The second coming? Younger Favre shows he’s got a spring-loaded arm, just like Uncle Brett

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Younger Favre a chip off the old Brett

JACKSON, Miss. — There’s a guy named Favre who’s having an MVP season, owns all the records you can name and has his team poised to win a title.

Sounds like Brett Favre, right? Think again.

We’re talking about Dylan Favre, the 17-year-old high school senior who lives in the long shadow of his famous relative but has had such an amazing career he deserves to stand alone. He’s faced the “what’s it like?” question about Uncle Brett so many times, it has gotten wearisome.

“It’s not a big deal,” Dylan Favre said. “People make it out to be way bigger than it really is. He’s just an ordinary uncle who goes to work every day. His job just happens to be playing football.”

When it comes to football, the Favre family has something special. Brett Favre came from tiny Kiln, Miss., had a fabulous college career and has gone on to have one of the greatest NFL tenures of any quarterback — one that continues as the 40-year-old guides his Minnesota Vikings toward the playoffs.

The younger Favre, son of Brett’s brother, Jeff, also comes from Kiln. But the 5-foot-11, 195-pound quarterback is far ahead of his uncle when it comes to early success.

While the elder Favre was a wishbone quarterback in high school, his nephew is the accomplished conductor of Mississippi’s most powerful offense. His numbers are “mind-boggling,” St. Stanislaus coach Forrest Williams says.

Dylan Favre holds 10 state records, shattering most by silly margins, is in the top five nationally for a handful of career marks and was named the Gatorade player of the year for Mississippi on Thursday.

He has a chance to add the ultimate entry to his resume Saturday when he leads the 13-1 Rockachaws into the Class 4A state championship game against Lafayette County.

When it comes to high school quarterbacks in Mississippi, no one — not even Uncle Brett — can compare.

“I think he has done a great job of making a name for himself,” Brett Favre said after Thursday’s practice. “I never did close to what he has done in high school. He’s going to go down as one of the very best quarterbacks in Mississippi history, which is something to really be proud of.”

The elder Favre has never seen the younger Favre play in person and has been limited to a few glances at highlight tapes. Football talks between uncle and nephew are usually limited to topics like leadership and work ethic, and they communicate mostly by text before and after games.

Brett Favre says he’d love to be in Jackson for Saturday’s game, but as usual his job will keep him in the far north as Dylan scorches opponents in the Deep South.

Dylan state marks include career total offense (13,755 yards), touchdowns responsible for (164) and touchdown passes (141). This season alone he has passed for 5,170 yards with three 500-yard games (and a fourth for 498), rushed for another 1,177 yards, and is responsible for 76 touchdowns, including 60 through the air.

And he’s been putting up those kinds of numbers long enough to show up in the National Federation of State High School Associations record book as well.

He’s second in average total yards per game in a single season (453.4), third in total yards in a single season (6,347 yards) and an average passing game away from second place. And he’s fifth in total yards for a career (13,755).

“The numbers come with winning,” said Dylan, who speaks in the familiar accent and cadence of his uncle. “I feel in order for us to win I have to play well. Winning ball games is way more important than throwing touchdowns or anything like that. Having an opportunity to play in the state championship is far more exciting than any record I’ve broken.”

Yet despite all those gaudy numbers and that team-first attitude, Dylan does not yet have a scholarship offer to a Football Bowl Subdivision school. His height, he’s told, isn’t what the big schools are looking for, though interest is starting to grow as national signing day approaches. He knows he’s got a home in Division II if no one comes forward, but he believes he can play at the highest level and wants the chance.

“It’s disappointing,” Dylan said. “I’m not going to say it’s not, because I have all the confidence in the world that I can play and make throws at the Division I level. In my opinion height is the most overrated thing when it comes to playing quarterback. I don’t see how a couple inches is going to help you win ball games. That’s just the way it is nowadays.”

Williams thinks schools overlooking Favre are making a mistake. The coach says the quarterback — who also starts at outside linebacker, punter and several special teams positions — is a true 5-11, and at 17 he’s likely to continue to grow. But more importantly, they’re missing out on all the intangibles that helped make Brett Favre the most successful quarterback in NFL history.

It all starts with the family’s trademark toughness.

“Brett set the ironman streak in professional football and Dylan’s the same way,” Williams said. “It don’t matter what kind of lickin’ he takes, he keeps on coming back. He threw a block the other night for one of his running backs to spring him for a 50-yard touchdown that I tell you would’ve knocked out a mortal man. But he was on the field a second, jumped up and was ready to go back in on defense the next series.”

AP sports writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this report.