Evansville Reitz senior quarterback Paul McIntosh was named
The Indianapolis Star’s Indiana Mr. Football Dec. 19.
McIntosh led the second-ranked Class 4A state champion Panthers to a pair of thrilling one-point postseason victories –
61-60 over No. 5 Columbus East in the regionals,
35-34 over defending 4A state champ No. 3 Indianapolis Cathedral in the semistate – in consecutive weeks before dominating Lowell in a 33-14 state finals victory.
McIntosh finished with 232 yards rushing and six touchdowns and another 219 yards and a TD pass in the epic win over Columbus East.
Against No. 6 Lowell in the championship, McIntosh threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in the first half.
Here’s the story from indystar.com …
The Tim Tebow-like athleticism was there for all to see, as plain as the glossy numbers springing from the stat sheets.
The leadership was less obvious but had just as much to do with Paul McIntosh leading Evansville Reitz to the Class 4A state football championship this season.
It also helped him become
The Indianapolis Star’s Indiana Mr. Football in a landslide vote by the state’s coaches and media members.
The dual-threat quarterback received 143 votes out of the 193 returned ballots. Franklin Central running back Darius Willis was second with 10 votes, while Carmel wide receiver Jordan Brewer was third with 8, Fort Wayne Dwenger defensive back/quarterback/wide receiver John Goodman fourth with 6, and Penn offensive lineman Braxston Cave fifth with 5.
The Mr. Football award winner is determined by a vote of the state’s head coaches and media after a committee of Indiana Football Coaches Association members picks the 20 finalists, each of whom must be a senior.
Reitz capped a 15-0 season with a 33-14 victory over Lowell for the state championship at the RCA Dome. McIntosh ran for three touchdowns and passed for two others, accumulating more than 250 yards in total offense.
Two weeks earlier, he scored the game-winning two-point conversion on an option keeper for a 61-60 victory over Columbus East in what is regarded as one of the greatest games in the state’s high school football history.
He completed 146 of 227 passes for 2,292 yards his senior season, with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions. McIntosh also rushed for 1,621 yards and 34 touchdowns on 205 carries.
The combination of his passing and running ability often drew comparisons to Heisman Trophy winner Tebow of Florida. McIntosh acknowledges Tebow as a template for his style of play but flinches at the comparisons.
“That’s what I try to emulate,” McIntosh said. “But I’m not half the player he is. He’s pretty special.”
McIntosh’s humility was another defining characteristic of his leadership ability. One of Reitz coach John Hart’s lasting memories of McIntosh’s career came at midseason in 2006. A teammate had been ordered to run the hill adjacent to Reitz’s practice field as punishment for missing the previous day’s practice.
The hill is about 60 yards and sloped at a 45-degree angle. The offending player was going to have to navigate it about 15 times.
“Paul runs over to me and says, ‘He’s not running these by himself,’ “ Hart recalled. “He started running the hills with the kid. Then the seniors saw it and started running with them, too. It ended up being a rallying point.
“He wasn’t going to let this kid be punished alone. It was a great testament to the kind of kid he is.”
Said McIntosh: “I just felt like he needed a morale boost. I just thought it was the right thing to do.”
McIntosh’s athleticism and leadership ability make him a legitimate “major” college recruit in Hart’s opinion. Most of the early interest, however, came from schools wanting him to change positions, most often to the defensive backfield.
McIntosh has made it clear he has no interest in any position but quarterback.
“I just love being in that position on the field,” he said. “Everything that happens, I have a part in. I kind of like that.”
McIntosh put in a dedicated summer at camps in Indiana and Georgia after his junior year to improve his passing mechanics. That, along with the change to a spread offense, helped him improve his completion percentage from 41 percent to 64 percent, boosting his confidence level.
He made an oral commitment to Ball State during his senior season but visited Army last week and currently is choosing between those two programs.
Hart believes a lot of others have made a mistake.
“He and (2001 Mr. Football) James Banks are the two most dominating players I’ve seen in Indiana,” Hart said. “Now that college football has evolved into a spread-type option offense, I think people are making a huge mistake by not seeing him as a quarterback.”
McIntosh, who plans to major in business law, said he believes he could play in a major conference, too, but remains humble about it.
“I think so,” he said. “But (college recruiters) have to think so, too.”
McIntosh, born June 5, 1989, chose jersey No. 9 “because it was the only number left on the varsity when I was a freshman.” The first indication of his athleticism came when his Dad was impressed when he saw Paul jumping off a mini-trampoline in the driveway and making acrobatic dunks with a basketball when he was in the fifth grade.
His father, Tim, played linebacker at the University of Evansville and is a former high school coach. He is now a middle school principal. His mother, Lori, played volleyball for two years at Drake before a knee injury ended her career. She transferred to Wyoming, where she met Tim, who was a grad assistant at the time.
Brother Ryan was a junior receiver for Reitz’s football team this season, and brother Matt played on special teams as a freshman. His sister, Sara, is an eighth-grader who plays volleyball and runs track.
Previous winners of
The Indianapolis Star Indiana Mr. Football award:
Year Position, Name School1992 RB Alex Smith Franklin County
1993 OL/DL Bo Barzilauskas Bloomington South
1994 RB Josh Martini East Central
1995 QB Earl Haniford Martinsville
1996 RB Israel Thompson Martinsville
1997 RB DuJuan Daniels Indianapolis Chatard
1998 QB Rex Grossman Bloomington South
1999 RB Derrick Ellis Indianapolis Arlington
2000 RB Otis Shannon Indianapolis Cathedral
2001 QB/DB James Banks Ben Davis
2002 QB Clayton Richard McCutcheon
2003 QB Desmond Tardy Warren Central
2004 DB/WR/RB Jason Werner Roncalli
2005 QB Dexter Taylor Warren Central
2006 RB Darren Evans Warren Central
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