making it would be someone like [current Pittsburgh Steeler] Antwaan Randle El coming out of Thornton,” Harris said. “He was so elusive and quick, maybe he could have succeeded as a kick or punt returner. There’s also a chance that a placekicker or punter could make it.”
