Texas quarterback lands first two offers

Arlington (Texas) Martin quarterback Russell Bellomy has size, a good arm and good athleticism, all things that attract college interest and scholarship opportunities. While Bellomy has been hopeful and expectant that offers would soon arrive, when they finally did, they came from two unlikely sources.

Located in the Dallas Metroplex, Bellomy picked up his first two offers over the weekend - first from Florida International and then from Michigan State.

"They kind of have come unexpectedly," Bellomy said of the offers. "I've been talking to a lot of schools on the phone and over email and these schools I haven't really talked to and they came out of the blue but I'm thankful for everything that's come to me."

On Friday, Bellomy's offer list began with the FIU offer.

"When I first got the offer, I couldn't believe it," he said. "I thought Coach was joking with me but everything you work for as a kid, playing optimist football, you don't have a wonder in the world that you're going to play college football or even the pros. This puts it into perspective that I'll be playing Division I football."

Though FIU is not a school that is necessarily a household name in Texas, Bellomy is already excited about what he does know about the program. He had a chance to speak to the head coach, offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator following his offer and he liked what he heard.

"FIU has a very nice campus," he said. "They have nice facilities. The coaches are great guys and seem like they connect with the players. It's a great campus and Miami is just amazing."

The momentum continued on Bellomy's first day back from Spring Break when he found out about his Michigan State offer on Monday morning.

"I was in shock once again," he said of the news. "I had sent them one of my highlight tapes and I hadn't gotten a response from them that they got my highlight tape. I was interested despite not having talked to any of their coaches yet. It's a great program with great quarterbacks so obviously there's great coaching up there. They've always been at the top of the Big Ten. It's just amazing what's going on."

With his first two offers coming from programs well outside the state of Texas, Bellomy isn't letting distance deter his interest from either school.

"There's no specific region that I'm looking for," he said. "Distance is not a problem. My grandmother retired form American Airlines so we can fly pretty cheap. My sister goes to college at Seton Hall in New Jersey and she gets back home pretty easily. Any conference in Division I is a great conference."

With two offers in and more likely on the way, Bellomy is not slowing down his work ethic. He just competed spring testing where he raised his bench press from 260 to 270, his squat from 345 to 355 and his power clean to 260 pounds. He also has spring practice and several recruiting visits coming up.

"This week I'm going to Vanderbilt for their junior day," he said. "The weekend of April 3 I'm going to Tulsa. After that is the weekend of April 10-11 and I have the Nike Camp and the Elite 11 Camp. I'm going to do one day camps this summer too. I just don't know where. Whoever shows the most interest, I'll go there and go to camps."