Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott upholds Caravan standard during summer practices

CHICAGO – Mount Carmel senior quarterback Jack Elliott suddenly stopped himself in the middle of answering a question Wednesday afternoon when he saw something he didn’t like.

One of his teammates had taken a break doing 100 yards of bear crawls for breaking a team rule. Elliott immediately yelled over to keep going, the second time the Caravan quarterback yelled out a reminder during his interview.

The standard is the standard.

“Everyone does the same thing here,” Elliott said. “It’s the standard. It’s passed down every year, and now it’s my time to carry it on.”

Elliott finds himself in a new position this offseason after filling different roles with the Caravan the past couple of seasons. He served as the team’s backup as a sophomore, then took over the starter’s role with experienced talent around him, winning two state championships along the way.

Now Elliott is the experienced veteran with plenty of new faces around him in the offensive huddle. He’s embraced the challenge.

“He knows the right way to do it, and he’s done it,” Mount Carmel coach Jordan Lynch said. “He’s got two state championship rings. … He knows the process and what it looks like, how to get there.”

Elliot ran an offense that was one of the best in the state last season. The Caravan scored 543 points in 14 games and averaged 38.8 points per game. Elliott, a Vanderbilt commit, threw for 3,148 yards and 34 touchdowns on top of 847 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, earning All-CCL/ESCC honors.

There’s plenty of talent to replace, however. The Caravan lost last season’s Friday Night Drive Offensive Player of the Year Darrion Dupree, who’s competing for Wisconsin, on top of other top skill players and offensive linemen.

The Caravan were in the second week of summer camp practices Wednesday after spending most of June in the weight room. Lynch said Mount Carmel has spent more time installing plays this summer compared with last season when most of the starters returned. The offense was still a work in progress early in the summer.

Elliott felt comfortable as a leader last season but wanted to take his game to another level by mastering the offense. When he wasn’t lifting at 5 a.m., Elliott dedicated his mornings to learning the offense so he could teach it to his new teammates.

He spent a lot of Wednesday’s summer camp acting as a coach. While Lynch and his coaches worked with the offensive and defensive lines during a session, Elliott coached up his receivers during drills. When there was miscommunication, he ran over to the receiver to go over what went wrong.

“I don’t have to step in and correct guys,” Lynch said. “He’s got full command of this offense, and he knows what every player is doing. He holds everyone accountable. Jack makes everyone better at the end of the day.”

Despite the transition period, Elliott is excited for the new offensive pieces he’ll work with this season. Senior Danyil Taylor Jr. will slot into the running back position after playing as a tight end and defensive lineman the past couple of years.

“Everyone does the same thing here. It’s the standard. It’s passed down every year and now it’s my time to carry it on.”

—  Jack Elliott, Mount Carmel senior quarterback

Neuqua Valley senior transfer Cooper Lehman will be a top receiving target, and Elliott and Lynch see great potential in sophomore receiver Quentin Burrell. Senior Nick Lewanski and junior Lamont Miller will return on the line.

Elliott already felt confident in the connection that he was building with the new players and was confident they’d be ready by the start of the season.

“When it comes time to be in the game, they’ll know what to do,” Elliott said. “We’ll have that connection down.”

The faces might be different, but the standard remains the same. And that means Elliott doesn’t expect the results to change either.

“It’ll be different, but just the guys scoring the touchdowns,” Elliott said. “That’ll be the only difference.”