DE Van Ness adds his first offer

Barrington (IL) junior defensive end prospect Lukas Van Ness (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) hit the road this past Saturday and was able to add his first scholarship offer from in-state Eastern Illinois University. Van Ness recaps his Saturday visits along with much more in this latest recruiting update.

"I visited both Eastern Illinois and also Illinois on Saturday for spring practices," Van Ness said. "I was also able to add my first offer from Eastern Illinois and it's exciting to add my first offer."

Van Ness gave us his impressions from adding his first offer from EIU.

"It's exciting to have added my first offer from Eastern Illinois. I got to EIU on early Saturday morning. I met a few of the kids who are already signed to EIU then I was taken back to head coach Adam Cushing's office. Coach Cushing said that they had been looking into me including my background and character and that they are really impressed with me. He also said he wanted to make sure that I knew that EIU was very interested in me and he offered me a scholarship offer. I was surprised at getting the offer and also really excited. I really like the coaches at EIU. They are looking to turn the football program around and making it even stronger. I came away just really impressed with the EIU coaching staff. They are great guys who also bring a lot of energy."

Van ness then headed over to Illinois later in the afternoon for a spring practice visit.

"I also stopped back at Illinois after my EIU visit to watch a spring practice. I was able to meet and talk with some of the Illinois coaches including head coach Lovie Smith, coach Miles Smith along with the Illinois defensive line coach Austin Clark. I was able to watch the spring practice along with getting to meet some of the other recruits. The Illinois coaches like my size and that they are still getting to know me better. The Illinois coaches told me that they would be in school to watch me workout this spring. They also mentioned that they would also like to see me in a camp this summer."

So does Van Ness have any additional visits planned?

"I'm really starting to wrap up the visits. We've been visiting several schools over the last few months and I'm going to just focus on just working out and getting ready for the spring evaluation period. Once I see which colleges are truly interested in me this spring then I'll have a better idea on which schools I'll either visit or camp with this summer."

Lukas Van Ness has a scholarship offer from Eastern Illinois University.