Reese Edwards knew what he wanted to do before he arrived on Vanderbilt’s campus for an official visit.
Warren’s 6-foot, 185-pound senior running back already had offers from Central Michigan, Eastern Illinois, Fordham, Illinois State, Kent State, Miami-Ohio, North Dakota, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Toledo and Yale. Many Power Five schools, including Wisconsin, Boston College, Syracuse and Georgia Tech, also had expressed interest.
But Edwards didn’t hesitate to verbally commit to Vanderbilt on Saturday during his visit.
“I was planning my commitment before the visit,” he said. “I had seen all the stuff that they’re doing in the program before they had even offered me. I knew if I was offered, I could commit there.
“I picked Vanderbilt because it was the first Power Five program to believe in me. Every camp I went to, I performed very good, just like I did at Vanderbilt. But they were the first to actually pull the trigger.”
Edwards’ rise from unheralded Grayslake Central sophomore to consensus three-star SEC recruit has been a dramatic one. He rushed for 1,212 yards in 2019, but the Rams lost eight of nine games.
He then transferred to Warren before his junior year and had a breakout season, carrying the ball 74 times for 732 yards and scoring 15 touchdowns for the North Suburban Conference co-champion Blue Devils (6-0) earlier this year. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 seconds at Vanderbilt’s camp.
“It’s just been hard work and a commitment to getting offers because my spring season set me back with the late (start),” he said.
Edwards said Vanderbilt had the right combination of a quality education and top-notch football.
“The academics were a big factor,” he said. “(Vanderbilt) is at the top in just about everything in academics, and the student-to-teacher ratio is small.”
“Second to none” for Wolf: Senior forward Danny Wolf made the most of his first season at Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts.
After transferring from Lake Forest Academy in November over the uncertainty of the high school basketball season during the coronavirus pandemic, the 6-10 Wolf raised his national profile with a strong junior season.
“My game has improved dramatically since I transferred to Northfield Mount Hermon,” he said. “The development is second to none, both mentally and physically.”
Wolf said his recruiting remains wide open and that he hopes to make official visits to Illinois, Northwestern and California, among others. His most recent offers were from DePaul, Harvard, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
“A lot of schools from all over the (country) have reached out to me,” Wolf said. “I’m looking for the best mix of academics and basketball.”
Jones gets walk-on offer: On Monday, Deerfield senior wide receiver Luke Jones received an offer to be a preferred walk-on at Iowa, where his older brother, Charlie, is a senior wide receiver.
“I was excited that my brother’s school gave me an offer,” Luke Jones said. “I went to Iowa’s camp on Sunday and was able to also walk out with a South Dakota offer, which was great. I was blessed to get a preferred walk-on (offer) from a top team in the country.”
Bob Narang is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
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