Hammock not hurting for attention

Recently a coach close to the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Bishop Luers program said if inside linebacker TyQuan Hammock played in any state other than Indiana he would have more than 20 scholarship offers.

But it's also not like the 6-foot-1, 220-pound linebacker is really hurting for offers either.

Hammock, who finished his junior season with 164 tackles, 24 tackles for a loss, 13 sacks, and seven forced fumbles, already has offers from Indiana, Minnesota, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Miami of Ohio and Louisville. He's also receiving heavy attention from Big Ten schools like Purdue, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Many people believe Minnesota is the team to beat with Hammock, mainly because his older brother, Thomas Hammock, is an assistant on the Gopher said. But Hammock has maintained it's not going to influence his decision one way or the other.

"I wouldn't say it's an advantage or disadvantage," Hammock said. "All of the schools are neutral with me right now. Having my brother at a school has its up and downs. I haven't really had him around since he's up there coaching. I think a disadvantage would be having him on my back all the time, I would have to live up to him at the end and report to him every day. But maybe that's not really such a bad thing, really."

Another school that has made a strong push with Hammock is Indiana. He was at a junior day event recently in Bloomington, and he liked what he saw.

"I was really impressed, and I love Indiana," he said. "It is close to home. My parents can come to my games if I play there if I choose them. I liked the coaching staff. It seemed very family oriented and I liked it a lot."

So how important is it for Hammock to stay close to home?

"My parents are going to have an effect on me because growing up my family was always there," he said. "Most of my family is back in Jersey, where I am from. I am originally form Jersey City, and I don't think my family from Indiana would mind going a little ways to come see me play at certain schools. But if I wind up at an East Coast school, I hope my family that lives in Jersey would come and see me."

Hammock has always said he would like to wait things out before he makes a decision, but now that the spring evaluation process has almost finished, he might be changing his mind a little bit on that.

"I am having some offers come through, and a lot of heavy communications that I didn't know if they would come through," he said.

"I want to make my decision a little earlier. I don't want schools to have to wait in case they pull back an offer. I want to make a decision somewhere between summer and half way through the season. I am not really sure how I am going to commit. I'll probably have a press conference with the Fort Wayne News paper or something."