Top-ranked Mount Carmel has the most talented team in Chicago history, led by eight Power Five recruits

Four pages of Mount Carmel’s 2025 media guide and record book feature pictures and season summaries of the school’s record 16 state championship teams.

So much winning, so much history. The Caravan are the kings of Illinois high school football. But they’ve never had a team loaded with talent like this year’s squad.

Mount Carmel, ranked No.1 in the preseason Super 25, has eight players on the roster with Power Five scholarship offers. It’s probably the greatest collection of high-level talent ever seen on an area high school football team.

There are five on defense: Joey Quinn (DL, Vanderbilt), Roman Igwebuike (LB), Braeden Jones (DL, USC), Tavares Harrington (DB) and Caleb Tucker (DL). And three on offense: Quentin Burrell (WR), Marshaun Thornton (WR) and Claude Mpouma (OL, Nebraska).

“There are so many expectations now that we have to be even more intense in practice,” Jones, a USC recruit, said. “You see that with the players and the coaches every day. It’s a new, even higher standard.”

Mount Carmel won the last three Class 7A state championships and moves up to Class 8A this season.

“We watch the Loyola, Lincoln-Way East and Maine South scores every week anyway,” Caravan coach Jordan Lynch said. “We usually play Loyola Week 9 and we know how we feel after that matchup. We are banged up and limping into Week 10. [The 8A playoffs] will be a great challenge and some really good football.”

Senior Emmett Dowling takes over at quarterback for Mount Carmel. His family name is on the school’s football stadium. Jim, his dad, played for the Caravan and graduated in 1991. His older brother, Blainey, was the starting quarterback on the 2022 state championship team that started the current run of titles.

Dowling, 6-0, 200-pounds, played in 11 games last season and started one. He passed for 326 yards and five touchdowns.

He will have tremendous receivers to target. Burrell, a 6-3, 200-pound junior, has offers from every major college in the country, including Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan. Thornton, a 6-2 sophomore, has more than 20 offers, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Miami.

“I’m ready,” Dowling said. “[Blainey] has given me way too much advice. We talk almost every night about it. My job is to get these guys the ball and let them make the plays. I don’t have to win the games, we have these guys to win the games for us.”

Lynch is pleased with Dowling’s performance in practice.

“There are plenty of playmakers around him,” Lynch said. "Just play within the system and be yourself, and that’s good enough to win here. That’s what his brother did. Blainey didn’t do anything extraordinary. He played within the system, and big numbers and big games came. It’s a quarterback-friendly offense.”

Running back Madden Wilson, who started the state championship win against Batavia last year, is also back. He was third on the team in rushing yards.

Nine starters return on defense, including Quinn, Igwebuike, Jones, Harrington, Tucker, linebacker Gavin Conjar and linebacker Stephen Winkler.

“I know how spoiled these fans are and that’s a good thing,” Lynch said. “Expectations are high here. But you are not going to see last year’s Week 14 Mount Carmel team in Week 1. It’s a process. There are a lot of brand new kids.”