Zupancic talking with Purdue and Stanford

When it comes to preparing his body physically for the next level, Indianapolis (Ind.) Cathedral safety Jake Zupancic has a unique advantage over most college football prospects around the nation. Zupancic's father was the strength coach for the Indianapolis Colts for 20 years, which provides Zupancic with expert guidance during the off-season.

"I'm actually in the middle of Lacrosse season right now. I have practice right after school, then I come home, eat dinner and lift weights," Zupancic said. "I've building on my strength and weight and I'm working on my speed too. I'm in a speed class at a local place over here."

The 5-11, 196-pound Zupancic picked up his first offer in late March from Stanford. Coincidentally, Cardinal head coach Jim Harbaugh played for the Colts while Zupancic's father was their strength coach. Stanford remains Zupancic's only offer at this time and they continue to rank high on his list.

"I'm very interested still, definitely," Zupancic said. "I didn't know much about the school before, but I've been on their website and I got a pamphlet from my academic advisor at school and that's one of the top educations in the country."

Another school that has started to show recent interest is Purdue. Boilermakers' assistant coach Mark Hagen has been in contact with Zupancic and the Indianapolis native plans to make the hour and a half drive to West Lafayette in the near future for a visit.

"I'm going up to Purdue next week to visit there," Zupancic reported. "I'm going to go up and meet with the academic counselors and meet with Coach Hagen and talk about the defense and he's going to show me around campus.

"[Purdue's] a good interest, definitely. I've been following them for the past couple years and they've been really competitive in the Big Ten. I want to go into Engineering or Business and their Engineering program is tops in the nation."

Stanford and Purdue are the two coaching staffs Zupancic keeps in the closest contact with, but several more schools are sending letters.

"Around the school, we had Central Michigan come in a couple weeks ago," Zupancic said. "I got letters from Princeton, Louisville and a couple other places asking to go to their day camp."

As a junior, Zupancic recorded 97 tackles and seven interceptions from the safety position this past fall for Cathedral. In the classroom he carries a 3.8 GPA.