On the sidelines with top scout in high school football
Ten yards from the end zone, Tom Lemming stands on the sideline, arms crossed, looking for the future.
His eyes dart to a lanky wide receiver named J.C. Stickney, No. 11 for Barrington High School, lining up for the play a few yards away.
"I'd go with the alley-oop to number 11," he says.
Moments later, the quarterback lofts the football to the corner of the end zone. Stickney makes a spectacular leaping grab over the defender. Touchdown!
Teammates swarm Stickney. Even students busy flirting with classmates stop to cheer.
Lemming is impressed with the play -- but not by his play call coming true. As a leading professional scout, he makes a living predicting who will become future stars.
He has worked as a recruiting analyst for ESPN and USA Today. He picks the annual U.S. Army All-American squad and Gatorade Player of the Year.
He's discovered future NFL stars like Randy Moss and Michael Vick. College recruiters seek him out for his take on top players. And each week, he interviews top coaches and prospects on "Tom Lemming's Generation Next" on College Sports TV.
Lemming practically invented the business of comprehensively scouting players across the country.
In the process, he's won the respect and gratitude of coaches and athletes he guides to college scholarships. He's made enemies of those who don't earn his recommendation.
And all this attention is a far cry from when Lemming slept in his car and coaches slammed doors in his face.
Lemming, who lives in Barrington, tells his story with sportswriter and co-author Taylor Bell in his new book, "Football's Second Season."
In it, he describes how his dedication to detail, by evaluating every top player personally, changed the way colleges recruit. Don't take his word for it -- University of Michigan Coach Lloyd Carr says as much in his foreword.
On this crisp fall night, the 52-year-old Lemming has come to check out the latest hot prospect -- Fremd quarterback Mark Tolzien, a star player on one of the top teams in the state.
What Lemming sees in Tolzien can help determine whether the teen will get a free ride to play for a major university.
For other players, Lemming's judgment can lift them from obscurity and decide whether they go to college at all.
With each play, the pressure is on Tolzien to perform, and on Lemming to make the call on a young man's future. The scout has to discern tiny differences that could make Tolzien the next Dan Marino -- one of his first prospects -- or a permanent benchwarmer.
Clock ticking
If a player doesn't stand out in the first half of a high school game, Lemming says, he'll never make it in a top college program. So the clock is ticking quickly.
Half an hour before the game, Lemming shows up to see the players run drills.
He watches their footwork, their agility, their attitude. Most of all, he checks their size.
No matter how good a player is, if he doesn't fit the profile for the size and speed at the position he plays, most major colleges won't consider him. With a dozen players in mind to look at, Lemming immediately eliminates half.
Tolzien, the quarterback, is on the border.
Listed at 6 feet 1 inch, 180 pounds, he's a decent size to play high school quarterback -- but not big enough for top colleges, who want their quarterbacks taller.
There are exceptions who make the pros -- the Bears' Rex Grossman is listed at 6 feet 1 inch -- but other factors being equal, coaches prefer taller quarterbacks.
As Tolzien goes through his drills, Lemming writes on his roster, noting attributes.
Good mechanics with drop-back and delivery. Good arm strength on the "deep out" to the sideline.
Lemming also notices a player he's never seen before. He's the biggest body on the field -- No. 78 on Fremd.
The program lists him at 5 feet 10 inches, 190 pounds, but that can't be right. The program is riddled with errors about the players' size, year in school and even their names. This young man, as Lemming puts it, is a "monster."
"I've got to find out who that kid is."
Road warrior
When Lemming started scouting in 1978, he spent every other night sleeping in his Chevette to save money, and worked at the Arlington Heights post office to pay for his money-losing business.
As one college coach asked at the time, why should we pay attention to a postal worker? The answer lies in almost obsessive perseverance.
Every year, Lemming drives 60,000 miles to see some 1,200 players, either in person or on film. He holds combines at various places around the country, where the best players come to run drills and timed tests against each other.
From firsthand observation and interviews, Lemming writes newsletters and an annual book ranking the top players, called "Prep Football Report," which generates revenues in the six figures.
Growing up on Chicago's Southwest Side, Lemming wanted to work somehow in sports.
He realized colleges had their own scouts, but no one was selling a comprehensive analysis of top recruits.
So Lemming started combing through local papers, calling high school coaches and searching nationwide to track down the best players.
College coaches initially ignored him, not wanting to divulge their own prospects, until they realized they could use his information.
Once he established connections, he reported on which colleges were signing which recruits, a formerly secretive process that now has become an annual televised media event known as Signing Day.
Lemming also helps students cut through the pitches they get from some colleges.
One Wheaton player, for instance, was thrilled when a recruiter said he was their top recruiting priority -- until Lemming told him the recruiter said the same thing to two other players.
When Dan Doering of Barrington High School became the most recruited offensive lineman in the country two years ago, Lemming helped guide him through the recruiting process, telling him whom he could believe.
"He helped a lot, giving us an idea of what recruiting is about," Doering's father Rick said. "As a parent you have no idea. If you don't have someone kind of guiding you, you can get kind of lost."
On the field
Back on the field, an unblocked defender hits Tolzien at full speed, driving him to the ground. The quarterback quickly bounces up and continues playing as if nothing had happened.
"That's toughness," Lemming marvels.
Not long after, Tolzien heaves a 32-yard bomb for a touchdown. On the sideline, he shouts encouragement and rallies his teammates.
"He's got all the intangibles," Lemming says.
Tolzien's older brother Scott is a backup quarterback for the University of Wisconsin. Despite Mark's lack of size, Lemming decides, he has the potential to be even better than his brother, and would make a good Division I quarterback.
From the player's perspective, Mark Tolzien said he knows it's crucial to impress an influential scout like Lemming, but tries to put it out of his mind.
"You can't worry about people watching you," he said. "You've got to play like you're throwing the ball around in your backyard. When you're out there having fun, it's much easier."
Lemming, meanwhile, has found out who that "monster" lineman is -- it's Christian Lombard, and he's only a sophomore.
Lombard, Lemming notices, moves his feet well for a big man, gets downfield to block linebackers and "keeps his motor running" every play.
Lemming predicts he'll be one of the most recruited players in the state in two years.
Big business
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently named Lemming one of the top 10 most powerful people in college sports.
For all his influence, Lemming doesn't care for college or pro ball, both of which he considers businesses.
He estimates 15 percent to 20 percent of high school players use steroids to bulk up, and that half of the college and pro players use the stuff, while football looks the other way.
Ironically, with so many big players, size is a given, but with quick running backs like LaDainian Tomlinson setting NFL scoring records, Lemming said, "It's a game of speed now."
In a way, by professionalizing scouting, Lemming helped turn college football into the big business he now dislikes.
In the process, some coaches and fans have accused him of bias against their schools.
In 2004, Warchant.com, a Florida State University booster site, quoted FSU recruits and a high school coach saying that Lemming had bad-mouthed Florida State as liars and suggesting he favored Notre Dame.
He's also enraged Notre Dame fans by criticizing its program at times.
Lemming said he plays no favorites, but only urges kids to go to schools that will give them an education.
Of perhaps 10,000 players in the Chicago area, only about 60 will get scholarships. Lemming doesn't discourage any of them -- but they don't need a scout to tell them when reality runs them over in the form of a 300-pound lineman.
"Kids realize that maybe they're not good enough," Lemming said. "Parents don't. They always think their son's the best. Kids realize it because they're the ones getting punched in the nose."
Top prospects Lemming takes credit for helping to discover:
Randy Moss
Michael Vick
Dan Marino
John Elway
Herschel Walker
Eric Dickerson
Emmitt Smith
Top players Lemming overlooked:
Barry Sanders
Brett Favre
Top local prospects from his 2007 Prep Football Report:
Fremd QB Mark Tolzien
Elgin running back Kenny Williams
Barrington receiver J.C. Stickney
Wheaton North offensive lineman Nick Adamle
Mundelein center Joe Semple
Naperville Central defensive lineman Josh Jeleski
Minimum size, skill requirements
Here's a sample of the minimum Tom Lemming is looking for when he scouts high school football players:
Quarterback: 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, strong arm, quick release and leadership
Running back: 5-foot-8, 190 pounds, runs 40 yards in 4.5 seconds, with good balance, power, quickness, an eye for openings and can catch and block
Receivers: 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, 4.5 speed, good hands, runs sharp routes and catches ball away from body
Tight end: 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, big enough to block, athletic enough to catch and tough enough to bring down
Offensive lineman: 6-foot-3, 270 pounds, quick feet, explosive starts, goes beyond line to block downfield, wide rear end and legs for solid base
Defensive linemen: 6-foot-2, 240 pounds, strength, agility, plays physically
Linebacker: 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, sheds blockers, reads plays well, nose for the ball
Defensive backs: 5-foot-9, 158 pounds, brilliant speed, balance and makes big plays
Source: Tom Lemming and his Summer 2007 Prep Football Report