He is currently ranked as NGS’s #2 receiver and #1 safety in the 2011 class.

Knight is receiving major interest from plenty of programs across the nation.  Now that his first offer is on the table I predict many more to come very soon.  Florida has already jumped into Knight’s recruitment and has made their way to Country Day to speak to him.  Offers from Michigan and Michigan State are expected to be put on the table in the upcoming weeks.

Knight is currently receiving interest from Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), Notre Dame, Oregon, and Wisconsin among others.

Knight had a slow start to his football recruitment despite starting at safety for Country Day and making an appearance at Ford Field in the state finals as a sophomore.  He spent most of spring and summer playing AAU basketball instead of participating in football camps and combines, which might have hurt his football recruitment in the early going.

But once Knight released his highlight tape schools took notice.  Below are the highlights from Knight’s junior season.  See for yourself why Knight has quickly become a big time gridiron prospect.

At 6-3 Conway uses his strength and size to just over power his opponents.  He has great cut back speed and knows how to get spacing from opposing secondaries.  He is also very dangerous returning punts and kickoffs, as seen on film.

But in the end it was Lowell hoisting the Division 2 trophy.

Fans that haven’t seen Gardner play much through his career want to focus on his final performance that was far from his best.  But you better credit Lowell for keeping Gardner on the sideline.

Lowell’s line was phenomenal.  They were undersized but executed and blocked to perfection.  The veer option gave Inkster fits as sophomore quarterback Gabe Dean ran for 177 yards and running back Austin Graham ran for 102 yards.

Gardner was able to put together a drive that ended in a 1 yard run from junior stud DaShawn Bell to tie the game at 6-6 with 10:02 left in the second quarter.  But that was about all the Inkster faithful were left to cheer for. 

Lowell tacked on two more touchdowns off of their veer offense, both courtesy of Dean, to take a 19-6 halftime lead.

That deficit wasn’t too much for Gardner to overcome in the second half but Lowell refused to let him even step on the field by controlling the second half time of possession 19 minutes to just five for Inkster. 

While Gardner is now off to the University of Michigan another quarterback emerged under the Ford Field lights just as Gardner and Rob Bolden did their sophomore years.  Dean doesn’t have that same “wow” that those guys give you but he is just as effective.  He is the head coach’s nephew and he knows exactly what is going on on the field and what reads to make.             

With 2:41 left in the game and East Grand Rapids trailing Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 21-17, the three time defending champs faced a 4^th-and-14 at midfield.  Coming out of a time out, East’s QB Ryan Elble tried to connect with his 6-7 tight end Colin Voss down the middle of the field.  Voss was double covered and the ball was tipped up by all three players in the area, landing in the hands of a diving Kirk Spencer. 

A minute and a half later Elble play-actioned and found a wide open Deon Jobe for the go ahead score.

It’s always tough to see two great teams battle for four quarters and have it come down to a fluke play.  Was the catch a “catch”?  I was standing 10 yards from the play and I don’t think so.  But I would like to meet one official that would have called it incomplete.  It was a heck of a play and at the end of the day I think you have to credit Spencer for the catch with inconclusive evidence that it was or wasn’t a catch. 

However O-Lake still had their chance to tie or win the game with one more drive with 1:14 to play.  Penn State bound Rob Bolden picked up two first downs with pass completions on each side of the field.  Then Bolden ran a designed run play and picked up another first down inside East’s 40 yard line but after being flipped on the tackle Bolden lost control of the ball and it was recovered by East.   

You couldn’t help but feel Bolden’s pain in the closing seconds but Bolden still played a heck of a game and had a heck of a career at O-Lake.  I usually don’t like Michigan quarterback’s chances of seeing the field when they go to play college ball out of state.  But I think Bolden is going to be OK at Penn State.  I’ve had the pleasure to se him grow at O-Lake at he has grown into a composed leader with plenty of zip on his arm. 

Bolden made the plays that were needed to give O-Lake the lead.  His 14 yard run gave the Eaglets a 7-0 lead and his 83 yard run gave O-Lake a 14-10 lead with 3:47 remaining in the third.  He finished with 142 on the ground and 162 in the air.   

East had their own heroes in AJ McEwen and Spencer.

Spencer hurt his knee early in the first quarter and he constantly had to come out so the trainers could attend to him.  But he sucked it up and came through in the final quarter while finishing with 108 yards on 23 rushes.  McEwen also had a big game with 6 catches for 103 yards.  His biggest catch gave East a 17-14 lead late in the third quarter when AJ took a short pass and turned it into a 68 yard score. 

But it was Montague who enter the half with a 14-7 lead thanks to Cody Kater who looked just as good running the ball as he did throwing.   A Kater 12 yard pass on the run to Anthony Guerra set up a 1^st-and-goal from the two yard line that allowed Montague to tie the game.  With 2:40 left in the first half Montague took the lead on a 7 yard reception from Kater to Anthony Root.

St. Mary’s made a dog fight out of it in the second half when quarterback Mike Howey ran it in from 5 yards out to tie the game at 14-14.  Howey regained the lead for his Falcons on a 42 yard bootleg to go up 21-17 with 8:14 to play in the game. 

But like a true champion would, Montague answered the challenge!

First Kater hit Matt DeJong on a bubble screen that picked up 45 yards.  A minute later, with 5:58 on the clock, Kater raced in from 10 yards out for a 24-21 lead and the game winning score.

St. Mary’s had plenty of time to move the ball down field but St. Mary’s offense is based on the run and run only!  This handicapped them and allowed Montague’s defense to make a stand.  Kater then ended the game and his Montague career by taking a knee.

All year long Kater has sat in the shadow of Devin Gardner, Rob Bolden, and Joe Boisture.  Those three are all great quarterbacks, but it is Kater who walks away with two state titles.  Kater completed 18 of 26 passes for 251 yards and a TD, he also ran 17 times for 128 yards and a TD.  Kater should find success in college as his skills seem to fit in with exactly what Central Michigan loves to do.  Dan LeFevour wasn’t a highly touted quarterback but look at the career he has put together in Mt. Pleasant.      

Kick off returns, interceptions, fumble recoveries, big run plays, big pass plays- you name it and Lumen did it, and did most of it in the first half as the Titans took a 35-7 halftime lead. 

Lumen Christi knew they had the better team by surviving a tougher road just to get to Ford Field with wins over Madison Heights Madison and Muskegon Heights.  Lumen’s confidence was running high heading into the Division 5 state finals and Lumen wanted to land the first punch…which they did as Rafe Bellers returned the opening kick-off 90 yards for a quick 7-0 lead. 

Less then four minutes later the Titans went up 14-0 on a one yard run from Conor Sullivan.  The drive was sparked by a 51 yard pass completion on a reverse pass from Mike Lather to Jacob Hersha.    

Christi put the game away on consecutive Sam Ward touchdown grabs from Sullivan that were less than two minutes apart to go up 28-0 just 45 seconds into the second quarter. 

Lumen Christi is just a solid program that knows how to win.  This year’s squad, like many of the past Christi teams, is balanced in every phase of the game.  They blew the game open by striking fast in the air but their defense was just as tough as they intercepted Clare three times.  Clare runs a spread offense and uses a variety of short passing routes to move the ball down field, which they have had much success with this year, but against Lumen those receivers had trouble getting open space and Lumen closed out faster than Clare had seen this year.    

If one Lumen Christi player was to stand out it would be Sullivan. The senior quarterback threw for 164 yards and two TDs to go with 39 rushing yards and two more TDs. 

In the press box one Saginaw News reporter asked how many Lumen Christi reporters were going on to play Div. 1 football, as he had never seen Clare handled with so much ease.  As far as I know none are going on to play at that high of a level but that just goes back to crediting a program that continues to win year in and year out.     

All year long Sterling Heights Stevenson sat on top of all the polls because of their offenses’ ability to just rack up yards and put up points with their passing game.  But the success of that spread offense disappeared against the state’s best defense.  “Football hasn’t changed through out the years, it still comes down to having to block and tackle,” said Catholic Central Coach Tom Mach. 

That quote by Coach Mach sums up the four quarters of the Div. 1 finals.  It was old school smash mouth football vs. that nower days exciting five receiver spread offense.  Two great teams but on completely different sides of the spectrum! 

Stevenson is too good of a team, and can score too quickly to get blown out but a 21-3 halftime deficit was just too much to overcome.  “We had too many mistakes, we were down in the red zone three times and couldn’t come up with points, we missed a field goal, and had a punt block, and I threw two interceptions,” explained Stevenson quarterback Jason Fracassa. 

Those were all Stevenson mishaps but credit has to be given to Catholic Central.  The Shamrocks dominated the time of possession forcing Fracassa and company to be a little impatient and forceful when they were on the field.  Catholic Central put up points on their first two possessions, eating up the clock with a 12 play 80 yard drive and a 12 play 61 yard drive.  

The Shamrock special team unit made their mark on the game when Anthony Seling blocked a Stevenson punt giving C.C. a short field. Four plays later Niko Palazeti pounded in the touchdown. 

A 20 yard field goal and a 75 touchdown pass from Fracassa to DJ Mershman cut the C.C. lead to 21-14 but Stevenson would get no closer as the Shamrocks answered right back with another 12 play 80 yard drive that was capped by a 9 yard run from Anthony Capatina.

BREAKDOWN

Catholic Central- Catholic Central is run dominate and had the toughest defense against  the run in the state.  I was unsure if they would be able to contain the Stevenson pass attack and pass the ball their selves when needed. 

Well….they never needed to pass and they completely locked up the Stevenson receivers and constantly put Fracassa on his back.  C.C.’s linebackers and defensive backs did a fabulous job of stay with the receivers and laying the wood as soon as the ball got there.

Stevenson- loosing both feature backs, including big time playmaker Justice Wright, to injuries, forced Stevenson to throw more than they were accustomed to.  CC was able to sit back in coverage and blitz at will.  But what killed Stevenson was their inability to stop the C.C. run game.  You know C.C. is going to get theirs on the ground but I thought Stevenson had the size and strength to be better prepared to slow down the run game. 

Player of Game: Anthony Capatina and Niko Palazeti, C.C.- the Shamrock backfield took turns rushing the ball and racked up a combined 335 yards and four TDs, 188 and 146 respectfully.  The duo complements each other well, “Anthony has the speed to get outside and make big plays while I just like to run into people,” joked the 6-2/ 245 pound Palazeti.

Other Notable Performances (In Alpha Order)

Butch Herzog, CC- we know the LB can play between the tackles but he impressed a lot of people by stepping out and defending Stevenson’s slot receiver. 

Michael Kinville, CC- another week and another fine performance by the tight end and middle LB. 

DJ Mershman, Stevenson- finished with 6 catches for 162 yards and a TD.  Took plenty of hits going across the middle but got up and kept going at CC. 

Charlie Walker, Stevenson- I’m a big fan of the 6-4/ 210 pound OLB but he had a tough day against CC., he took plenty of hits from fullbacks and other lead blocks but he held on and did his best to wrap up. 

Justice Wright, Stevenson- missed all of the playoffs but came back to play in the final game with a torn ACL.  Wright was unable to play RB but lined up as a receiver and looked good on one leg with 3 catches for 56 yards and a TD. 

Dewitt came in as the favorite primarily due to their undefeated record and high scoring offense.  But two costly first quarter turnovers and just being unable to handle the speed and upfront strength of O-Lake doomed the Panthers.

Dewitt fumbled the first snap from scrimmage, allowing O-Lake to kick a 32 yard field goal and take a 3-0 lead.  After forcing a three and out, O-Lake’s offense took the field and Penn State bound quarterback Robert Bolden drove his team down field as Earnest Thomas capped the drive with a one yard run. 

O-Lake took a commanding 16-0 lead on Dewitt’s next possession when Jimmy Williams tried to throw an out route and corner Gary Hunter jumped the route for a “pick 6”. 

St. Mary’s built their first half lead to 30-0 thanks to two touchdown passes from Bolden to Allen Robinson and Chris Vucinaj. 

Dewitt managed to score late in the second quarter, to save some hope heading into the half, when Williams hit Joel Stiffler on a 66 yard post route. 

Dewitt started to gain some momentum in the second half by cutting the lead to 30-13 on a 13 yard touchdown pass from Williams to Jordan Johnson. 

But any hope the Panthers had was erased on O-Lake’s following drive.  Facing a 4^th-and-4, Bolden bootlegged left and it seemed like he was going to be tackled for a loss, however he outraced three to-be-tacklers, picked up the first down, then cut in to stay in bounds, and raced 24 yards for a touchdown and a 37-13 lead.

Player of Game: Robert Bolden, OLSM- Bolden had a heck of a game by making plays with both his legs and arm.  His accuracy was on point in this game and he made some tough throws.  Every time, and I mean every time, Dewitt tried to rally Bolden made a big time play that left Dewitt and their crowd just stunned.  Bolden ran for 78 yards and a TD while throwing for 150 yards and three more scores. 

Other Notable performances (In Alpha Order)

O-Lake defensive line- the hogs up front brought pressure that I don’t think Dewitt has seen all year.  They owned the trenches by taking away the Dewitt run game and getting pressure on Williams.  They tallied 6 sacks including one which should have been a safety, but Williams was called down at the inch line. 

Paul Jorgensen, Dewitt- the Northwestern commit finished with 8 tackles, two for loss.  He was solid on both sides of the ball, and I can see him play either side of the ball in the Big 10. 

Allen Robinson, OLSM- It’s obvious that Robinson is still learning the X’s and O’s and reads of football, but he’s a pretty talented athlete with D-1 skills.  He just beat his defender down the sideline and went up and made a nice grab while being able to keep his footing on the 80 yard score.  He also chipped in with some open field tackles from his safety position.  Finished with over 100 yards receiving. 

James Ross, OLSM- the sophomore LB is going to be the next high major recruit at O-Lake.  Even with Thomas on the field, Ross may be their best defensive player now.  He has the whole package of speed and toughness to go with his 6-0/2-3 pound frame.   

Earnest Thomas, OLSM- Thomas got 10 touches and ran for 50 yards but the UCLA bound LB makes his mark on defense.  He speed allows him to excel at both pass coverage and stepping up and stopping the run. 

Jimmy Williams, Dewitt- I liked his arm strength and accuracy. Only problem is everyone knew he had to drop back and throw once his team got down, and that allowed O-Lake to bring the pressure, but he was still able to connect on 14 of 26 passes for 240 yards and 4 TDs.   

Catholic Central dominated the league and some argue they are the best team in Michigan thanks to their defense.  C.C. will face an upset minded Holt team but I think that defense will get the job done at least one more week.    

Brother Rice, DeLaSalle, and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s all finished the regular season with four losses but snuck into the playoffs thanks to that strength of schedule.    

Rice and DeLaSalle are playing in opposite Division 2 Semi-Finals with hopes of playing each other one more time.  But I think both their seasons are coming to an end this weekend.  Lowell and Inkster are just that good.

O-Lake heads into a Division 3 Semi-Final against Dewitt.  Dewitt enters as a huge favorite but I like O-Lake’s chances thanks to again…their strength of schedule. 

Below are the rest of my Semi-Final picks:   

Division 1

Holt vs. Detroit C.C.- DCC by 10

Clarkston vs. S.H. Stevenson- Stevenson by 7

Division 2

Lowell vs. Brother Rice- Lowell by 4

DeLaSalle vs. Inkster- Inkster by 12

Division 3

Ogemaw Heights vs. East Grand Rapids- East by 14

O-Lake St. Mary’s vs. Dewitt- OLSM by 2

Division 4

Swan Valley vs. Three Rivers- Three Rivers by 6

Marshall vs. Marine City- Marine City by 3

Division 5

Clare vs. Millington- Millington by 7

Muskegon Heights vs. Jackson Lumen Christi- Lumen Christi by 1

Division 6

Montague vs. Ithaca- Montague by 14

Constantine vs. Monroe St. Mary CC- St. Mary by 2

Division 7

Traverse City St. Francis vs. Ravenna- St. Francis by 7

Hudson vs. Ubly- Ubly by 6

Division 8

Crystal Falls Forest Park vs. Frankfort- Forest Park by 8

Muskegon CC vs. Beal City- Muskegon CC by 5

Holt (10-1) at Rockford (11-0)

NGS PICK: Rockford by 7

Canton (10-1) at Detroit Catholic Central (11-0)

NGS PICK: CC by 14

Macomb Dakota (9-2) at Clarkston (11-0)

NGS PICK: Dakota by 4

Detroit Southeastern (10-1) at Sterling Heights Stevenson (11-0)

NGS PICK: Southeastern by 2

Division 2

Portage Central (10-1) at Lowell (10-1)

NGS PICK: Lowell by 8

Brother Rice (7-4) at Midland (10-1)

NGS PICK: Brother Rice by 3

DeLaSalle (7-4) at Southfield (8-3)

NGS PICK:  DeLaSalle by 6

Inkster (7-3) at Southgate Anderson (8-3)

NGS PICK: Inkster by 12

Division 3

Ogemaw Heights (10-1) vs. Mt Pleasant (11-0)

NGS PICK: Mt. Pleasant by 13

St. Joseph (9-2) at East Grand Rapids (11-0)

NGS PICK: East GR by 10

Adrian (10-1) at Dewitt (11-0)

NGS PICK: Dewitt by 1

O-Lake St. Mary’s (6-4) vs. Detroit Crockett (10-1)

NGS PICK: OLSM by 4

Division 4

Swan Valley (9-2) at Kingsford (9-2)

NGS PICK: Kingsford by 7

Holland Christian (9-2) at Three Rivers (11-0)

NGS PICK: Holland Christian by 3

Country Day (8-3) at Marshall (10-1)

NGS PICK: Country Day by 8

Goodrich (8-3) at Marine City (11-0)

NGS PICK: Marine City by 14

Division 5

Menominee (9-2) at Clare (11-0)

NGS PICK: Clare by 6

Millington (10-1) at Ovid-Elsie (11-0)

NGS PICK: OE by 7

Berrien Springs (9-2) at Muskegon Heights (9-2)

NGS PICK: Heights by 12

Jackson Lumen Christi (10-1) at Madison Heights Madison (11-0)

NGS PICK: Lumen Christi by 4

Division 6

Iron Mountain (9-2) vs. Montague (11-0)

NGS PICK: Montague by 14

St. Charles (10-1) vs. Ithaca (10-1)

NGS PICK: Ithaca by 5

Bronson (9-2) at Constantine (9-2)

NGS PICK: Constantine by 7

Manchester (10-1) at Monroe St. Mary CC (10-1)

NGS PICK: St. Mary CC by 7

Division 7

Ishpeming (9-2) vs. Traverse City St. Francis (11-0)

NGS PICK: St. Francis by 14

Merrill (8-3) at Ravenna (9-2)

NGS PICK: Ravenna by 4

Mendon (11-0) at Hudson (11-0)

NGS PICK: Mendon by 6

Petersburg-Summerfield (10-1) at Ubly (11-0)

NGS PICK: Ubly by 10

Division 8

Stephenson (7-3) at Crystal Falls Forest Park (9-2)

NGS PICK: CFFP by 7

Frankfort (9-2) at Johannesburg-Lewiston (10-1)

NGS PICK: Frankfort by 3

Muskegon C.C. (7-4) at Colon (10-1)

NGS PICK: Muskegon CC by 8

Waterford Our Lady (9-2) at Beal City (10-1)

NGS PICK: Beal City by 6