Ivan picks up his first two offers

Charlevoix, Mich., offensive lineman Bill Ivan has had to toil in recruiting obscurity through the first half of the process in large part because he lives in an area very few college coaches frequent. The 6-5, 250-pound Ivan's patience has paid off, though, with two schools having now extended scholarship offers.

"I got an offer from Indiana," Ivan reported. "Then, CMU [Central Michigan] had told me, 'If you get an offer, call us,' so I called them and they offered me right afterwards."

Ivan has visited both Indiana and Central Michigan in recent months and he has a good feel for both programs.

"I really like the way [Indiana] has been onto me all the way through. They told me they would probably offer me by the end of the summer and they came through with that," Ivan said. "Then, I also like their offensive line coach, Bobby Johnson. He's just a really great guy and I had fun working with him while I was down at the camp. I just got a good feeling down there.

"Everything really depends with the coaching staff at Central Michigan. I've had a lot of contact with them. I spent three days at the University of Michigan camp with them and I went to their camp before that. I had a lot of fun working with Coach [Don] Mahoney, the offensive line coach, and I've had a lot of contact with Coach [Max] Glowacki, my recruiting coach there.

Ivan embarked on an ambitious summer camp tour to showcase his abilities to college coaches at Central Michigan, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, Michigan State and Notre Dame. He feels the most recent offers were a product of those camp stops.

"I was just happy and a lot of stress was relieved at first," Ivan said. "Knowing that I got through this and the camps paid off felt really good.

"Now, I've got more stress about what do I do know? Do I commit to Indiana because they have two o-line commits and only four openings or do I want to see what happens with other schools? I'm going to try and talk with my recruiting coach at Michigan and my recruiting coach at Iowa tomorrow and see where things are with them and make my decision from there."