Barrington's Dan Doering is playing the college recruiting game -- and he is getting very good at pushing the right buttons.
The 6-6, 300-pounder, who arguably is the most widely recruited offensive lineman in the nation this season, is being described as the next Robert Gallery, the Iowa lineman who was the No. 2 choice in the NFL draft.
Doering is so good that Notre Dame coach Tyrone Willingham made a scholarship offer last October, when the promising junior was attending the Notre Dame-USC game and taking an unofficial tour of the South Bend, Ind., campus.
LSU coach Nick Saban also made an offer, admitting that LSU normally doesn't recruit linemen from Chicago (or anywhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line), but he had seen tape of Doering and was impressed.
"He has remarkably and unusually quick feet for a big guy. He runs like a linebacker,'' Chicago-based recruiting analyst Tom Lemming said. "He has all the tools -- size, strength, long arms, agility -- to be a dominating offensive tackle in college, like Robert Gallery.''
Before Barrington opens its season at Stevenson on Aug. 28, Doering figures to have 50-60 offers. He concedes that Iowa, Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska and UCLA lead his shopping list at the moment. Two of his five official visits have been promised to Iowa and Notre Dame. But more offers are piling up: USC, Arizona, Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, Miami, Tennessee and every school in the Big Ten except Penn State and Minnesota. Clemson and Florida are calling. He visited USC and UCLA on his spring break and revisited Notre Dame last weekend.
"My coach and my parents want to keep my life as normal as possible,'' Doering said. "I'm just trying to be as normal as I can and enjoy the recruiting thing. But the process and the Internet guys put a strain on it.
"I don't want to sound ungrateful. I have to realize that I'm in a pretty awkward situation. And I have to realize I am lucky to be in the position I am. But it comes to a point where you have to learn to say no.''
Every college has a Web site and wants to inform its alumni where the blue-chip athletes are going. And the recruiting Web sites from ESPN.com to Insiders.com to Rivals.com want to inform their subscribers, too.
"It was annoying at first,'' Doering said. "You tell a reporter that you don't have a favorite, but they ask questions to try to make you single out one school. It's a game we play. It's getting crazy.''
Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said Doering will be able to control the process more effectively when he narrows his list to five or eight schools by the end of the summer.
Doering plans to take his time. He won't attend any college camps this summer. He plans to go on a Canadian fishing trip with Barrington offensive line coach Steve Galovich and some teammates. A music freak, he also plans to attend some concerts.
"It has gotten to the point where I don't need to get noticed; people know who I am,'' Doering said. ''This is my last summer to be a kid. It seems as though I have a wider view of the world because of the experiences I have had. I know there is a purpose to all of this, and I have to find out what God has decided for me to do and why.''
He wants to attend a college that will train him to be an NFL lineman. Best bet is Iowa. Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz, a former offensive line coach in the NFL, has a reputation for producing big-time linemen like Gallery.
Doering said Ferentz, Gallery, former Richards star Mike Jones and Iowa offensive line coach Reece Morgan are four reasons why he favors Iowa.
"Some football meetings are like lectures. At Iowa, it was like a classroom, more personal and calm. I felt more comfortable,'' Doering said. "People say to go to schools and figure out what you like. I go to a school, and in one hour I know if I will go back again. It is a feeling you get, and Iowa is a feeling I like.''
To prepare for the 2004 season, he works out with a personal trainer, Mike Gattone, who has a fitness center in Buffalo Grove. Gattone worked with Al Vermeil at the Berto Center in Deerfield and with the U.S. Olympic team in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"Last year, I felt I got tired during games,'' he said. "This year, I want to be more dominating. I want to put people on their back. When you see tapes and you pancake a kid or knock the crap out of him, that's dominating. Unrelenting fury, that's what I want to be.''