Lueders close to decision

Five schools remain in contention for Blake Lueders and the four-star defensive end from Zionsville, Ind., said he could commit at any time – in the next couple days or in three months – when he figures out which program is best for him.

Boston College, Stanford, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Wake Forest are the finalists for Lueders, rated as the No. 14 strong-side defensive end in the 2010 class. He's also included in the Rivals250.

So what's next for Lueders? He'll do more research on each school, talk with the coaching staffs and ask some tougher questions and also just sit around and think about which program would be best for him.

The good thing for Lueders, a 6-foot-5, 250-pound prospect, is that recruiting has almost come to a standstill, giving him time to focus on picking a school and not worrying about traveling around the country looking at campuses.

"It is pretty nice, nice not to have to go all over the country and I can relax now, just think about it, narrow it down and try to make a decision," Lueders said. "I'm still busy. I'm calling these coaches all the time trying to develop a relationship with them and trying to get a sense of which school I like best.

"It is pretty tough. I've gotten pretty close to all these schools and I can only choose one of them but I don't know, it's about what I expected. It's not really easy but it's not really tough, either."

The plan for Lueders, who also has offers from Purdue, Virginia, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Iowa, Indiana and North Carolina, was to make his decision before his senior season started. That could still be in the works but he said it's also important to not rush into his pick and he'd rather take his time and make a confident choice.

"A lot of reflecting to myself and talking to coaches," Lueders said of his plans until he makes a commitment. "I'll probably start to ask harder questions and really get down to stuff like that. I guess topics that programs might have something wrong with them that they don't want to talk about or bring up.

"Whenever I know where I want to go I'm going to commit. It could be in a week or it could be in three months. … I guess it's going to be nice (this summer) but I'll still be really busy with football and basketball at my school. Not having that whole recruiting aspect will be nice."

Five schools are still in the hunt for Lueders but two more still have an outside shot at landing him, although it's probably unlikely he adds more. Lueders said he's still considering Virginia and Michigan but that he's focused mainly on the five mentioned above.