Jordan Lynch was the king of the world. Like Ali in the center of the ring after KO’ing Sonny Liston in 1964. Like DiCaprio in ‘‘Titanic’’ in 1997.
OK, maybe not quite like those giants, but, man, did Lynch ever have it all going his way 10 years ago this fall. He was the quarterback of Northern Illinois, nobody could stop him and his Orange Bowl-bound Huskies couldn’t lose.
Now 32, Lynch still has reasons to ride out to DeKalb from the South Side. For one thing, his little brother, Justin, is a quarterback there. For another, it just feels so damn good.
‘‘Believe me, when I step on that field now, I’d do anything to play again,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s for sure.’’
But football weekends don’t belong to the Huskies anymore. They belong to the Caravan. Lynch grabbed the coaching reins at his alma mater, Mount Carmel, in 2018, won a Class 7A title — with Justin as his quarterback — in 2019 and now has what might be his best team yet.
The Caravan are 8-0. Loyola Academy is 8-0. Which team is the area’s true No. 1 superpower this season? We’ll find out in the regular-season finale Saturday in Wilmette.
The game of the year on our high school scene might not be as big a deal as it was when NIU won its way into a New Year’s Day clash against mighty Florida State to cap a dream 2012 season, but those heady days are gone. Lynch is a high school coach — a very good one — and when it comes to the craving for football competition that still pumps through his veins, that more than gets the job done.
‘‘I found a new love,’’ he said, ‘‘a new football fix that makes it easy not to look back and miss playing too much. I fell in love with coaching. . . .
‘‘I get the same feeling, the same excitement, the same exact everything as if I was playing quarterback in the Orange Bowl or if I was on stage as a Heisman Trophy finalist or if I was coaching college football. I get the same excitement in high school every game, not just this [Loyola] game. We can be playing whoever, with the love for the game that I have.’’
But has it really been 10 years already since Lynch exploded onto the college stage, competing for headlines with big-school BMOCs such as Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o and South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney? Where does the time go?
Lynch was a first-time starter — a junior — when NIU fell 18-17 to Iowa at Soldier Field in the 2012 opener. The Huskies lost a 17-9 fourth-quarter lead in that game, but going toe-to-toe with the Hawkeyes hardened Lynch’s belief in what was coming. And that was 12 consecutive victories as Lynch’s play grew into a storm the rest of the country couldn’t ignore.
Lynch rushed for 1,815 yards and became the first FBS player to run for 1,500 and pass for 3,000 in a season. He led the Mid-American Conference in rushing and passing efficiency and gained at least 100 yards on the ground 11 times, three more than any other player in the land. In the MAC title game against Kent State in Detroit, he threw for 212 yards and ran for 160, breaking the FBS record held by Michigan’s Denard Robinson for rushing yards in a season.
It was so good, it demanded a follow-up. So Lynch — from out of left field no more — came back in 2013, led the Huskies to 12 more victories and finished third, behind rock-star quarterbacks Jameis Winston of Florida State and A.J. McCarron of Alabama, in the Heisman voting.
Twenty-four victories in two seasons. Precisely 100 touchdowns — 51 passing, 48 rushing and one receiving — accounted for. That’s a career, folks. That’s a legacy.
‘‘I just put one foot in front of the other every day and kept chipping away,’’ Lynch said. ‘‘That’s all it ever was.’’
A decade later, he’s gunning for another state title. First the Caravan will tangle with Loyola, a Class 8A Goliath. That pits Lynch against Ramblers coach John Holecek, himself a former college star — at Illinois — before a long, successful career as an NFL linebacker.
It’s just high school ball. Still a heck of a big deal, though, right?
‘‘Everything I’ve earned or gotten in my life, I had to work my ass off for,’’ Lynch said. ‘‘But that’s football. That’s what the game is. I’m proud to be doing this.’’
