Indiana turns out to be Peyton's kind of place

Peyton Eckert has been a big fan of the Big Ten Conference for a long time.

Now the 6-foot-6, 285-pound senior offensive lineman from Prospect hopes to eventually make a big impact in his favorite conference. Eckert made a verbal commitment on Sunday night with Indiana University.

"I've always looked up to the Big Ten," Eckert said of regularly attending the league's kickoff luncheon with his dad and younger brother. "It's amazing to have an opportunity to go there and get a great education and play football there."

Eckert's selection completes a whirlwind recruiting process in which Indiana just entered the picture last week. He also had scholarship offers from Connecticut, Western Michigan and Central Michigan and had received significant interest from Michigan State.

"It's really been amazing," Eckert said. "A year ago I never would have thought of myself as playing in the Big Ten."

That's because Eckert rarely saw the field in his junior year at Prospect. But a big offseason commitment to get bigger and stronger paid huge dividends.

Eckert became an integral part of an offensive line that included senior late bloomer Zach Lewis, who committed to Miami (Ohio) in the fall. The Knights won the Mid-Suburban East title and reached the second round of the Class 7A playoffs.

College interest in Eckert grew and he got a call on Jan. 24 from Indiana. Two days later, new head coach Kevin Wilson and assistant coach Mark Hagen came up to talk to Eckert, and last weekend Eckert made his visit to the Bloomington campus.

"Between the campus and coaching staff and the other players, I loved it," Eckert said. "I definitely felt comfortable and thought it was somewhere I could excel."

Especially with the additions of Wilson, Hagen and offensive line coach Greg Frey, all of whom have Big Ten coaching experience, to Indiana.

Wilson had been Oklahoma's offensive coordinator for nine years before he was hired by Indiana. He replaced Bill Lynch, who was fired after three straight losing seasons with only 3 total victories in the Big Ten.

"The new coaching staff says they want to compete and want guys who want to win and that's basically what I want to do," said Eckert, who has a 3.7 grade-point average on a 5.0 scale, scored 33 on the ACT and plans to study business and marketing. "I'm going to come in and do the best I can and they'll do the best they can to get where they want to go."

Eckert said it's possible he could play center or tackle but will be used where he fits best. He also said he would probably redshirt unless there was a need for him to play right away.

And Eckert knows the work that got him to this point isn't done.

"There's a lot more to come," Eckert said.