Hendren ready to prove himself

James Hendren of Brookline (Mass.) Dexter has seen his recruiting process begin to take off in recent weeks, and he hopes this trend continues. He is also eager to prove to everyone that he should be considered amongst the best offensive linemen in the country this year.

"Recruiting has been picking up," said Hendren, who is 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds. "I still feel under-recruited to be honest and I've got some offers as of late. I'm sure I'll get more, but no matter where I end up, even if it's where I ended up if I had 50 offers, I'm going to play with something to prove to coaches who looked over me."

Hendren held offers from Yale, Princeton, Harvard and Old Dominion, and then picked up his two most recent from Rutgers and Massachusetts. Many more schools are actively recruiting the big junior.

"I've got a bunch of interest right now from Wisconsin, Notre Dame, BC, Virginia, Wake Forest, Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Stanford, Michigan, Alabama lately, and then some from Auburn, Maryland, Penn State and Vanderbilt too," said Hendren, who is hoping to turn this interest into offers soon. "My drive to succeed in this sport is night and day above most of the kids I've been around in this recruiting world. I've seen kids who are just happy to be here and are getting complacent because of their offers, and I'm not like that. I'm going to continue to work. I see kids in the state with an offer from BC and I don't have one. Stuff like that really drives me. I've picked up a few offers recently, and things may be looking up, but I'm definitely going to continue to perform as if I have nothing."

Hendren was asked if any of his current offers are standing out.

"Rutgers is clearly the best football in my opinion, but I'm hoping to hear from some other schools soon to have more options," said Hendren, who also discussed upcoming visits. "I'll be visiting Rutgers, the North Carolina schools in March and maybe Virginia then too. Other than that I'm still figuring that out."

On April 27th, Hendren will make his way to New Jersey to compete in the Rivals Camp Series presented by Under Armour.

"I'm going to go out there and dominate the best I can," he said. "I'm not looking to make friends. I'm looking to show that I should be considered one of the top offensive tackles in 2014. I want to be an All-American next year. I know I'm not rated as high as some others, but that camp is going to be a chance to prove that I definitely deserve to be. I'll be honest with you, not many others can say that they stood in front of Andrew Brown three times in a row, and I did that. It got swept under the rug because he was supposed to be unbeatable, but I'm not buying into that. I think when all is said and done I'll be one of the best tackles in this class, maybe not rated by this time next year, but I think so in about five years."