More Than Just Football

All-American Dan Doering is recieving the "Red Carpet" treatment at just about every stop he makes. This treatment is deserving but these schools better make sure that the carpet stretches to their academic resource center or the library.

As one of the top offensive line prospects in the nation, Dan Doering has been on a mini-tour of several schools that have offered him a scholarship.

The 6-foot-6, 290-pounder from Barrington, Illinois has been to Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, USC, UCLA and several other schools.

Look for Doering in Iowa City this weekend for the Hawkeye spring game and he’ll be in South Bend next weekend for the Notre Dame spring game.

Doering received scholarship offer #20 from Duke yesterday and while most of the “BCS” schools may brush this off and think the Blue Devils have “Zero” shot at landing a blue-chipper of this stature, they better think again.

Yes, Doering is checking out the practices, he’s counting national championships and looking at who has the best weight room but “Big Dan” in the end will be looking at academics.

No, Duke isn’t Michigan but they have a great education and who wouldn’t want to play for one of the top young coaches in the game, Ted Roof.

Don’t count out Northwestern. They play in the Big Ten, it’s close to home and the Doering’s have NU football season tickets. Northwestern’s education goes without saying.

Stanford hasn’t been mentioned much but you can bet that Buddy Teevans will make a push this spring. Last year, Minnesota blue-chipper Jerod Arlich said that he’d never want to attend Stanford.

Arlich felt that he wouldn’t fit in at Stanford but after he visited “The Farm” he committed just a few days later. Could Doering end up following Arlich to Palo Alto? Maybe.

Stanford has the education and they put offensive tackles in the NFL. See Kwame Harris.

At this point and it’s early, I feel Michigan and Notre Dame are in a two-horse battle for Doering. Iowa is certainly in the mix. USC and UCLA could get visits in the fall.

Doering should have up to 30 offers by the end of May and then he’ll begin to narrow his school choices this summer. My advice to the 10 schools that he decides to look at further ….

Doering wants to major in business or communications and the next time he’s on your campus, don’t show him the weight-room, show him where the library is and have him meet with Academic Advisors.

The school that presents the best balance of education and football could be the school that lands Dan Doering’s signature in February.

Good luck!