Granted, football coaches occasionally may exaggerate when it comes to assessing their own players.

Terry McCombs, though, is a straight shooter. That makes his statement all the more noteworthy.

During the Winter Athletic Collegiate Signing Night last Wednesday in the Minooka Central Campus Career Center, the former Indians head coach spoke about each of the five football players who were recognized for their college choices.

One of them was offensive tackle Derek Wentworth, who also fills out Minooka’s wrestling lineup at 285 pounds.

“I have coached four linemen during my career who went on to play professional football,” McCombs said. “This young man [Wentworth] is better than those four were at this age. If he continues to work hard and improve, I think we might see him play on Sundays.”

Wow! Now there’s a compliment.

“Some D-I coaches saw me and thought I was too short,” said the 6-foot-4, 280-pound Wentworth, who will attend NCAA Division II Bemidji State along with his Minooka teammate, safety/receiver Max Christiano. “I’m going up there to take someone’s job. I’m going to play in the FCS Bowl while I’m there. I can’t wait to get a chance to play against a coach who wouldn’t take me.”

McCombs, who stepped aside after a thrilling 9-3 season for health reasons, will stay on as an assistant for new Minooka head coach John Belskis, who was the offensive coordinator for McCombs last season.

Speaking more about Wentworth, McCombs said, “He was the first Minooka football player I met when I became the head coach. I saw the excitement in his face. He was a leader in the weight room. He led verbally and by example.

“He talked a lot. He ought to be a politician. He gets my vote.”

McCombs joked that maybe Wentworth should have been a tight end, a reference to the big tackle catching a lateral pass and somehow battling into the end zone for the touchdown in overtime that beat Barrington, then ranked No. 2 in the state in 8A, in the second round of the playoffs.

WENTWORTH’S TEAMMATES

The other football players honored in addition to Wentworth and Christiano were linebacker Tyler Haase (Robert Morris), defensive end Adrian Paige (St. Francis) and running back Owen Kapple (Robert Morris).

“Max, come on up here,” McCombs said to Christiano. “Try not to blush.

“Max is one of the hard-hitting safeties I have been around. He ran over me one day at practice. But who got up first?”

“You did, Coach,” Christiano responded.

“Receivers on other teams got to the point they didn’t want to run routes over the middle because Max hit them so hard,” McCombs said.

McCombs then moved on to Haase and said, “It’s hard to describe how valuable he was to our team. Besides being an inside linebacker, he was our punter. He’d take off running [from punt formation] and we didn’t even know he was going to do that.

“He had two pick-sixes, and one of them was a 95-yarder. He made our defensive adjustments, too, and we were a pretty good defensive team.”

Paige, a mainstay on coach Scott Tanaka’s Minooka basketball team, is “a special young man,” McCombs said. “He is not the biggest young man, but not too many offensive linemen can block this guy. He created problems for every team we faced.

“We used him at tight end in special situations and he caught passes for two-point conversions that won games.”

As for Kapple, McCombs said, “When the chips were down, one way or another, he was going to carry the football. We would have gone further in the playoffs if we had him healthy [with Kapple ailing, the Indians lost, 28-25, in the Class 8A quarterfinals at Edwardsville]. He’s a kid you just can’t replace.”

IT’S NOT OVER

“The thing about these kids, they aren’t just football players, they are great kids and quality people,” Belskis said. “It’s a great senior class. They will be hard to replace.”

A standing-room-only crowd was on hand – with family, teammates and friends jammed into the Career Center. That indicates how popular this Minooka football team was.

Make that is.

“It has not ended,” Wentworth said. “It’s the mentality now that Minooka is going for state championships. We have set the tone for getting deep in the playoffs.

“As far as what happens here, nothing is going to change. We just say, ‘Come on out and stop us if you can.’ We have a good group of [current] sophomores and juniors who will be playing next year. People may not know much about them, but they are the real deal.”

While the players gave their thanks to their parents, families, friends and teammates for helping them get where they are, they did not forget their coaches, especially their position coaches. McCombs coached the linebackers, Belskis was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Bob Williams is the offensive line coach, Tony Garcia guides the defensive backs, Mic Resner works with wide receivers and running backs and Matt Harding is the defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.

Belskis reiterated very little will change next season, other than he rather than McCombs walking to the center of the field for the coin flip.

If the results next season and beyond rival what this group accomplished, Minooka football will be a must-watch.

MESSINA TO UIC

The other Minooka athlete cited on the collegiate signing night was standout girls soccer player Kennedy Messina, who will continue her career at Illinois-Chicago.

To say coach Chris Brolley is looking forward to one more spring season with Messina would be an understatement.

“Her knowledge of the game and her ability to control the ball is unlike any player I have ever seen,” he said. “She changed the landscape of Minooka soccer. She is the epitome of what coaches want to find in a player.

“She will do all she can to finish her senior season with a trip to the state playoffs. UIC is getting a tremendous player and a phenomenal person.”

• Dick Goss can be reached at dgoss@shawmedia.com.