Malzone visits three schools
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Brother Rice (Mich.) quarterback Alex Malzone used a week's vacation to visit family in Tennessee as an opportunity to check out three schools recruiting him.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Malzone began with a visit to Tennessee on Tuesday, then traveled to see N.C. State and Wake Forest on Wednesday. The visit to Wake Forest yielded Malzone's first BCS offer and eighth offer overall.
"I have gotten to know coach(Warren) Ruggiero for about a year now because they came from Bowling Green," Malzone said. "I met Coach (Dave) Clawson (Wednesday) and they are a great staff, seems like they know what they are doing. They've had a winning program everywhere they've been and they definitely showed me what Wake Forest is all about."
While the offer was the highlight of Malzone's visit to Wake Forest, he also came away impressed with what the school had to offer.
"Their campus pretty much blew me away," Malzone said. "Going into it, I knew Wake Forest was pretty strong on academics, but I didn't really know how serious they were.
"It was pretty much an Ivy League school looking around the campus and having the coaches tell me how serious they take academics. I am looking to go into Business and Finance and they have a top five business school in the nation and a $55 million Business building they built last year."
Earlier in the day Malzone had swung through N.C. State to meet with their coaching staff. Area recruiter Eddie Faulkner has been by Malzone's school already this winter, but the trip allowed him to meet with other members of the staff.
"I got to sit down with coach (Matt) Canada, who is their quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator," Malzone said. "He said he would really like to see me throw in-person before they offered, but they were impressed with my film. They are going to come see me throw sometime in April or early May.
"Their facilities were very nice. I didn't see the campus, just the facilities and football field. They have a great tradition with their program and have sent a lot of players to the NFL. They have had a lot of great quarterbacks coming out of there - Russell Wilson and Phillip Rivers."
The visit to Tennessee on Tuesday went similar to the visit to N.C. State, with a promise to come out and see Malzone this spring.
"Coach (Mike) Bajakian, their quarterbacks coach, I got to sit down with him," Malzone said. "He said he watched my film and was very impressed. He said he was going to watch my single games and be up in the spring to see me throw."
With eight offers and numerous college visits under his belt, Malzone is starting the process of identifying which school he would like to attend.
"I have been a lot of places, checked out a lot of schools and met a lot of people," he said. "I sort of want to make my decision soon-ish. I know I definitely want to make it before the summer. If I have been to a college, like it and feel that it is the right fit, I'll talk it over with my parents and commit there."
Other schools that continue to watch Malzone and keep in close contact include Penn State, Maryland, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Boston College and Indiana. The Spartans are among those showing the most interest.
"Coach (Brad) Salem saw me throw from Michigan State about a month ago and he said he was very impressed," Malzone said. "I got a lot of great feedback from coach (Mark) Dantonio when we visited up there. He had mentioned coach (Dave)Warner still wants to see me throw in the spring, but they had mentioned I was pretty close to an offer."
Malzone is ranked as the No. 16 pro-style quarterback in the country and the No. 5 overall player in the state of Michigan's 2015 class.
Josh Helmholdt is the Midwest Region football recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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