‘The SEC of high school football’

Just after 8 a.m. on a muggy Monday morning, Tyler and Maurice, both wearing black Hawkeye crewnecks with gold Tigerhawk emblems, walk into North Gwinnett High School, just a few miles from their Suwanee home.

They pass a framed 2017 7A State Champions poster in the hallway, which displays two photos of the team celebrating after the victory. Every player’s name from that championship team is listed on the poster. Tyler’s is there. Taylor’s is, too.

Outside, the school’s football field is in the middle of a remodel. New turf is being placed down only a few weeks before the new season is set to begin.

Bill Stewart’s face looks up from the play cards in front of him at his desk and he perks up as the Goodsons walk into his square office with white brick walls. Stewart was Tyler’s head coach during his junior and senior years of high school. Gerald “Boo” Mitchell, who still serves as a strength trainer for Tyler and was featured on an episode of his YouTube documentary series “Dreams 2 Reality,” is in the office as well.

A framed newspaper clipping from the state title game Tyler’s junior year hangs right by the doorway into the office, and an enlarged photo of a championship ring can’t be missed on the back wall.

“It’s a big deal to have him around,” Stewart told the DI. “And it’s always good to have him back.”

Stewart recalls realizing pretty quickly after watching Tyler practice that he was going to be the team’s featured back. Before Stewart’s arrival, Tyler split reps at running back for North Gwinnett’s varsity team as a sophomore, the same season he scored his first varsity touchdown.

Maurice said high schools in Georgia usually only want players to play on one side of the ball. There was never any doubt that Tyler was going to play running back. It’s the position he had always played.

“I want the ball,” Tyler said. “I like scoring touchdowns. Why would you want to make a tackle when you could score a touchdown? That makes no sense to me. That’s the greatest feeling in football for me.”

The conversation in Stewart’s office quickly turns to Tyler’s junior year as a Bulldog, when he ran for 1,437 yards and scored 25 touchdowns.

Midway through that season, and with then-Samford assistant coach and future Iowa running backs coach Derrick Foster in attendance, Tyler suffered a high-ankle sprain and a turf toe injury. As the team neared the playoffs, Tyler didn’t know if he’d return at all the rest of the year.

“The whole time we’re waiting to get him back,” Stewart recalled. “And we didn’t know when we got him back how that thing was going to work. When you’re dealing with a toe, that’s a big deal for a running back especially. It was touch-and-go there. Uneasy.”

Tyler’s injuries mended, though. After missing four games, he returned for the playoffs. And he excelled.

In four games, Tyler rushed for 898 yards on the team’s way to a title.

“As far as a playoff run, I don’t think I’ve seen anybody have one as good, to where basically every game he’d make some critical run,” Stewart said.

The team couldn’t repeat in Tyler’s senior year. But Tyler ran for another 1,180 yards and 25 touchdowns to earn Georgia Player of the Year in 2018, an honor he didn’t even know existed until receiving it at an end-of-the-season banquet.

It’s now approaching 8:30 a.m. in Stewart’s office. The head coach has to run to a coaching staff meeting, but not before telling Tyler he needs to talk in front of the team sometime. Stewart exits into the hallway, walking by framed jerseys that belong to North Gwinnett alums who have turned professional. He sees the jerseys of offensive tackle and 2014 first-round NFL draft pick Ja’Wuan James and veteran NFL tight end Jared Cook, among others. Stewart teasingly said minutes before that Tyler’s jersey wasn’t hanging in that hallway, to which Tyler responded “not yet.” The Goodsons and Mitchell stay behind in Stewart’s office. Athletic Director Matt Champitto is in the room now, too.

Champitto, a Buffalo Bills fan, chats with Tyler about the hype surrounding former Hawkeye A.J. Epenesa in training camp. Then, Mitchell points out that Tyler’s attributes on the field are similar to New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara, who he used to train.

Maurice emphasizes that this next season at Iowa could be the launching point to a professional career for Tyler. Maurice said eight to 10 NFL agents have already reached out to him inquiring about Tyler’s future as a professional. In May, ESPN NFL draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Tyler as the No. 4 best draft-eligible running back in the 2022 draft class.

Tyler was appreciative of the attention, but not overly impressed.

“It’s cool to be top-five, but I know I should be No. 1,” Tyler said.

“If I feel like there’s a running back better than me, then I’m not working hard enough,” he added. “I’m always going to think I’m the better running back, no matter who it is. It could be LaDainian Tomlinson, Reggie Bush — I’m the best running back in the world. That’s just how I feel. That’s how confident I am in myself.”

Maurice tells Mitchell he has to visit Kinnick Stadium for a game this season. Maybe the Penn State game, they decide.

Mitchell has yet to watch Tyler play in college from the stands.

“I just go to SportsCenter because I know he’s going to be on the highlights somewhere,” he said.

Mitchell always anticipated that he’d watch Tyler play college football — just not at Iowa.

“When he first told me about going to Iowa, I was like, ‘Why?’ Why are you going there?” Mitchell said. “He said, ‘Coach, I’m telling you, I feel like that’s where I’m supposed to be.’ I was trying to talk him out of it. Big Ten? I was on his butt about that. And I hardly ever do that to a kid. But he had no doubt that’s where he wanted to go.”