Over the holidays, during a family visit, I picked up a local newspaper. There was a story about the Dalton area’s high school football player of the year for 2016. He’s running back Ahmaad Tanner of Dalton High, and he played his senior season with the Catamounts after spending three years in the city’s private school, Christian Heritage.

Tanner had 1,560 yards on the ground for Dalton, who would go all the way to the Class 6A semifinals before falling to eventual champion Valdosta at home. He was particularly dominant in a postseason clash with Coffee when he gained 243 yards on 27 rushes with three touchdowns.

A portion of the story is how Tanner overcame both doubts that he could succeed at this higher level of football and a bad ankle injury. Towards the end, the focus shifts to what colleges began to take notice of what this young man could do on the football field. It is stated he had one scholarship offer before the season began, that from Austin Peay University of the Football Championship Subdivision. Two more offers are then mentioned, Mercer and Savannah State.

The next question brought up is, should he get more prestigious attention. Did more offers come in, especially from the Bowl Subdivision? Doesn’t look like it. Is this a bad thing? One offer. Three offers. Better than no offers, I say.

Today is that unofficial sports fan’s holiday, National Signing Day. You can look at it this way: every high school football player in the country wants to play for the University of Alabama. And, a high percentage of those feel deep down they are good enough to play for the University of Alabama.

The reality is, however, that not everyone can make the Crimson Tide roster. For one thing, there’s only so many players they can legally carry and dress out on a Saturday. For another, Nick Saban may just feel that you can’t help him get to another National Championship Playoff final.

I use Alabama in this example because that’s the gold standard of college football right now, even if it doesn’t win that championship game every year. There was a time in the 1980s and ’90s when that was Florida State under Bobby Bowden. USC owned that distinction for a little while until Saban took over in 2009. This is that one school that seems to attract the best athletes in a given period of time (with people like Miami, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. nipping at their heels).

So if you don’t get accepted at Alabama, is that the end of the world? If you don’t make it at a Power 5 conference, does that mean you were never that much of a football player? If you are relegated to what’s called the Group of 5, the FCS or, (gasp), Division II, can you even call yourself a football player?

My answer to all of the above: A college football player is a college football player no matter where he ends up. I did not get a chance to see Ty Lee play for Colquitt County High. The wide receiver for two unbeaten state championship teams just completed a good freshman season for Middle Tennessee State with a solid performance in the Hawaii Bowl.

Here’s the question often asked: Could he have done better? Not in terms of numbers for MTSU, but in terms of where he’s playing.

College coaches all over the nation come under heavy fire from fan bases for not giving a look to the local superstar. The former University of Georgia head coach Ray Goff of Moultrie was one of them.

What we have to consider is we don’t know what a college coach is looking for or looking at in his specific evaluation process. What makes us go ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ in the stands on a Friday night, that college scout may see some kind of flaw in technique that’s an immediate turnoff.

It is, after all, against high school competition, where there’s such a huge gap in talent from one player to another, from one team to another. College is the best vs. the best.

Lee is playing for Middle Tennessee State, and that just may be the right fit for him and his skills. Tanner, on Jan. 22, committed to Austin Peay according to 247sports. That may be the right fit for him.

And guess what? There’s no shame in any of that. There could be 13 Packers signing today, and two I know are with the Southeastern Conference. That’s Shawn Shamburger to Tennessee and John Samuel Shenker of Auburn.

Over the years, on Signing Day, I hear about colleges I never knew existed: Limestone, Point, Cumberlands, somewhere in Pennsylvania, somewhere in Minnesota. You will also hear about the low percentage of high school players who get a college scholarship on this day. That something they can be happy about, and you can only hope they take full advantage of it.

By the way, if it’s the National Football League for which you feel destined, and the only way to get there is through Alabama or FSU, ask this speedy Atlanta Falcon Taylor Gabriel where he went to school (Abeline Christian), or Eric Weems (Bethune-Cookman) during Super Bowl media day.