There was a time during the recruiting process when Florida Tech was looking darn good to current Memphis quarterback and future NFL signal-caller Paxton Lynch and his family.

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They were the only school to offer a partial scholarship to the then 6-foot-5, 215-pound Lynch back in 2012 as National Signing Day was rapidly approaching.

To that point the process was frustrating.

South Florida had the Deltona (Fla.) Trinity Christian Academy standout in camp the summer prior to his senior season and told Lynch they were going to offer after the workout.

“They said they were going to offer him after their final camp, and at the end of the camp all the coaches started walking away from him,” David Lynch remembered. “Paxton said dad why are they walking away. I said I don’t’ know but I’m going to find out. I ran after them and they said they changed their mind because they weren’t sure how he was going to react to things making the big jump to the next level.

“We moved on.”

Miami had the small private school quarterback in camp several times according to Lynch’s prep coach Allen Johnson.

“I had a real connection with a couple Miami guys and they thought Gray Crow was better than him,” Johnson said. “I was dumfounded. We went to every Miami camp. They just didn’t see it. That coaching staff didn’t see it.”

A lot of coaching staffs didn’t see it. Lynch was a 6-foot-3 running back in eighth grade that moved under center after outgrowing the position. At Trinity Christian he played in a wing-t offense “because we didn’t have any receivers for him to throw to,” Johnson said. “We all knew Paxton could hum the ball.”

Central Florida kept in contact with Johnson and the Lynch family for just about the entire process but an injury cost Lynch most of his senior season. A deep knee bruise kept him on the shelf until the last four games of the year.

“Once he got hurt everybody backed off,” Johnson said. These answers are becoming routine for him as his phone now rings regularly with questions about the lack of recruitment, sometimes from NFL franchises doing their due diligence leading up to next year’s draft.

Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis saw enough from Lynch in those last four games. According to Lynch’s father he was ready to sign the under-the-radar in-state talent. Then in December Weis called the Lynch family and said he was taking the open head coach position at Kansas.

At that point, Lynch was healthy and ready to go for the Central Florida All-Star Game. He threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in earning game MVP honors.

“He finally had some receivers to throw to,” Johnson laughed.

The opportunity at Florida was still looking good.

“It starting coming out in the papers that Florida was going to take him and everyone backed off,” the elder Lynch said. “I got a phone call from (Weis’s replacement) Coach (Brent) Pease (Florida’s new offensive coordinator who’s currently an assistant at Washington) saying he was going to come by the house. I thought that was it, Paxton is going to Florida. When he got to the house he said he was going to take the son of a friend of his Skyler Mornhinweg (who has since transferred to Columbia), he played high school football with his dad or something. It was what it was but it bothered us a little bit.”

“We were kind of pissed, I’ll admit that,” Johnson said. “We were a little shocked and a little surprised. It was a whole messed up situation the way it went down. We were not told the kid was better than Paxton. We knew there was a connection with the kid’s father (current Baltimore Ravens quarterbacks coach Marty Mornhinweg), but we weren’t ever told he was better than Paxton. He took a friend’s kid over this kid. I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus but that’s what happened.”

That all happed in late January leading up to the final weekend before National Signing Day.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, an athletic director at another high school knew some guys on the recently hired Memphis coaching staff led by Justin Fuente. After seeing Lynch in the Central Florida all-star game Johnson said it was that athletic director that put his quarterback on Fuente and company’s radar.

Fuente and his staff offered a scholarship and the Lynch family took the official visit that final weekend in January. Lynch was very intrigued with the dynamic play-caller Fuente who was the engineer for those outstanding TCU offenses that were led by Andy Dalton.

“When he got up there and met with the coaches and met with Fuente and then (assistant coach) (Darrell) Dickey came to the house Paxton said this it, people in our home state weren’t feeling him, but at Memphis there are people that believe in him and he’ll play 110 percent for him. Fuente believes in him now and he’ll do anything he asks him to do.”

Central Florida actually offered on National Signing Day. It was obviously too late.

“We were dumbfounded with the whole process,” Johnson said. “We were like are we being bias because we know him and think he’s a great kid.”

In the end Johnson and his staff were right. A red-shirt junior at Memphis, Lynch certainly looked like the best quarterback in the country this past weekend in leading the Tigers to a 37-24 win over then No. 13 Ole Miss, throwing for 384 yards and three touchdowns. Memphis is 6-0 and sitting at No. 18 in the Associated Press Poll, scratching and clawing their way to what they hope will be an opportunity to play in the college football playoff.

Johnson talks to the Heisman candidate and his father weekly.

“He’s handling it well,” Johnson said. “It’s not getting to his head. He’s not worried about himself. He’s worried about the team. He’s a team guy first. Other high schools tried to get him to transfer by saying they’re not going to throw the football and he stayed. We were a small private school and he had the big public schools coming after him and he didn’t leave, he stayed, that’s the kind of kid he is. If you ask him about things like the Heisman, he doesn’t care about the Heisman. He wants to crack that top four and see what they can do.”

There is still one Florida school the Lynch family appreciates.

“Florida Tech was in there,” Lynch’s father said. “They were a new football program and could only offer so much money. Paxton said dad I’m a Division-I quarterback, I’m going to get a scholarship. We kept it moving but I appreciated them coming to check out Paxton.”