Click here to read the first part of this story, where Justin Ferguson and his father, Jason, talked about how they were able to make the most of Justin's move from Philadelphia down to Florida.
In a preseason contest for Flanagan High School, Justin pulled in five catches, including four touchdowns. In his very regular season first game, he pulled down five passes for 125 yards and three touchdowns with a fourth score called back on a clip. He followed that up with three receptions for 82 yards and another touchdown in game two.
His parents had put early word out and he backed it up. Justin finished his junior season with 44 catches for 956 yards and 12 touchdowns.
It didn’t take long for colleges to take notice of the new kid on the block. “Once we started sending out stuff to all of the different media outlets, people started taking notice,” Jason said.
The contact began with form letters from college programs and, while it was exciting, the Fergusons didn’t want to get too far ahead of themselves.
“After a while, we started to not take it so serious and then people actually started to come to school to visit him,” said Jason.
Then they started taking visits to colleges, which is when things really started to heat up. “After a while, the floodgates opened up,” Jason remembered. “Everywhere we went to visit, they offered him on the spot. That part of it was like ‘Wow.’”
Miami was the only school they visited that didn’t offer on the spot and some schools, like Notre Dame and Wisconsin and Alabama offered without a visit.
“It was surreal, to be honest with you,” Mr. Ferguson remembered. “We knew he was going to get some offers, but we never knew it would be the way it is right now.”
One particular visit made a lasting impact on both Justin and Jason. They had already visited Florida, Florida State and Miami by the time they arrived in South Bend for Notre Dame’s spring game in April. Justin said he wanted to compare Notre Dame to the Florida schools and the comparison ended up being more than favorable.
“Being around the environment of the school and the people and the fans and the people we came in contact with, it was very impressive,” Jason said.
Justin thought about committing to the Irish during the trip, but waited to see if the feelings he had would fade. They never did and on May 2nd, he announced that he was accepting a scholarship to Notre Dame.
Everyone was excited for Justin, including his mother. “She knows this has always been my dream and is definitely excited for me,” he said.
There was a brief discussion of a possible visit to Alabama, but that will not happen and Justin will be playing for the Irish in 2012.
“We feel great about it for a lot of factors,” Mr. Ferguson said. “We feel great about it because he’ll be in the hands of the right people first and foremost.”
Tony Alford has a dual role as Justin’s recruiting coach and future position coach while Brian Kelly made a strong impression during the spring game visit.
“We feel very comfortable with Coach Alford and Coach Kelly based on our conversations,” Jason said. “We’ve had conversations with all of these different position coaches and head coaches and they’ve made us feel very confident that he’s going to be in good hands.”
“That, for us, was the most important thing because at the end of the day, he’s a football player, and I’m not unrealistic. If he doesn’t produce, I don’t want someone treating him like, ‘Oh well, we thought he was good. He’s not good anymore, so whatever.’ I want someone that’s going to make him the best football player he can be and not just use him for their benefit and not care about Justin the person.”
After moving from Philadelphia to Florida to be with other family members, the feeling is that the move from Florida to South Bend is similar.
“He is a football player, but he is a person and he is my child,” Jason said. “He needs to be taken care of wherever he goes like he was with family.”
