Honorable mention
Aaron Swafford, Meigs County: He ran for 144 yards and three touchdowns and also contributed 71 passing yards.Hunter Frane, South Pittsburg: He had five carries for 199 yards and three touchdowns.Dylan Standifer, Bradley Central: He completed 20 of 31 passes with no interceptions for 318 yards and three TDs.
The effects of the late-week storms were still in effect last Friday night, and gusting winds left Notre Dame's air-raid offense less than effective.
Yet Irish coach Charles Fant rarely comes unprepared, and the team rolled out for the first time its "jumbo package," one that was fine-tuned by new assistant head coach Jeff Jagodzinski, the ex-Boston College head coach.
"Sometimes with our jumbo package in the past we'd run up against different-than-expected defenses, and the blocking schemes weren't always right," Fant said.
Jagodzinski's tweaks, likened very much to the old single-wing of the 1950s, worked quite well Friday as the Irish rolled past Christian Academy of Knoxville, 41-10. The offense is schemed pretty much for one player, and this particular offense worked really beyond expectations with junior Cameron Wynn.
"Of course Cameron can make coaches look really good," Fant remarked a couple of days after the Irish improved to 2-1 overall with their first region victory of the year.
Wynn, a junior committed to the University of Tennessee, got seven rushing touches and turned them into 136 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 44 yards and, flashing his 4.43-40 speed, returned a kickoff 99 yards for a fourth score. Defensively, the 5-foot-11, 175-pounder forced a fumble and recorded 6.5 tackles from the secondary.
With all that, Wynn was selected the Waffle House All-Star player of the week.
His three-game numbers are 143 rushing yards - Friday was the first time this season the Irish extensively used the jumbo package - 292 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
"I'd say those are fairly impressive numbers for three games," Fant said.
Wynn received his first scholarship offer from Tennessee after attending a Volunteers camp as a freshmen.
"Kurt Jones (the Irish's other assistant head coach and their defensive coordinator) had taken him, and they were on the way home when (a UT coach) called and made the offer," Fant said.
Wynn, who's projected to be a full-time receiver in college, didn't commit then, and the next day he got an offer from Vanderbilt.
Fant talked his protégé into waiting until the next summer. Again, Wynn was at Tennessee, and he and Jones called Fant just before a meeting with Vols coach Butch Jones.
"I had gotten him to wait and see what was out there," Fant recalled. "When he and Kurt called me he said, 'Coach, this is where I want to be.' It had to be six or seven months since the initial offer. I made a quick call to his mom and dad, and they were all in agreement."
So Wynn committed.
"He has really never sought the limelight, and it was difficult for him early on," Fant said. "There's that assumption from people that once you're committed to an awesome place like UT, people automatically think you're better than everybody else.
"The thing about Cameron is that he is just beginning to touch his potential, and he knows there is a lot he can do to become a better player, including his route-running. But sometimes people see you as a focal point and try to get you to react in a negative way."
Wynn hasn't done that, and Fant wasn't surprised at all when the player said in a postgame conversation Friday that all he was doing was "playing for my football family" and proceeded to praise the Irish offensive line and his teammates on the kickoff-return team.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him onTwitter @wardgossett.