I’ll admit that I flinched a little bit when I saw the Jan. 10 Tweet from AOL FanHouse writer John Walters that read: “Am hearing from reliable source that Michael Floyd will announce he's declaring for NFL draft [Jan. 11].”

If nothing else, it set up Irish fans for failure only to experience the euphoria that followed his “surprising” announcement.

But I would have been surprised if Walters’ prediction had come to fruition. That’s not a knock on Walters’ sources, and I’m not going to pretend to know much about Floyd’s evaluation process or the psyche that led to his final decision. According to NBC Sports, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly and his staff put forth an excellent effort to recruit the program’s all-time leader in career touchdowns (28).

“Armed with a PowerPoint presentation, a plan to have Floyd graduate next December, and a detailed focus on how he’ll be used in the second iteration of the head coach’s offense,” wrote Keith Arnold, “Brian Kelly and his offensive coaching staff essentially re-recruited the 6-3, 227-pound junior from St. Paul in a closed door meeting yesterday, bringing back the most important member of the Irish roster for a season basically nobody saw coming.”

What I do know is that Michael Floyd comes from humble beginnings, and his road to Notre Dame is paved with a lot of hard work, often times additional work to keep himself even with his peers.

“Michael is one of those kids at our school that’s here non-stop,” former Cretin-Derham Hall assistant coach Andy Bischoff told BlueandGold.com in a 2007 interview. “This is really a home away from home. He’s here early in the morning to study for school. He’s here on the weekends to work out with the school’s work-study program. And I think he’s looking for a similar relationship with his college; a place that feels like a family to him.”

And as hard as Floyd worked, his mother, Theresa Romero, likely endured even more to provide all of her children with the best possible opportunities to succeed, particularly academically.

When Michael was just five years old, a misunderstanding led to his family’s eviction from their new apartment, forcing Romero, a single mother, to move her children to a school district with a questionable academic reputation.

“After we left that apartment, we had to go back to where I had grown up, but the schools were much less desirable,” Romero told BlueandGold.com in 2008. “I had worked for the school system we were leaving, and I made a deal with the school’s principal and he agreed to let my children go to school there as long as I could get them there and pick them up after school.

“So, that was the first time my kids got used to getting up in the morning way before the other kids just to go to school. It was hard, of course, but the kids learned early on from those experiences that not only does education matter, but that making sacrifices to get what you want or need in life is what life is all about.”

As Floyd prepared to take his game to the prep level, he could have taken the easy road among a number of public institutions in the Saint Paul (Minn.) are, but he sought to challenge himself at Cretin-Derham Hall.

“The answer was no,” Romero admitted. “The campus was beautiful and the people were just wonderful. I wanted Michael to attend and I knew that he wanted it more than anything. I still had to say no because not only could we not afford the tuition, but there was no way for me to get him there.”

So Floyd put forth a plan that was ultimately put into action, and carried Floyd through his prep years.

“He is just such a wonderful young man,” Romero said. “He arranged a multi-bus route to get him to the school well before regular hours so he could help pay his tuition through a work-study program. He would do his homework after sports practices on the bus ride home.

“He never complained. Instead, he felt that even though he had to work almost twice as hard as his classmates, he was the one being rewarded.”

But when it came time to chase the instant gratification of whatever NFL salary could have come with a third-round selection, Floyd wisely – and some might say predictably – went all in with the gamble to return to Notre Dame, improve his draft stock, and walk away from South Bend with his degree in hand.

Besides, Floyd couldn’t make a promise to his mother and walk away from it, not after all that Theresa Romero had gone through to Floyd and his sisters better opportunities than were otherwise available, and certainly not with the potential of third-round dollars looming with the first contract.

“I promised my mom I would graduate from Notre Dame and I am 40 credit hours shy of attaining that goal,” Floyd said. “I chose to attend Notre Dame in part because I knew it was a 40-year decision and not a four-year decision. Graduating from Notre Dame will help me for the rest of my life.

“The evaluation didn't make that big of an impact on my decision. That was one factor but it didn't outweigh my desire to graduate from Notre Dame and help us get back to the BCS.”

Working on a degree and a trip to the BCS is where Floyd belongs, right now. Sure, at 6-3, 227 pounds, he’s every bit of a grown man. But he’s still a kid at heart – he would have to be to stage dive into the Purdue pep rally crowd upon hearing he was named a team captain for the Sept. 4 opener.

He’s still shy in overwhelming social situations – anyone who has spent five minutes with Floyd in a media setting can tell you he’s noticeably uncomfortable in front of the cameras at times.

He’s still immature at times – who isn’t at that age, but you don’t have to look much further than his run-in with the law during following a fight on the University of Minnesota’s campus, for which he was cited for underage drinking.

His physical talents are NFL-ready, but his personality still meshes well, if not best, at the collegiate level.

In spite of that, Floyd will bring the leadership that the Irish will need in 2011, especially as the offense works to solidify the quarterback position among a slew of capable contenders.

“As I have said many times, I have never had a player work as hard as Michael,” Kelly said. “That work ethic and passion for football proved to be contagious in our locker room and it was not a coincidence that he represented the offense as a gameday captain more than any other player this year. I'm happy Michael feels it is in his best interests to return to Notre Dame to continue his education and I look forward to the expanded leadership role he'll have with the team this year.”

Floyd also has a chance to establish his legacy in Notre Dame’s record books unlike few who have come before him. With 171 receptions, he needs just two to break Jeff Samardzija’s record of 173 in his career (2003-06). He needs just 168 receiving yards to catch Golden Tate’s school record of 2,707 yards (2007-09).

By Week 2 of the 2012 season, Floyd could be padding career records, and by a wide margin, matching or surpassing the assaults of former running back Allen Pinkett (1982-85) and quarterback Brady Quinn (2003-06) to Notre Dame’s record book over the past half century. Pinkett bested Vegas Ferguson’s (1976-79) school records for carries (673) by 226, finishing with 889 in his career, and yards (3,472) by 659 with 4,131 yards. Quinn’s 929 career completions obliterated Ron Powlus’ (1994-97) previous school record of 558, as did his totals for yardage (11,762 compared to 7,602 for Powlus) and touchdowns (95 compared to 52 in Powlus’ career).

Just In Case
The reports that Floyd was evaluated as a third-round selection at worst should guarantee his acceptance into the NCAA's Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Insurance program, which would allow him protect himself and his potential future earnings against the possibility of a career-ending injury.

The program was started in 1990 for college football players projected to be selected early in the NFL draft. Later expanded to cover men's and women's basketball, baseball and hockey, it offers low-interest loans to purchase up to $5 million in insurance coverage.

Only athletes expected to be taken in the first three rounds in football or hockey and the first round in basketball or baseball qualify for the program, with a top-10 pick eligible for a $5 million policy. A projected third-round NFL pick, meanwhile, might get $500,000 in coverage.

“The impetus behind it was really to keep student-athletes and their eligibility safe from unscrupulous agents," said Juanita Sheely, the NCAA's associate director for travel and insurance, told the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register. “One of the ways they would entice them is: ‘I will get you this insurance coverage if you sign with me.’ So (we decided to) provide this service so they don't feel like they have to break the rules to do it.”

Still, there are private insurers also offer disability coverage to athletes as an alternative to players who don't qualify for the NCAA program, or who want more coverage than the NCAA offers.

“The disability insurance started becoming very popular in the mid-'90s when the salaries for football, baseball and basketball really started to take off,” said Keith Lerner, an agent in Gainesville, Fla., who began offering disability insurance to college athletes in 1988. “It's not a huge market, but there was a need for the product.

“Most of the guys want to have somebody who is going to talk to them, talk to their mom, talk to their coach. They don't have to do the legwork. The NCAA doesn't have insurance agents like me. We track these kids; we chart them. It's basically almost like being a scout. I have to be able to validate that number to the insurance agency.”

Like the NCAA program, the amount of coverage a player can get depends upon his draft projection, with the average policy running about $2 million. The largest policy Lerner has written has been for $10 million for a basketball player. While the NCAA uses professional scouting services, some private agents handle the projections themselves.