Valor Christian’s Dylan McCaffrey may be the best quarterback Colorado has ever seen
How early is too early to have a defined legacy?
That’s a question that maybe doesn’t have to be answered today, but it will certainly be debated upon the completion of the 2016 football season on Saturday.
After this weekend, one of the best Colorado high school football players in recent history will be moving on to the next phase in his life.
Dylan McCaffrey has been a standout player for Valor Christian High School since his sophomore year. There is no doubt that the state will be losing a great quarterback once the Class 5A championship trophy has been presented.
The bigger question is if its losing the best quarterback the state has ever seen.
Considering that society is currently dominated by social media and the ability to shout an opinion from the highest rooftops, it’s not unreasonable to hear hyperbole of this magnitude.
Why place the burden of calling a kid who has yet to experience his senior prom as the best at playing the most high-profile sports position that the preps division has ever seen?
Perhaps he’s earned it.
Even if McCaffrey himself will never come close to admitting or acknowledging it.
“I don’t really think about (being the greatest) that much when I play, it’s kind of just wanting to win this game,” McCaffrey said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s chess or football. I want to dominate when I play. It’s kind of been my mindset throughout high school, just win the game I’m playing. If all that comes along with it, that’s pretty great too.”
Well, at least from an outside perspective, it’s starting to all come along with it.
The numbers game
The most tangible way to determine one’s place amongst the best is by sheer numbers. If McCaffrey decided that football wasn’t for him after high school (it is as evidenced by his commitment to Michigan), that wouldn’t take anything away from what he accomplished.
Going into the state championship game, McCaffrey has already broken into the top-10 of four of the five major passing categories in CHSAA history.
- 897 passing attempts (ranks sixth). McCaffrey will likely move into fifth on Saturday, passing Elway Tubbs at 900.
- 575 completions (fourth). If McCaffrey completes 33 passes on Saturday he will pass Justin Holland (607) for third.
- 64.1 completion percentage (10th). A poor game through the air could knock him out the top 10 here.
- 7,869 passing yards (seventh). He probably stays put, needing 438 yards to move into sixth.
- 78 passing touchdowns (not in the top 10). Three passing touchdowns will put McCaffrey in a tie at No. 10 with D’Evelyn’s Caleb Fleck.
The only quarterback that holds top-10 spots in every passing category is Bear Creek’s Zach Thenell, who played there from 2006-09.
But McCaffrey is not all about the arm. As his game and his skills have developed, he’s become a threat in so many ways.
“I think he has the ability to do a little bit of everything,” Valor coach Rod Sherman said. “He has the ability to pick up a couple of first downs for you with his feet as he did in the semis against Cherry Creek. He can throw the ball vertical but he has great touch underneath.”
McCaffrey added 1,663 rushing yards and 35 rushing touchdowns to his passing totals. He even has six career receptions for 123 yards and four touchdowns.
And there is that small factor of starting in three state title games and potentially coming away with two titles.
His numbers could easily have been better, but according to Sherman he sat the equivalent of six full games over the course of his career as backup players were put in to get reps.
Stay humble
There is no denying that McCaffrey is good at football. The numbers say so. The state championship (or possibly two) would say so.
But how often does he say so?
Practically never. What makes him such a unique player is that he has never once let his talent go to his head.
Even if he hears from those around him that he is truly something special, he is very easily grounded by either his coaches or his family.
“Coach Sherman tells me (how good I am) quite a bit, but he’ll also humble me a lot of times too,” McCaffrey said. “That’s been good. I know my parents make sure I have a very humble head. As much as I hear it, I’m in a house with Christian, so you don’t necessarily feel it sometimes. But I think it’s been thrown around a bit.”
He’s not flashy and he is never going to think he is the smartest guy in the room. What often make the all-time greats so great is their ability to understand that along with talent, they have to be the hardest workers in the room.
And the most willing to learn and improve.
“I’ve tried this year just to appreciate the greatness that he’s given to us,” Sherman said. “And it’s easy when it’s a kid who doesn’t appreciate his own greatness. If he got caught up in his own greatness, it’d be harder for me to appreciate it.
“I’ve had players where they’ve gotten toward the end of their senior year and it’s hard to coach them on the little things. They get to be 18 and they think they know all the little things,” he continued. “Never with Dylan. Never in a game, never in film. He’s a sponge.”
But that’s what it takes. And it’s one thing that McCaffrey is fully aware of.
“I think that’s a message that a lot of people need to hear, that’s it not about them as long as you’re constantly improving,” McCaffrey said. “There are a lot of things you can’t control, but you can control your own improvement. I think that’s a big thing and I hope that people start to get that.”
From the other side
There are not a lot of coaches who probably envy Pomona’s Jay Madden right now. Oh sure, they’d love to be playing for a state championship, but part of that includes having to figure out how to shut down McCaffrey on a stage that he seems to thrive on.
“I tell you what, I’ve been doing this a long time and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid make plays at the right time more than he has,” Madden said. “That’s something that a quarterback has to do. Third downs, fourth downs. When the team needs him, he’s always there.
“You can be 6-foot-5, you can be able to throw the ball 50, 80 yards, whatever But can you make the plays when you’re supposed to?” Madden added. “And he does. That’s the intangible that he has that will allow him to go down as one of the best ever.”
This will be the second time in as many years that Madden will have to overcome arguably the best quarterback in state history in order to win a state title.
Last year, the Panthers had a late lead, but a costly turnover put the ball back in McCaffrey’s hands.
The Eagles won 29-26 and claimed their sixth state tile in seven years.
So what has to happen for Pomona defensively in order to make sure McCaffrey play like a champion once again?
“You have to be sound and not let him get out in the open, because if you do he’s hard to get down,” Madden said. “If you give him too much time to throw, he’s going to pick you apart. That’s the one thing I’ve noticed this year more than anything is that he’s throwing the deep ball a lot. As good as he’s ever thrown it.”
Measuring greatness
While watching over his team interact with each other and media members on Tuesday, Sherman very calmly said of McCaffrey that “sometimes you can’t appreciate something until you don’t have it anymore.”
It doesn’t sound like that’s the case, though.
Strictly from an eye-test standpoint, McCaffrey has always been able to put those watching him in awe. There aren’t many players that anyone can think of that have had that affect on spectators.
“I’ve only been in this state for 10 years and there is no quarterback in this state that comes close to Dylan,” Sherman said.
He may only have one game left in his high school career, but maybe it’s unfair to thrust this burden onto McCaffrey this soon.
But he’s shown on the field that he is able to handle any pressure that comes his way. He’s more concerned with playing the best he can on Saturday and winning another state championship.
If he does just that, goes his legacy get a boost?
“Ultimately, I’m not going to be the one deciding that,” McCaffrey said. “I think it will be the people who decide it, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.”
And that’s the fun part about sports.
Those who have had the pleasure of watching him for the last three years get to debate about his place in Colorado sports history.
There’s no need to wait until 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. That game can start right now.
