Lewerkes recruitment hits home stretch

Brian Lewerke intends to stick to the modern norm for quarterback recruiting. He, like his peers at the position, plans to have a verbal commitment in place well before he plays a down of his senior season and put the process behind him with haste.

The four-star Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle High School junior's latest offer came from Duke and his visit to the Blue Devils' campus is already in the books. Moving quickly is essential when your timetable is accelerated.

Still, that's not to say Lewerke didn't take his time and soak in every ounce of what he saw in Durham over the weekend. The experience made an impression.

"I was really impressed with the coaching staff," Lewerke said. "They really liked me and I really liked them. Coach [David] Cutcliffe is definitely an experienced coach and was able to coach Eli and Peyton [Manning]. He has history with quarterbacks. I like that.

"I'd say Duke is top five right now for sure,"

Lewerke won't say which other schools rank among his favorites. Either way, though, a list-trimming is coming down the pipe. Lewerke lists a total of nine scholaship offers for the time being and plans to trim his list to three this summer. First, however, he has more traveling to do.

"I'm going to Michigan State and Michigan the first weekend of April. I knew the offensive coordinator at Michigan when he was back at Alabama because I went to camp at Alabama last summer. That's kind of my connection there. Obviously, Michigan State has already offered. I've heard that the facility is really nice there, so that's a big plus."

Lewerke has visited Duke, UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State as things stand now and hopes to have a chance to see the rest of the schools that have offered before narrowing things down.

"I'll probably cut it down, but I don't have, like, 30 offers or anything like that, so there won't be a top 10," Lewerke said. "I'll probably have a top 3 or a top 5 sometime in the next month, I'd say."