Breaking down the best

– Dallas Jackson, NationalHSFootball.com

Two respected polls have already named Miami (Fla.) Booker T. Washington its 2013 high school football National Champions.

While four others have the team in the top spot entering the weekend, three have acknowledged that there is no certainty the Tornadoes remain there for the duration of the season.

The two teams with the best chance to knock Booker T. Washington from the top line are Allen (Texas) High and Bellflower (Cali.) St. John Bosco.

The greatest advantage that Booker T. Washington has is that it is the leader in the clubhouse. The team neatly wrapped its season last week claiming a Florida Class 4A state title over Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles.

The best chance Allen has to make a jump is this week if it can win a consensus Top 10 showdown on Saturday with HSFB100 No. 9 DeSoto (Texas) High in the Texas 5A Division I semifinals.

With a win its opposition in the finals will be either HSFB100 Pearland (Texas) High or San Antonio (Texas) Madison; while both are relevant teams neither would figure to give a boost over Allen if it doesn’t ascend to the top spot with a victory on Saturday.

St. John Bosco will play HSFB100 No. 31 Corona (Cali.) Centennial this weekend but its best chance to claim the top spot will be in the last week of the season.

If seeding holds it would pit St. John Bosco against consensus Top 10 program, Concord (Cali.) De La Salle. A decisive victory in the finals could prompt pollsters to make the switch as St. John Bosco has been on a historic run in California.

To dig further into the claims of each team, NationalHSFootball.com will break down each program relative to one another.

OFFENSIVE ANALYSIS

Quarterback: HA! Go ahead and try to split hairs in this group — we won’t. Booker T. Washington has the only senior of the trio as four-star Treon Harris has made the Tornadoes go. The dual-threat player is committed to Florida State and has exceptional command of the offense. Allen counters with a near mirror image in Kyler Murray. In his second year leading the team he may win another state title and has already been named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Texas. Murray is a four-star as well and is almost the identical size as Harris. The two share a similar skill set as well. Josh Rosen may get the slide edge in the discussion but it isn’t enough to claim a victor. Rosen leads St. John Bosco and is a protype for quarterback. He is 6-foot-4, 200 pounds and has a rocket for an arm. He is ranked as a five-star prospect and was named by Rivals.com as the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2015. Rosen led the way with 69-percent completions followed by Murray at 65 and Harris at 62 but because of the dual-threat ability of those two players the official scorecard here reads: DRAW.

Rushing Attack: This is another interesting debate as St. John Bosco is the only team to rely solely on its running backs and not account for the signal caller to run. The Braves have a pro-style quarterback so the stats for the position may look different than the other two. St. John Bosco could get the edge if this were an actual position debate by being able to rotate in Manasseh Anesi and sophomore Sean McGrew but it may not mean that the team actually rushes the ball better than the other two. Washington has a talented sophomore of its own as Mark Walton is already committed to the University of Miami and is a player that needs accounted for. His talent was clear and combined with Samford commit Krondis Larry and the ability for Harris to run the ball makes a tough trio. Allen has impressive balance as Murray is the teams leading rusher but he is balanced by Jaelen Barlow who nearly cracked 1,000 yards himself. The two players are only separated by a hundred yards total. To rank these three teams would be extremely difficult as well but we cannot just keep handing out ties, and so the scoreboard will read Allen, Washington, and St. John Bosco third.

Passing Attack: A combination of the quarterback and receiver grouping continues the comparison for the teams. With all due respect to the passing game at Allen its receivers are not on the level of St. John Bosco nor Booker T. Washington and this becomes a two team debate. At the top of the talent totem pole is St. John Bosco with Shay Fields and Jaleel Wadood. While the margin is very small — and there is nearly nothing in terms of measurables that could make one stand over the next — Fields and Wadood gets the edge here. Fields is a USC commitment while Wadood pledged to UCLA. The pair combined for nearly 150 receptions, over 2500 yards, and 35 touchdowns with potentially two games to play. Booker T. Washington features West Virginia-bound Lamar Parker and Appalachian State commitment Deltron Hopkins but as a team the Tornadoes barely had more completions or passing yards than just the headliners for St. John Bosco. The edge here is clear: St. John Bosco, Washington, and Allen third.

Offensive line While it becomes somewhat of a moot point at the end of the year Booker T. Washington returned zero starters from its offensive line last year, Allen only one. St. John Bosco had four players back and it used that edge to dominate in the trenches. The group is lead by Damien Mama at 6-foot-6, 350-pounds on the inside of the line. Mama is a finalist for the Lombardi Award and ranked as the No. 2 player at his position in the country. Next to him is 6-foot-3, 305 pound, four-star junior Zack Robertson and 6-foot-4, 290-pound Matt Katnik. After 14-plus games all the players for all three teams have plenty of experience and proved they can get the job done the advantage still goes to the Braves. The other two programs will be close for second but the list goes St. John Bosco, Allen, and Washington third.

DEFENSIVE ANALYSIS

Defensive line: Much like the passing attack, this is a spot where Allen goes to the back of the line quickly and the debate is between Booker T. Washington and St. John Bosco. Unlike the passing attack this is where Washington has the decided advantage. There are few front sevens in the country that are in the same breath with Washington and it starts up front. Having Chad Thomas and Demetrius Jackson makes the defense very tough to contend with as the bookends on the defensive line can rush the passer as well as have the footwork and skill to drop back into coverage. Thomas is a five-star player with Jackson rated as four-star player. Both are Miami commitments and in the range of 6-foot-5, between 225-to-230 pounds. St. John Bosco and Allen each have some namebrand players as well as strong overall line play but it isn’t what Washington has. The scoreboard here is Washington, St. John Bosco, and Allen third.

Linebackers: Allen quickly comes back to the front of the pack as its linebacking group is very strong. It was this position that likely cost the team a state and national title two years ago as it was slow and not aggressive but the Eagles have become much improved. Christian Sam and Tay Evans are committed to Arizona State and Oklahoma, respectively, and make a lot of tackles ranging sideline to sideline. Each has the size to play on the inside at the next level with the speed to stay outside. The difference between St. John Bosco and Booker T. Washington at this position is power versus speed. Chandler Leniu will lay hits for the Braves while Washington may not have ideal size players at the position they will fly to the ball. With Allen as the clear top dog at linebacker the other two aren’t separated by much and in a ranking of positions, linebacker is going to be towards the bottom. Rank it as Allen, St. John Bosco, and Washington third.

Secondary: It would be only fitting for the three groupings on defense to have a clear top team of the three. St. John Bosco gets the nod in this breakdown. The team features three, senior FBS-level players in the secondary and that is too impressive to argue with. Wadood starts on offense and is a lockdown cornerback which is a tipping point for the group. The Braves also have Naijiel Hale headed to Arizona and Chandler Hawkins opting for Air Force. The weakness may be that none are over six-feet but the receivers it would be lined up against if these teams had a round-robin tournament wouldn’t take advantage of it. As is the custom in South Florida the defensive backs for Washington are very good and can run with anyone in the nation. The ranking of this position group may be the easiest to figure from top to bottom. St. John Bosco, Washington, and Allen third.

OTHER CATEGORIES TO CONSIDER

Special teams: The edge on kicking goes to St. John Bosco with Allen in second. This is a major weakness for Washington when comparing the three teams. St. John Bosco has a real weapon in Reid Budrovich who has blasted almost all of his kickoffs for touchbacks to eliminate the opponents return game. He has good range in field goals as well and have made double-digit attempts this year. Count this as St. John Bosco, Allen, and Washington a distant third.

Coaching: Good luck here. Almost as close as quarterbacks is the coaching of these teams. Booker T. Washington has a master motivator in ‘Ice’ Harris who is very good on gameday and getting his kids ready to play. Allen counters with Tom Westerberg who is as cerebral a coach as there is in Texas and one of the best nationally. St. John Bosco is lead by Jason Negro who has only been at the school for three seasons but was successful at his previous stop and have helped elevate this team to new heights. Ranking these three is not going to happen.

Schedule: This is ever the wildcard and can be debated to no end. However, with the teams being so close in other evaluation points that it may become a deciding factor.

As previously noted Washington is at an amazing advantage as the team is already in the clubhouse with a completed resume while Allen and St. John Bosco each have losable games still to play.

For the sake of this analysis we will assume that all three teams finish unbeaten and both Allen and St. John Bosco finish with the highest possible combination of remaining schedule.

The baseline for comparison will be teams that are ranked in the HSFB100 as well as those considered nationally relevant. Wins not considered nationally relevant are ignored.

Booker T. Washington made a jump to the top spot by beating Norcross (Ga.) High into submission and edging Miami (Fla.) Central in the first two weeks of the season. From there it has been on relative cruise control. It has added wins over HSFB100 programs Las Vegas (Nev.) Bishop Gorman and Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) University while also beating nationally relevant teams Miami (Fla.) Northwestern, Cocoa (Fla.) High, and Bolles.

Gorman has won a state title in Nevada while Central and Norcross are playing for state championships this weekend.

Current No. 2-ranked Allen has no out-of-state wins to claim but has been a Top 5 team all year. It has beaten HSFB100 teams in Southlake Carroll, Cedar Hill, Coppell, DeSoto and Pearland. It will have added wins over nationally relevant opponents The Woodlands and Houston Westfield, too.

The only other team that is still alive for a state title is Cedar Hill in 5A Division II.

St. John Bosco is currently No. 3 in the rankings but it may have the most difficult schedule when the season is over.

It has wins over HSFB100 teams Santa Ana (Cali.) Mater Dei — which it beat twice, Mission Hills (Cali.) Alemany, Corona (Cali.) Centennial, and Concord (Cali.) De La Salle.

The Braves would also boast nationally relevant wins against Chandler (Ariz.) High, Orange (Cali.) Lutheran, and Anaheim (Cali.) Servite. As a point of reference it also has a cross-over victory with Bishop Gorman on Washington’s schedule. St. John Bosco soundly beat Rancho Santa Margarita (Cali.) Santa Margarita while Bishop Gorman won an extremely controversial decision over Santa Margarita in which many point to the referees making multiple poor calls to push Gorman to victory.

When all is said and done there is no telling what team will finish at the top spot. What is clear is that with two weeks left in the season there are hardly any points of separation that would allow any poll to have decided to claim one of the teams superior to the others.