How childhood friends and star WRs Marvin Mims and Jaxon Smith-Njigba wound up on the doorstep of Texas football immortality – The Dallas Morning News

FRISCO History wouldnt be within Marvin Mims grasp if he hadnt already had a taste of it.

To get to this point, earshot from the states record for most receiving yards in a high school career, Mims had to have an unprecedented senior year. No one in the country had ever broken the 2,500-yard receiving mark in one season until the Frisco Lone Star senior did it last week.

His historic season has brought him here, 66 yards away from breaking the career record, an honor that former Burnet and Texas receiver Jordan Shipley has held for the last 16 years, according to Dave Campbells Texas Footballs record book.

Mims is right on Shipleys tail, but someone else is closer.

Rockwall senior Jaxon Smith-Njigba has an eight-yard lead on Mims as both receivers get set to play this weekend in the state semifinals. Their games will start 30 minutes apart from each other on Saturday, meaning both might pass Shipley before simultaneously racing each other for a spot at the top of Texas high school football history.

This didnt happen by accident. Its not a coincidence that these two childhood friends are both on the verge of breaking a record thats withstood the influx of pass-happy offenses and 7on7 until now. It took a perfect storm of circumstance to create this scenario, and two special players in the eye of it for it to become an imminent reality.

It doesnt even seem real, does it? asked Rockwall head coach Rodney Webb. Its too good to be true, this whole story.

You could start this story on the basketball court. Thats where these two met.

At first, Mims didnt like Smith-Njigba. Mims has always been competitive, so when he and his AAU teammates kept running into Smith-Njigba at the championship game of tournaments back in about fifth grade it stoked his competitive fire.

I had to see him every weekend, Mims said. I mean, we always battled it out.

Soon after, the battle between the two stopped. Smith-Njigba joined Mims AAU team for the next couple of years. Being teammates instead of opponents didnt change how they played, though. They both brought a fearless football player mentality to the court, said Southlake Carroll tight end Blake Smith, a Texas A&M pledge who played AAU basketball with them.

Its a competitive drive they have in each of themselves, Smith said. Especially those two.

Thats something they have in common. Theyre both confident players, who take single-man coverage not as an insult, but as an opportunity to showcase their abilities. They both also felt the need to after this offseason.

Mims noticed this offseason when he dropped in the national recruiting rankings, going from four stars to three, according to 247Sports composite rankings. He also wasnt invited to The Opening, a combine and national showcase for the top recruits in the country, an event that happened in his backyard at The Ford Center in Frisco. Smith-Njigba arguably had the best showing at The Opening, but he was only invited because someone else dropped out and they needed to fill the space. Its cliche for athletes to say they have doubters, but both point to those examples as proof and motivation.

To a certain extent I didnt really care about it, because it was a personal shot at me, said Mims, an Oklahoma pledge who has since become a four-star recruit, once again. But at the same time I was focused on this team.

Thats because Mims knew his team had the potential to be this good. And the truth is both Mims and Smith-Njigba probably wouldnt be on the precipice of history without their teammates.

Webb, the president of the Texas high school coaches association, said a lot has to go into breaking a career receiving record, especially here. A player has to stay healthy, has to have a good quarterback and an offensive line protecting that quarterback, has to play in an offense conducive to passing success and has to be on a team thats good enough to go deep in the playoffs. Special receivers have come through Texas in the last 16 years, but theres a reason Shipleys record has held.

It looks like a very individual he-did-it type of award, Smith-Njigba, an Ohio State pledge, said, but it's really not without the help of others.

So many things could have derailed their pursuits, but nearly-perfect circumstance has led them to the doorstep of state immortality, something that was unimaginable to both until it was within their grasp. On Saturday, nearly simultaneously, both will have the chance to catch history. So let the race begin.

Heres where Mims and Smith-Njigba stack up in the states history for receiving statistics, according to Dave Campbells Texas Footballs record book.

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How childhood friends and star WRs Marvin Mims and Jaxon Smith-Njigba wound up on the doorstep of Texas football immortality - The Dallas Morning News