Stangel shows why

When Purdue offered a scholarship to San Jacinto, Calif., quarterback Chasen Stangel it raised some eyebrows. For one reason or another, the 6-foot 1/2, 190-pound quarterback hadn't been talked about a lot when discussing the top signal-callers in California.

Then he picked up offers from New Mexico and New Mexico State and suddenly people started to ask questions.

Who is Chasen Stangel?

After Saturday's performance at the Los Angeles NIKE Training Camp at the University of Southern California, people found out that he definitely is one of the better quarterbacks in the West.

"I was putting the slants on the money," Stangel said. "I kind of missed on the sevens, because I was throwing them a little high. I could have thrown a little better, but it's been a long time since I've actually thrown routes to receivers. I've thrown with my dad working with him, but to throwing routes to receivers like these was definitely something different."

Stangel said he learned a lot about technique, footwork and other things he can fine tune his passing game. But the most important thing he took away from the camp was on how he could improve his physical ability.

"I learned a lot of things that I can do to get faster," he said. "The SPARQ part of it was important. I know now what I can go home and train on get faster in the 40 and get a better SPARQ rating. I ran a 4.96, but if I work hard with the stuff they taught me, I should be able to cut that down to a 4.7 by the end of the summer."

Stangel does have some nice offers already on his resume, but that could expand even further here in the near future. His family recently took a tour of schools in Utah and Idaho and they came away with the feeling that few schools could offer soon.

"My dad, my grandpa and I went on a big tour of a lot of colleges recently," he said. "It was a lot of fun. That was the first unofficial visits that I went on when they knew I was coming. I've been to a lot of colleges and looked around, but I got to see a lot of neat things.

"We flew into Salt Lake City and then we drove down to Boise, by BYU and Utah State, and it was a lot of fun. BYU and Boise say they're close to offering me."

Stangel does plan to have an early decision, but for now he's just enjoying learning and trying to get better.

"That's what the NIKE Camp is all about," he said. "It's a great competition, but you should come to these to get better and improve your game. I learned a lot of stuff that will help me."