‘Edgy’ Tim O’Halloran: Local football recruits hit the road for college visits
St. Charles North junior tight end Payton Urry (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) was one of several in-state recruiting targets who made a recent game-day visit for Illinois’ win over Southern Illinois in Champaign.
“Illinois has been showing more interest in me and they want to get to know me better,” he said.
“Overall it was a good visit to Illinois,” he said. “We got to Illinois pretty early so I was able to get something to eat and then we walked around a bit. I was able to talk with several of the recruiting people at Illinois along with talking with a few of the players and the coaches. The Illinois coaches asked me about my season so far and they just want to get to know me better. Illinois was very welcoming to me and made everyone feel comfortable. The facilities at Illinois are great and they have done a ton of renovations … ”
Does he have any additional game-day visits planned?
“I’ve made game-day visits now to Indiana, Illinois and Northwestern … I want to go back to Northwestern later this season and I’m excited to see the new stadium. I visited Iowa State on Saturday. I’m also looking at getting out to see games at Wisconsin, Michigan State and possibly Minnesota. I’m looking at setting up some dates now. It all depends on my team schedule.”
Willowbrook’s Pagan checks out Tennessee
Willowbrook junior interior offensive lineman Liam Pagan (6-foot-4, 300 pounds) made a game-day visit to the University of Tennessee.
“I was able to go to Tennessee a few weeks ago for the game against Kennesaw State,” Pagan said. “I was able to really experience game day at a top SEC school. It was everything I was told it would be and maybe even better than I hoped it would be.
“I camped this summer at Tennessee so I was a little bit familiar with the school and the stadium. The whole day you just felt a great energy around the team and the football game experience. It’s an SEC school and the overall feel and experience were much different than anything else I've experienced. They really take football very seriously at Tennessee, which is great. Everyone at Tennessee treated me well all day and made us feel really welcomed. It was just a great game-day visit at Tennessee. The overall culture and the game-day experience and really everything stood out to me as a positive. Tennessee offered me at camp over the summer and we've been talking a lot ever since. Even the weather at Tennessee was great. The offensive line coaches are still in touch with me pretty regularly and we are starting to get to know each other pretty well.”
Does he have any upcoming game-day visits planned?
“I’m all set to make a game-day visit to Notre Dame on Oct. 10,” he said. “I'm hoping to make game-day visits to Ole Miss, Missouri, Illinois and also Texas A&M. I’m still working on setting up those dates. Once we get into the playoffs it makes it harder to set up visits. We won’t know when we will play until the week before each playoff round.”
Batavia’s Vander Luitgaren heads to Wyoming
Batavia senior three-star ranked QB Michael Vander Luitgaren made quite an impression in Friday night's 56-49 loss to Geneva.
Vander Luitgaren, who made a game-day visit on Saturday in Laramie for Wyoming’s 27-10 win over Hawaii, combined for 495 yards of offense (291 yards passing, 204 rushing) and seven touchdowns (three rushing, four passing) on Friday.
Vander Luitgaren drew praise from Geneva head coach Boone Thorgesen.
“He is special,” Thorgesen said. “He is elite. Every time he gets an open space you hold your breath. With him at quarterback it never felt easy, especially in the fourth quarter. We were up two scores with four minutes left and we knew it was coming. We knew the big play was coming from him. I just credit our kids for hanging in there and not letting that momentum beat us.”