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Not only has the world changed beyond recognition over the past month-plus, but so, too, has college football recruiting.
For a rising star like Dedham (MA) Noble and Greenough School four-star offensive guard Drew Kendall, that means a lot of conversations with college coaches from a veritable who’s who, particularly football programs with academic prestige.
The son of a former Boston College standout, BC has been in his ear, as has Michigan, Penn State, Stanford, Duke and Virginia.
As the nation’s No. 78 recruit regardless of position according to 247Sports, he’s taking the extra attention in stride, he told WolverinesWire.
“Yeah, it’s definitely picked up a bit during this quarantine,” Kendall said. “Coaches are at home more, I’m at home more. There’s not much else to do, but it’s all been good.”
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Kendall says his focus is now trying to ‘narrow my scope to really good academic schools with really good football’ as well as continuously building a relationship with the coaches. As far as academics are concerned, he’s looking at either being a business or economics major ‘or some sort of that type of major.’
Naturally, as he’s continued to build on a strong relationship with Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown and offensive line coach Ed Warinner, he’s learning more about how he could fit on the academic side of things in Ann Arbor as well as how they see him on the OL.
“So Coach Brown has been out many, many times to see me in school,” Kendall said. “He’s probably been out six-plus times, me and my teammate. Coach Warinner has been out to my school three times, I believe. They’re just pitching, like they said, exactly what I’m looking for with great schools, the Ross School of Business, obviously very good football. They’re telling me that I fit in right in the interior. They want me to be an interior lineman. Either guard or center – being able to play both. But yeah, that’s what they’ve been saying.”
As of current, Michigan has three offensive line commits, all of them four-stars. That includes long-time tackle commit Giovanni El-Hadi as well as fellow interior linemen Greg Crippen and Raheem Anderson.
Crippen told WolverinesWire on Wednesday that Kendall is one of the players he’s been targeting since his March 25 commitment, but he’s also heard regularly from five-star QB commit J.J. McCarthy and new four-star TE commit Louis Hansen.
But he has the strongest relationship, naturally, with his Noble and Greenough teammate Casey Phinney, the three-star linebacker who committed to Michigan at the beginning of the month.
“J.J. reaches out every once in awhile, but I’m mostly in contact with Greg, Louis and Casey, obviously,” Kendall said. “Casey’s one of my best friends. I’ve known him for awhile now. I just talk to him a lot about how he’s doing, what the process is and everything like that.”
As of current, Michigan has two players committed from the state of Massachusetts in Phinney and Hansen, and another in Crippen, who plays at IMG Academy in Florida, but hails originally from Milton (MA) Academy. Of course, the Wolverines also brought in three signees from Massachusetts last cycle as well, with Zak Zinter, Kalel Mullings and Eamonn Dennis also hailing from the bay state.
Kendall has certainly taken notice of the maize and blue’s persistence in not only the state but the New England region as a whole, and sung the praises of an area of the country that tends to be under-recruited.
“Definitely it’s cool to see,” Kendall said. “There’s a ton of really, really good players out here and I think they’re not as recruited nationally and I think Michigan has really taken advantage of that.”
Now that he’s been going through the recruiting process for some time, Kendall has a pretty good feel of what he’s looking for.
He’s already outlined his rubric of seeking a football powerhouse that’s also a solid academic institution — and it’s noted in the schools who are coming after him the hardest.
So now he’s focused on building relationships and making sure he finds a place where he’s not just an accessory as much as a commodity.
“I’d say it’s just the relationship with the coach – especially position coach,” Kendall said. “It’s just like feeling you have a really good fit, you know what I mean? Just really getting to know them. You always want to be wanted in this. You don’t just want to be another guy, you want to be a guy that’s wanted and needed to come in and make an impact.”
Naturally, with the changes in the world and the country due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Kendall is remaining flexible as far as how he carries out his search from here.
If the country starts to open back up once the current ‘stay home’ guidelines are lifted, then he’ll draw out his commitment by taking all of his officials. If not, however, you can expect him to make a decision as soon as next month as to where he’ll attend at the next level.
“I kinda have a rough timeline,” Kendall said. “I’m gonna wait this out until at least May and see the new regulations they’re gonna put on travel and how ever they’re gonna manage the corona pandemic. So, if I think there’s gonna be a possibility of me getting officials, I’ll probably make a decision in July is my hope. But if I know it’s not gonna be possible, I’m gonna probably foresee it and make my decision sometime in May because I’ve visited most of the schools that are in my final schools that I’m interested in.
“So I’m lucky that I don’t need to go out and see schools other than I haven’t seen Stanford yet. But yeah, I got really lucky that I’ve seen all the schools that I’m interested in right now.”