TE Hiben draws offers, names favorites

Waconia, (Minn.) tight end prospect Joey Hiben (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) will begin his first day of practice today, and Hiben has also been narrowing down his favorite schools list. Hiben talks about his early favorites as well as his recent unofficial visits and his latest offers.

"I have received offers from both Notre Dame and Illinois since we last talked," Joey Hiben said. "Notre Dame sent me the scholarship paperwork in the mail last week, and Illinois offered me while I made my unofficial visit a few weeks ago. I'm very excited about getting an offer from both schools."

"I also made unofficial visits to Purdue and Illinois. I'm really glad that I made both unofficial visits. Purdue was very impressive in person, and I came away with a very good feeling for the Boilermakers. I really liked the coaches as well as the facilities and the campus. Everything was really nice at Purdue, and I was very glad that I made the visit, because I was thinking of just not seeing them up close. I'm very glad that I did."

Hiben also talked about his unofficial visit to Illinois.

"As far as from an academic standpoint, Illinois is very attractive. I was really impressed with the Illinois architecture and engineering programs. From a football standpoint, the coaches were really nice and I like them quite a bit. The facilities are decent and I also liked the campus. The Illinois coaches offered me a scholarship before I left the campus, and I'm going to give them some serious thought."

Hiben has narrowed things down to four or possibly five favorites entering his senior season.

"I would say that my Top schools are Stanford, Notre Dame, Purdue and Minnesota, and I would also include Illinois in there as well. I'm starting to look at each school pretty hard. From a time-frame standpoint, it would be great if I could make my final choice before the start of the season, but I'm also not going to rush anything."