Lake Zurich's Castonzo has NFL's attention now

INDIANAPOLIS — Even though Anthony Castonzo was a Daily Herald all-area football player at Lake Zurich High School, he wasn't good enough to attract any attention from Division-I programs, since not one of them was looking for string beans.

“I had zero scholarship offers out of high school,” Castonzo recalled during the NFL's Scouting Combine in Indianapolis over the weekend. “I was a 6-7, 220-pound drink of water. Every school that I talked to said ‘We don't think you're going to get big enough.'”

So Castonzo enrolled in prep school at Fork Union Military Academy in Central Virginia and got big enough.

“I gained about 25 pounds in one semester,” he said. “I developed.”

Castonzo was big enough to start at Boston College from his first game to his last, a school-record 54 in all. And he kept on growing. The Hawthorn Woods native weighed in at 311 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine and he's considered a sure-fire first-round NFL pick, maybe good enough to be the first offensive tackle taken in a group so deep that six could be selected in the first round.

Depending on who's doing the projecting, the first offensive tackle drafted could be Castonzo, USC's Tyron Smith, Wisconsin's Gabe Carimi or Colorado's Nate Solder. Mississippi State's Derek Sherrod and Villanova's Ben Ijalana could also be first-round picks.

Carimi is on record as saying he's the best of the bunch and NFL ready right now.

“I know I can play right away,” Carimi said. “I'm physically stronger and have more career starts and better knowledge of the game than any other tackle out there. That's why I'm the No. 1 tackle out there.”

Carimi started an impressive 49 games for the Badgers, but that's five fewer than Castonzo.

Bears general manager Jerry Angelo gives high marks to this year's crop of offensive linemen, but he isn't prepared yet to predict the Hall of Fame for any of them.

“The offensive line is solid,” Angelo said. “I don't think there are any real bell cows in there. Of course, some of the players think they're bell cows. I've read that. I hope they're right. That remains to be seen. But it is solid with offensive linemen.”

When it was his turn at the podium at Lucas Oil Stadium, and he was informed of Carimi's proclamation, Castonzo said he was content to let the NFL talent evaluators decide who's the best tackle on the board.

“That's his opinion,” Castonzo said. “(But) it's what we've put on film. I'm not going to stand up here and say I'm better than him or he's better than me. It's for the scouts to decide based on what we've put on film.”

But Castonzo understands where the 6-foot-7, 314-pound Badger is coming from.

“I've gotten to know him, and he's a nice guy,” Castonzo said. “He's a bit of a joker; a fun guy to be around.”

The Boston College biochemistry major says he'll be a Bears fan until he's drafted, which will probably be several spots before his hometown team picks at No. 29.

That's a long way to come for a skinny kid who didn't attract any big-time football schools. As hard as Castonzo has worked to improve on the field, he never neglected the academic aspect of being a student-athlete. He was an Illinois State Scholar and a Rhodes Scholarship candidate.

He put a lot of effort into both phases of college life but, he said, probably more into football. Asked to choose, he said he takes more pride in what he's done on the field than in the classroom.

“Football is my first love, so I probably put more work into what happened on the field,” he said. “Academics have always come pretty easy to me. Football is something I love, so I pour everything I have into it.”

But Castonzo said intelligence is a valuable commodity in a football player, especially an offensive lineman.

“You've got to be able to understand not just what you're doing on a play, but how the play works as a scheme,” he said. “Defenses aren't stationary; they're constantly moving around, so you've got to know how you're going to react to how they react. It's almost like a chess game. Just trying to stay one step ahead.”

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