In-state battle brewing for Render
Indianola, Iowa offensive guard Keegan Render holds four scholarship offers, including one each from in-state programs Iowa and Iowa State. Beating out the two BCS programs close to home could be a challenge for other schools.
"I think it will be tough to beat the in-state schools," Render said, "but it's not like I have ruled out out-of-state. I am still looking at if I want to stay in-state or not."
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Iowa was the first school to offer, and of the two programs Render's relationship with the Hawkeyes is the strongest at this time.
"I would probably say Iowa, but it is not by much," Render said. "[The battle] is going to go on probably for a lot longer, but I guess that just depends on if I find something I like in one of the schools to change that."
Render took in junior days at both programs in the last few weeks and plans to see spring practices in both Ames and Iowa City in the next month. He talked about what each program has that interests him.
"The tradition of offensive linemen that came out of Iowa catches my attention a lot," Render said. "Just the whole city, when you go over there everyone knows you.
"I like [Iowa State's] Coach [Paul] Rhoads and his growing program. There is a lot of excitement up there about Coach Rhoads and what he is doing up there."
Northern Illinois and Illinois State have also offered Render, and teams like Minnesota, Duke, Notre Dame and Alabama are showing interest. The 6-foot-3, 310-pound offensive guard prospect expects to see his recruitment go out for at least another few months.
"I don't really mind taking it into my senior year," Render said. "If I did it before my senior year that would be nice, but if it goes into my senior year I'm not going to stress out about it."