Arizona: February 2009 Archives

Recruiting comes down to where you fit on a program's big board. If a team needs a quarterback, Illinois would be a good place to look.

Of the top 30 juniors in the Chicago area, five are quarterbacks, all of whom are slotted within the first 21 spots. The list compiled by Taylor Bell and Tom Lemming includes Chandler Whitmer (Downers Grove South) at No. 6, John Whitelaw (Hinsdale Central) at No. 7 and Taylor Graham (Wheaton North) at No. 19. It appears the class of 2010 is stocked at the position.

It's winter, so Naperville Central guard Nick Linne is into basketball. But the spread offense quarterback who was responsible for more than 2,000 yards of total offense as a junior has begun receiving the mass mailings from college football programs, Arizona and Northern Illinois in particular. But baseball is another sport the 6-foot-1-inch, 195-pound athlete could potentially play on the next level. Linne said he'll be more prepared to weigh his options after the spring season.

"Really either football or baseball," Linne said. "Right now (I'm) really focused on football because I've already had my junior season. ... I still have to play my junior season for baseball and you really don't start getting letters for baseball until after that junior season so I got a ways to go."

Central's football and baseball programs enjoy state-wide reputations and its athletes are encouraged to play both sports. But relatively speaking the baseball team, which won a state championship in 2006, may have a slightly higher profile. Assistant Phil Lawler - whose son Scott is the associate head baseball coach at Notre Dame and brother Jim was a long-time assistant at Texas A&M - could open some doors.

"Coach Lawler's got a bunch of connections," Linne said. "If you're playing good for our team, he's going to get your name out there."

If we've learned anything, it's that there's a difference between getting mail and getting an offer. This is a quiet period for recruiters, but Edgytim is very good at tracking this information down. And if Naperville Central quarterback Nick Linne grows physically (6-1, 195 pounds) and becomes even more comfortable with the spread offense, he should fit someone's profile.

"I've been getting pretty steady mail all winter long from a handful of schools," Linne told Edgytim.com. "Northern Illinois, Arizona, Iowa, Iowa State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State seem to be the schools that are the most interested these days."

As a junior, Linne completed nearly 58 percent of his passes and threw for 13 touchdowns against 13 interceptions. He also ran for 307 yards and seven touchdowns.

Back when it was called Division I, Central produced several quarterbacks of that caliber. First Linne needs to finish his basketball season with the Redhawks, who are threatening to go unbeaten in the DuPage Valley Conference. And then move onto baseball for a program that is coming off an appearance in the final eight of the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer state championship.

Remember that this is just one wave of letters, but there should be options. For NCAA football coaches, the evaluation period picks up in April and May.

Arizona is a relatively short flight from Chicago, and within days pitchers and catchers will report, giving the city's baseball fans a chance to escape the deep freeze. The White Sox recently moved their spring training facility away from Tucson to Glendale, but the college town is still a draw for transplants.

Bill Bedenbaugh has carved out a nice little niche for himself as the Arizona offensive line/running game coordinator. The Wildcats assistant is from St. Charles and later played at Iowa Wesleyan for Mike Leach, the passing-game savant, lover of pirates and his future boss at Texas Tech.

Part of Bedenbaugh's recruiting territory is Illinois, where he knows several coaches from his playing days. Bedenbaugh helped lure Nick Booth, the former Naperville North running back, out of the College of DuPage. This recruiting cycle Bedenbaugh landed North offensive lineman Jake Baratz. The assistant has also tried to convince Naperville Central wide receiver Riley O'Toole to accept a spot in Tucson as a preferred walk-on.

Over the phone on Wednesday, Bedenbaugh offered this nugget: Outside of Arizona and California, Illinois sends the most students to the university. That's general-population figures, but a specific selling point to recruits is New Year's Day.

"I grew up in that area. And you grow up watching the Big Ten vs. the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl. Those people in the Midwest are more familiar with the Pac-10 than most parts of the country," Bedenbaugh said. "You grow up watching that and that being the bowl game. You get a feel for the other Pac-10 teams."

One of the points we tried to make in this column was how inexact recruiting is, no matter what the experts say. Perhaps the best example local example is Dan LeFevour, the Benet graduate who was shunned by the Big Ten schools but entered Central Michigan and then the Heisman Trophy conversation. Area coaches should probably keep that unexpected story on file for the next several years.

As it turns out, LeFevour and the Chippewas will open the 2009 season on Sept. 5 at Arizona, a school that is trying to make recruiting inroads in Illinois (more on that later).

By the way, Central Michigan's 34-man recruiting class - including preferred walk-ons - featured just two scholarship players from Illinois: linebackers Kyle Zelinsky (Bartlett) and Alex Smith (Barrington).