Northwestern offers Roberts

Class of 2014 tight end/wide receiver Austin Roberts has spent the better portion of the summer getting adjusted to his Indiana home after moving from Florida following his sophomore year. Midwest schools are doing their best to make him feel welcome.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Roberts, who has transferred from Tampa Plant High School to Carmel High, picked up offers from Midwest schools Indiana, Iowa and Purdue earlier in the process. He then made his way to Northwestern's campus on Tuesday and received an offer from their coaching staff.

"I just visited today so I was able to see the campus," Roberts said. "I liked how they handled everything and I like their up-tempo, spread offense that kind of does a little bit of everything. So, I am very excited about that offer."

Academics are an important part of Roberts' search of a college home, and Northwestern's academic atmosphere really resonated with the rising junior.

"I did get a chance to hang out with Coach [Pat] Fitzgerald and I really did love how he emphasized how academics and success in the real world comes first before football," Roberts said. "One other thing that really jumped out is he made his players do an internship before their junior year or they wouldn't play."

Besides Northwestern, Roberts has also made visits to Stanford, Purdue, Miami and Florida this summer. He plans another trip before football starts up fully again in August.

"We're thinking of doing one more and it is a toss-up between Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa," Roberts said. "I don't know which one we're going to do yet."

Roberts is juggling a recruitment that now totals seven scholarship offers along with adjusting to a new school and new football team.

"It has gone pretty smoothly, even tough I didn't want to leave the place I spent the first two years of high school," Roberts said. "Everything is really starting to come together. I'm starting to pick up on everything, because the first couple days I didn't really know what was going on. I think we are going to be competitive this year."

Another transition for Roberts this fall will be moving to the wide receiver position full-time for the defending Class 5A state champions.

"Down in Tampa, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound guy could pass as a tight end, but up north there are legitimate 6-foot-4, 220 guys here," Roberts said. "I guess I am going to be playing receiver this year because we have one of those guys on our team. It isn't really much of a change because I played both last year, really."

Roberts caught 14 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns from the tight end position as a sophomore. Besides the Big Ten programs, he has also been offered by Florida, Miami and Stanford.