St. Thomas Aquinas: Screw It. We'll Play NFL Now, Please

OK, I'm exaggerating a little. But are you telling me this team couldn't have scored a couple touchdowns against the Detroit Lions?

Next Wednesday is National Signing Day, which is to college football fans what Christmas is to 8-year-olds. It's the day when high school seniors sign a letter of intent to the college of their choice. Every year, St. Thomas sends roughly half its starting lineup to major university football teams. Ironically, this year's state champs, regarded as the nation's best football team and one of the most dominant in recent South Florida history is having kind of a down a year placing its kids into D1 scholarships. It looks like St. Thomas will send only eight players to the big time this year -- and two of those are specialists. "Over the last four of five years, it's been 10-11 per year," Coach George Smith told the Juice today.

• Wide Reciver Duron Carter (seen in the video above), the son of Minnesota Vikings legend Cris Carter, is going to Ohio State.
• Punter Ben Turk and Long Snapper Jordan Cowart (these are the two specialists) are headed to Notre Dame.
• Tight End Gabe Holmes to Purdue
• WR Dwayne Difton committed to the University of Connecticut last weekend.
• Linebacker Conor O'Neill and Safety Dezmon Southward will both win a national title with the Wisconsin Badgers.
• Defensive End William Nesselt has a scholarship to play at the University of Massachusetts.

In addition, Quarterback Ryan Becker will go out for the team at the University of Pennsylvania. Offensive Tackle Jermaine Johnson, who played at St. Thomas in 2007 and then spent a year at prep school, has a full ride at the U.