Bunting checks out Ohio State

A large crowd of recruiting visitors was on hand in Columbus on Saturday to see Ohio State host Big Ten rival Nebraska. Hinsdale (Ill.) Central 2014 tight end Ian Bunting was among that group and making his first visit to the Buckeye's campus.

"I have never been there before, so I kind of wanted to check out the school," Bunting said. "I definitely loved the stadium - that thing is out of control. I think it was a record-setting crowd that night, so that was awesome. From what I saw of the campus, I definitely liked it a lot."

The trip to Ohio State also gave Bunting the chance to familiarize himself with the Buckeye's coaching staff.

"I mostly talked to Coach [Mike] Vrabel, who is the recruiting coach for my area," Bunting said. "He was just telling me to keep doing what I'm doing and they like what they have seen so far."

Vrabel also mentioned to the 6-foot-7 Bunting they would like to see him continue to gain weight. Bunting lines up at wide receiver for Hinsdale Central, but his size and frame have most programs projecting him to the tight end position in college.

"I have gained some weight and am at 205 right now," Bunting noted. "I will be open to playing tight end. I think I would like to try both of them, but as long as it is a team that uses the tight end [in the passing game], that's fine with me. It's not that I don't love blocking, but I love catching the ball and I think one of my talents is going up and getting the ball and getting yards after catch.

The trip to Ohio State comes in the middle of a hectic travel schedule for the junior prospect. Bunting has already attended games at Illinois, Michigan State and Northwestern. He is looking to visit Notre Dame this weekend, and then plans to see Iowa on Oct. 20, Wisconsin on Oct. 27, Purdue on Nov. 3 and is looking to schedule at date with Michigan.

"I have been talking to some schools a lot more recently," Bunting said. "Iowa, Northwestern and Wisconsin I have been talking to the most. Some of the newer schools I have just started talking to are Washington, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

"My coach gave me a big stack [of letters] on Friday and it was a bunch of schools that had been trying to contact me that I had no idea about. There were schools in there like Notre Dame and Michigan which sent me a lot of mail and definitely are exciting. I'm just getting around to replying to all the letters right now."

Bunting is also making his presence felt on the field this fall for Hinsdale Central, and estimated he is averaging over 100 yards and a touchdown per game.