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While breaking down Wheaton North during the next two weeks, Naperville Central and Naperville North won't have to plan for Falcons quarterback Taylor Graham. The senior - who has verbally committed to Ohio State and is the son of Kent, the former NFL quarterback - is out with a knee injury.

"He's done," Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski said Wednesday. "He won't play again (this season)."

Graham missed a significant part of his junior season with a broken ankle. The 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound pocket passer then injured his knee during a Week 2 defeat at Lake Zurich. The knee problem was aggravated again when he returned to last week's 45-0 loss to Wheaton Warrenville South.

"I feel bad for the kid," Wardynski said. "He had - what? - four-and-a-half games where he was healthy last year. And one-and-a-half games this year."

Check out this feature on Central Michigan quarterback Dan LeFevour. Lars Anderson writes:

At Benet Academy...LeFevour played in a rush-heavy double wing. Because he attempted only a dozen passes a game, he attracted little interest from I-A schools. Even after he sent video to 30 programs, including Notre Dame and every team in the Big Ten, he received scholarship offers only from Central Michigan, Ball State, Eastern Michigan and Eastern Illinois. "I went to football camps and thought I had as much talent as anyone, but looking back I was just raw," says LeFevour, whom some NFL scouts rate as a first- or second-round pick. "I had to learn how to be a quarterback."

The DuPage Valley Conference just got a little more interesting for the 2009 season. Wheaton North quarterback Taylor Graham has verbally committed to Ohio State, where his father Kent once played before beginning a long NFL career.

Graham reportedly picked the Buckeyes over Michigan State, UCLA, Wisconsin, Iowa, Arkansas, Colorado and Duke.

"I had all the information I needed to make my decision," Graham told Taylor Bell of the Chicago Sun-Times. "I felt comfortable. It wasn't just because my dad went there. I felt God led me there."

Northwestern sophomore offensive lineman Colin Armstrong, a Benet graduate, is listed second at center on the team's 2009 preseason depth chart.

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.

This is for the two of you going through Signing Day Withdrawal. Offense-Defense, the organization that sent Waubonsie Valley kicker Mitch Ewald to an All-American game last month, has released its preseason watch list for the class of 2010. The 350 players include four from Illinois:

-Christian Lombard, Fremd offensive tackle verbally committed to Notre Dame last month.

-C.J. Fiedorowicz, Johnsburg tight end has reportedly received multiple offers from the Big Ten, Notre Dame and LSU.

-Lincoln/Laken Tomlinson, Lane Tech offensive lineman (see below).

-Corey Cooper, Proviso East safety/athlete verbally committed to Illinois.

(Note: The O-D list does not include schools or commitments - that information was culled from other sources - and it submits Tomlinson's first name as "Lincoln," which may be misspelled, since other Web sites refer to a "Laken." Or perhaps there's a case of mistaken identity - the point being that while rankings are interesting, those lists aren't gospel and errors like that undermine credibility.)

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."