PA's top recruit Sharrif Floyd

Humble, hungry and hardworking

Washington lineman Sharrif Floyd is one of the top high school football players in America
By Gorden Blain
George Washington lineman Sharrif Floyd can’t make a mistake about his final choice of the university for which he will play major college football beginning with the 2010 football season.

But there’s been many opportunities for the big (6-3, 310), strong, well-spoken and polite student and athlete—a young man with a mature demeanor beyond his years-- to veer off course into waiting trouble throughout his first 18 years growing up in Philadelphia.

All along remaining true to his drive to excel, his work ethic and his vision to make his grandmother proud, Floyd has made many good decisions and now heads into his senior season in position to reap the benefits of a full-ride college football scholarship made available to him by the 50 biggest names in college football. He is considered one of the top two or three defensive tackle recruits nationally.

During a visit with Floyd at George Washington just two weeks before the start of preseason practice, Floyd was wrapping up an phone interview with a reporter from ESPN The Magazine when he told the reporter that he plans to announce his college football decision in early January 2010 in San Antonio at the All-American Bowl, an annual game between the top high school seniors from around the United States. He says, however, that the university that won the recruiting sweepstakes to bring him on board will know his decision by the end of the summer.

Floyd grew up in north Philadelphia and now lives with friends of his family in Northeast Philly.

Floyd says he really didn’t have much growing up. He says he had the choice of two paths to follow: go to school or not go to school and sell drugs.

“I didn’t want to do that,” he says. “Growing up I was seen being on the streets because that’s where everybody where I’m from expects to be.”

Floyd says he has found a lot of support from his grandmother, high school counselor Dawn Seeger (“She’s like a mother to me.”), friend Andre Odom, who he calls a mentor, and the Washington coaching staff.

“Watching my grandmother struggle,” he recalls. “Once I got into football, my coaches said you can go to college for free. If I did that, my grandma would be proud of me.”

Here’s the rest of the conversation with Floyd and Washington head coach Ron Cohen:

Blain: When did you find football?
Floyd: I found football in eighth grade, almost at the end of my middle school career, basically. That’s the year we won the championship for basketball, the first-ever in (Warren G.) Harding history. After that was over—my cousin was basically better than me in basketball, his name is Taheed Smith—football came in first year ever so we tried out and I was actually better than him. I had 20 tackles in four games. I asked my coach—I didn’t think it was even good—‘Coach, should I keep going or should I just hang up my jersey?’ Coach Edwards said, ‘Man, do you see your stats? Keep going.’

You didn’t know how well you were doing and surprised at how well you could do?
Yes, actually. The way I looked at it everything was ‘All right, let me make some crazy numbers and try to at least get an average play.’ I’m doing beyond average, as my coach would say.

Were you dominant size-wise, strength-wise?
For a middle school kid, yes. I started working out during the basketball season on my own. I was playing (lifting) with 120-125 around there. I was at 280 at the end of school.

When did it all of the recruiting attention start?
I believe it started as soon as I walked on the field in my freshman year… what my coaches said you will be something if you work hard at it and ever since then it’s been coming true…no they can’t talk to me as a freshman or sophomore but in my junior year it started blowing up so it was good

When did you realize that this is becoming something big?
My junior year, when it first started, I’m like, ‘All right, get a little letter that’s nothing’ And then as it’s going on and on and more people want to get in contact with me and stuff like that. Then I had to sit back for a minute, ‘Hold on, it’s getting serious now. I’ve got to reset this thing. So it’s getting kind of crazy.

Did all of this attention dictate to you who you want to be?
Definitely not. I am a self-driven guy. You learn that. Being raised by the streets you learn you go on, it’s every man for himself and you go on and you go on and strive to be with the best, to do what you’ve got to do.

Was there anyone who guided you along as you matured both on and off the field?
Not until my junior year when Dawn Seeger stepped in. She’s a counselor here but she’s more like a mother to me.

How hectic has this recruiting experience become?
It’s not really hectic until the Scout.coms, the Rivals, and all of them start calling and harassing you. The recruiting is not hard, it’s just where do you want to go. You’ve got recruiters coming in to see you. That’s about it. I loved it until the scout.coms and everybody started calling.

Now that you talked about your concerns, just how incessant have the calls from these recruiting websites like Scout and Rivals been?
Ah man, as soon as you walk off a college campus somebody is calling you. ‘I’m the Georgia scout from scout.com. I’m the Florida scout from scout.com. I’m the South Carolina scout from rivals.’ It’s crazy. I really just broke it down, I’m going to talk to one guy, the head guy from rivals and the head guy from scout. That’s about it. If their number don’t show up, I really can’t pick up my phone because it’s crazy.

With the attention and hype and now that your profile is more public, you’ve got to be careful what you say and do…
I actually do. I can’t blurt out something crazy. Just relax and answer with the utmost respect.

You’ve got some mottos…
One is ‘Go hard or go home.’ Because if I’m going hard, I can’t be doing anything wrong. If I’m not going hard, then what am I here for. ‘Humble and hungry.’ Andre Odom (former Washington player) told me that. You’re hungry and you know what you want but you’re humble at the same time. You’re not blurting around the whole neighborhood, ‘Yea, I’m this, I’m that.’ You know what you are. Let them find out who you are. If not, so be it.

I’m sure you’ve run into some guys who are pretty impressed with themselves…
Oh yes. At the Top Gun Camp down in Florida, I saw a whole bunch of them. I just looked at them, ‘Are you serious? You’re just a guy like everybody here. Everybody’s not running around saying ‘I’m this or that. But why are you doing it.’ I don’t think it’s called for.

Going against other big men at the camps, what have you learned you have to improve on?
When it first begun, just my pad level and my hands. Over time, talking to my coaches about what I have to work on, there’s not much I have to work on. Just get better at everything I’ve been doing. I’ve seen guys with no footwork but strong. I’ve seen guys with footwork, but not strong. Had everything but footwork. Had everything but power. I just try to have the whole package.

How much did you learn from the injury (torn ACL at end of sophomore season in 2007 Public League semifinal playoff game)?
Could I be better if it was broken or if it wasn’t? I think it happened for a reason. It made me go harder, made me push harder. It made me a better player all around. Most kids just tear it and stop but I had the will to keep going. And I couldn’t let my coach down either.

How long did it take you to rehab and get back out on the field? Was there some mental rehab as well?
(It took a) Good five months, five and a half. I think any injury is a mental thing too. It took a lot. I’m always running sprints and stuff. It took a lot to say ‘All right, come on, keep going.’ I pushed it as far as I could. Sometimes the coaches stopped me.

Are you having fun?
I’m having a great time. That’s the bottom line of it all.

What about your team this year?
You always have high hopes for the team. Every year we say States. The last couple of years, since I’ve been here, we haven’t been fortunate to get past the first round. That should change this year.

Does your team finally now have a measure on what it takes to beat the Lehigh Valley teams (District 11 champions)?
Yes, we actually do. We don’t practice for the Pub anymore. That’s no insult to the Pub either. We practice for the big guys, the City titles and the Suburban leagues. We practice for them, not saying the Public League is going to be a cakewalk, because it is not, but we practice hard, we play hard, we come home with a W. That’s how it is.

What is it going to take to get over the hump and get that W in the first round of states?
I say we got to keep our motor going. We can’t bow down to anybody. Like I said before, they put their pads on the same that we put our pads on. Yes, they might be bigger. Some of them might be faster. But that’s not going to let them win. They need more than two players on the team to win.

You don’t believe there’s not much of a gap between the Public League and the Lehigh Valley teams?
No, not at all.

Which schools are you focused on right now?
Ohio State, Boston College, Rutgers, the Gators (Florida), Miami, South Carolina and Georgia. No order, random.

What’s most important to you in making your decision?
Basically, it’s left down to the campus life to me. Anywhere I go I can make it work. That’s just the type of guy I am. Anywhere I go I’m going to have a good coach. It’s not hard to teach a D-lineman. Move this way, move that way. That’s about it. The campus life and who can teach me the best.

How are you academically?
I have a 2.8 (GPA) right now but it’s going to go back up to 3.0 or higher. You’ve got to be an all-around student-athlete. That’s what I was told when I first got here. I’ve been going at it since my freshman year.

What’s been the best experience you’ve had during all of this so far?
I actually went tubeing for the first time in my life on a lake in a big tube. Best thing I ever did in my life. I did that down in South Carolina.

Can you list all of the places you’ve been to so far?
North Carolina, North Carolina State, Clemson, South Carolina, South Carolina State, Florida International, Miami, South Florida, Florida Gainesville, Georgia, Rutgers, Boston College, Temple, Maryland, Penn State, that would be it.

When are going to decide on your five official visits?
I was just going to milk it. Just pick them up as I go. But I think maybe my coach and I are going to sit down and talk about that soon.
George Washington head coach Ron Cohen: Ohio State wanted us to come up and see the USC game. But I don’t know if they realize that we have our only Saturday game that day. That would have been a great game to see. But he may end up going out to USC to see somebody play. The problem is going. He’d love to go. I don’t blame him for going after a football game. Our problem is we play Friday night and then if he goes Saturday morning, he gets back Sunday, he’s tired. He’s got a game every week. His first responsibility is not just to himself but he knows…
Floyd: …to the football team.
Cohen: He has offers from over 50 schools I guess. The truth of the matter is, what do they base it on anyway? LSU just called the other day. I told them, ‘Where were you all this time?’ There’s 35 letters making official offers. Here’s the letters today, four from USC, Oklahoma. If I called them all up right now and say he’s been offered by bla, bla, bla, they’ll offer him. That’s the way the deal is now.

Coach, your thoughts on how Sharrif finds himself in this position?
Cohen: He’s done a great job. He’s worked hard. The one good thing, he sat here as a freshman like I sat with Jerry Butler. Jerry made sacrifices, personal sacrifices. He sat right there in that chair and I said, ‘Jerry, this is what you’re going to have to do if you want to go to the next level.’ And he listened. He got his grades up and he went to Wisconsin. Sharrif did the same thing. I told him, this is what you’re going to need to do. You’ve got to get in the weight room, especially at a position like he plays, you’ve got to be big and strong. His size is obviously there. We’ve had kids bigger (than Sharrif), but not as strong. The key things is his quickness and the work ethic. I’ve had kids with the same kind of work ethic—Maurice Bennett, Ryan Gore, Jameel McClain. I would say Sharrif and McClain are very similar in their work ethic. They lived in the gym. For whatever reason, that was his home. He found a lot of friends there, a lot of good people to work with. Sharrif listened. Academically, the first thing college coaches asked, ‘How are his grades?’ I was able to answer 3.0. The middle of last year, he already predicted. You’ve got to have quickness. You’ve got to be smart. He plays very smart. He doesn’t use the same move. A lot of guys just bull rush.