‘Everything happened for a reason:’ Ridge Point’s Emanuel Jr. overcomes, finds home at Central Michigan

Anytime he took the field as quarterback of the Ridge Point Panthers last season, Bert Emanuel Jr. would look down at a wrist band he wore that bore a reminder.

“Keep on Doubting Me.”

Emanuel Jr. is a 6-foot-3, 200-pound quarterback who can throw and run. He has terrific genes. His father, Bert Emanuel Sr., was a standout quarterback at Rice and played receiver in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, and Detroit Lions from 1994-2001. In his senior year in the fall, Emanuel Jr., who goes by “B.J.,” posted one of the more remarkable campaigns in Texas high school football, completing 60 percent of his passes for 2,655 yards and 31 touchdowns and rushing for 1,030 yards and 15 more touchdowns for the 11-2 Panthers.

He did not throw an interception in 261 pass attempts in 2021, and went 18 games and 341 pass attempts without throwing a pick between his junior and senior seasons, leading the Panthers to back-to-back district titles.

And through it all—during a junior season plagued by a global pandemic, through an exceptionally stellar senior season, and even the couple of months leading up to Wednesday’s National Signing Day—Emanuel faced doubt. Naysayers. Skeptics. Colleges and coaches who wanted him to play any other position, from tight end to linebacker to safety.

Schools reluctant to offer him as a quarterback.

“I was playing with a chip on my shoulder to prove everybody wrong. But I played free,” Emanuel Jr. said of his senior season. “It felt like little league again, being with my guys and my friends. It was fun.

“Before games, I’d be stressed and thinking about (recruiting), but once it’s time to go, I don’t even care about that at that point. I’m going to do me and I’m going to go out there and ball.”

Emanuel Jr. balled. Head coach Jim McElwain and offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay at Central Michigan noticed.

On National Signing Day on Wednesday morning, at Fort Bend ISD’s Hopson Fieldhouse, Emanuel Jr. signed his letter of intent to play for the Chippewas, a Mid-American Conference program coming off a Sun Bowl win following a 9-4 season. Emanuel Jr. picked Central Michigan over Lamar, Abilene Christian, Army, and Texas Southern.

“I’m happy,” Emanuel Jr. said. “Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. Everything I went through was worth it and everything happened for a reason. It all pointed me to Central Michigan.”

UPS AND DOWNS

Emanuel Jr. said his recruiting was a “long, stressful process.” That so many schools and coaches wanted him to switch positions remains a sensitive topic.

“It was a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “I don’t want to get too much into everything. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I just tried to keep a positive mindset and prayed everything would work out. I’m just glad I found a place to call home with Central Michigan. The feelings and the relationships I have with the coaches, and the way they talk about family, running a program and developing players on and off the field … I really felt the love from all of that.”

Bert Sr. laughed off comments he heard from colleges during his son’s recruiting. Most of it was centered on Emanuel Jr.’s throwing mechanics. Coaches loved his athleticism. But they had concerns about his pure quarterback skills.

“Some of it was so simple to us. Just watch the film,” Bert Sr. said. “Look at the results. The film can’t be manipulated. It doesn’t lie. The results were exactly as they were. Data is black and white.”

Prior to this season, Bert Sr. saw his son flip a switch. Emanuel Jr. wasn’t going to play another position just to play at the next level.

He is who he is, and as Emanuel Jr. reminded people often, “I am a quarterback.”

“B.J. made a few statements, put his foot in the ground, and said, ‘Hey, this is who I am. This is my identity. I’m going to be a quarterback. I’m going to be the best this year,’” Bert Sr. said. “And his season was one of the most incredible, epic seasons that I’ve ever seen for a quarterback at (Class) 6A playing in Division I.”

Ridge Point coach Rick LaFavers said his signal-caller was the “victim of a perfect storm.” LaFavers and his staff arrived at Ridge Point during the spring of 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. COVID-19 protocols prohibited campus visits from college coaches. The spring is generally a key time period in recruiting.

LaFavers and his staff only started working with players on Sept. 7, when they were allowed together again, but with strict restrictions due to the coronavirus. They had four weeks to put in completely new offensive and defensive systems.

It wasn’t until about halfway through that 2020 season that Emanuel Jr. finally became comfortable in the offensive passing game.

“He was primarily trying to operate within the offense and the passing game within the pocket, and when that happens, QBs tend to be less instinctual,” Bert Sr. said.

Add all of those hurdles to the college transfer portal, which has significantly stunted high school recruiting. Once schools had the quarterback they wanted to bring in—and LaFavers said it was often a quarterback from the portal—they didn’t return to check up on a kid they had initially looked at.

Like Emanuel Jr., who had developed a reputation as a “push passer” from a junior season hindered by new coaches, a new system, and no campus visits. A notion that still ran rampant his senior season. A notion LaFavers and Bert Sr. said was unfair.

‘The opportunities really narrowed, and schools did not do a good job coming back and evaluating their senior board, in my opinion,” LaFavers said. “He just wasn’t getting much traction and was falling through the cracks. He was definitely one of those kids that I felt his body of work had proved itself and schools were making a mistake.”

A BLESSING

Bert Sr. said it was all a blessing in disguise.

“I saw B.J. grow stronger and stronger each week. It was incredible,” he said. “It was like fueling a fire that was unstoppable. That desire, that passion, and that fire inside him was so strong to prove to himself he was the best, and to prove to everyone else who doubted him that they were wrong, that it became contagious, and his teammates caught on fire, too. That’s what leaders do.”

LaFavers, who also coached at TCU and Rice, said it’s the intangibles that define Emanuel Jr.

“The dude is just a winner,” LaFavers said. “It’s hard for people to feel that and know that, especially if they don’t come out and see him. Everyone that met him saw he has a presence, an aura. There is an ‘it’ factor. He was a tremendous leader who led in a way where guys didn’t want to let him down. He didn’t berate people or cuss people out. But he communicated and led verbally and with his actions.

“His competitive greatness is off the charts, and he made others around him better.”

Bert Sr. said his son has good accuracy and strong skills. But his senior year, Emanuel Jr. also showed solid decision-making and critical thinking skills, and an ability to take smart risks that resulted in rewards on deep throws.

“Those are critical areas that all good QBs possess, and he demonstrated that week in and week out at a high level. There should have been no question on whether he could transition to the college game,” said Bert Sr., who played quarterback at Langham Creek High and Rice before he was moved to receiver in the NFL. “That was an important point that we were trying to communicate through the recruiting process, and Central Michigan understood that, 100 percent.”

Emanuel Jr. knows he has things to work on. He understands he can sometimes get lazy and rely on his arm too much on throws instead of using more of his lower body. He will work on that.

But what he doesn’t need to work on is confidence. Or self-awareness. Emanuel Jr. knows who he is and what he’s about.

He’s proved it.

“As a player, I don’t need to think about things. I just play,” Emanuel Jr. said. “As a person, I learned how to deal with adversity. Everything I went through just helped me build who I really am.”