Kirk not rattled by recruiting attention

You won't find wide receiver Christian Kirk complaining about the swarm of attention. A 2015 prospect with 18 scholarship offers, Kirk receives the same volume of phone calls from reporters and Facebook messages from coaches as many high-level 2014 players. His travel schedule is packed to boot.

The Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro prospect's game is scrutinized, and downtime is rare. For now, though, Kirk is grinning his way through gauntlet. This is what he wanted all along. It comes with the territory. He's fine with the chaos.

"It's been fun," Kirk said of the recruiting prosess. "It gave me something to do this summer. I remember saying to my mom, 'I just want to do something this summer. I want to go places.' Every week, I've been out of town. It's been fun. I got to meet a lot of new, great people and build some relationships."

Kirk swears that every school that has offered him to this point has the same chance of landing him. He names no favorites, but even his closest friends are trying to change that. Many of the older players from Kirk's 7-on-7 team are already committed. He hears the pitches from all sides. Kirk is the top junior in Arizona and everyone wants to drag him along to college.

"I have Tyler Whiley pulling me toward Arizona State hard right now," Kirk said. "I have Kyle Allen pulling me toward Texas A&M and Luke Rubenzer, he's committed to Cal. All three of those guys are pulling me. The stuff they say really matters to me, but some of the jokes that they make about other schools, I try to ignore that stuff."

It's still early in Kirk's recruitment. It's why he doesn't name favorites or reveal many of his thoughts. He does, however, point out that he's in more frequent contact with some schools than he is with others.

"I talk to Texas A&M a lot and Arizona State and UCLA," Kirk said. "I think those are the three that I talk to the most."

Kirk plans to be thorough. He's attacking his recruitment. So when he doesn't hear from a school of interest for a period of time, he picks up the phone. His choice, whenever it comes, will be an informed one.

"Last week, I called Notre Dame," Kirk said. "I talked to UCLA today. Last week, I took a visit to Arizona State. I called Oklahoma last week, too. I was just checking in with some schools that I hadn't been in contact with for a while, just to see what's up."

Kirk believes Michigan, which stopped by his school a few times during spring practice, may be close to extending an offer. Oregon and USC are also recruiting him heavily but are yet to make things official.

But as reserved as Kirk is when it comes to discussing timetables or naming frontrunners, he's not shy about laying out the criteria he'll use when making his choice. He's had that figured out for some time.

"It's about the relationships I have with the coaches and the players, but especially with my position coach," Kirk said. "I think that the schools that have offered me early are trying to make that relationship stronger than most schools. But schools that come in late are recruiting me hard. I don't think it'll make much difference when a school offers."