Glenville's Jefferson Gets IU Offer

Indiana attracted speedy wideout Ray Fisher from Cleveland's Glenville H.S. a year ago, and now IU Coach Terry Hoeppner's staff has its eye on Kyle Jefferson for the '07 class.

The Hoosiers are once again searching through the state of Ohio to find recruits.

Indiana is one of six schools to extend an offer to Kyle Jefferson, a 6-3, 158-pound receiver Glenville (Cleveland) High School, the Ted Ginn, Sr.-coached school that’s produced a slew of Division I recruits, including 2006 IU signee Ray Fisher.

“So far I have six offers,” said Jefferson. “Wisconsin, Indiana, Miami of Ohio, Akron, Bowling Green and Minnesota right now.”

Jefferson caught 15 passes for 300 yards and four touchdowns as a junior, taking a bit of a backseat to a couple of other talented wideouts – Daven Jones and Ray Small. Small signed with Ohio State in February, while Jones inked a scholarship offer from Wisconsin.

Jefferson will have a chance to follow in the footsteps of Fisher, Jones and Small and go to the Big Ten as well if he so chooses. Jefferson is enjoying the attention from Big Ten schools after growing up in Ohio and watching the conference his entire life, although he admits he knew very little about the Hoosiers before Fisher signed to play for Indiana coach Terry Hoeppner.

“I’ve always watched the Big Ten,” said Jefferson. “I’m starting to get more familiar with Indiana now. Since Ray Fisher is going there he gave me the coaches’ numbers to call them and talk. I’m getting real familiar with that program and it’s like a backyard school for me because it’s so close to home.

“They’re a Big Ten school and any Big Ten school is fine with me. The ACC and the Big Ten are my two favorite conferences. I don’t have any ACC offers yet.”

With Fisher already being a Hoosier, Jefferson contacted Indiana wide receivers coach Billy Lynch about possibly joining the Hoosiers’ next signing class.

“I’ve been talking to Coach Lynch the most,” he said. “He’s the one recruiting me. I contacted him first because Ray Fisher told me to call him. It’s good to have a former high school teammate at the school you are interested in going to. He tells me what it’s like. He knew IU would be a good school for him and he likes their football program.”

Going into his senior season Jefferson has spent time at the wide receiver and safety positions and even tried his hands at kick returns.

“Coaches have told me I could possibly play wide receiver or safety in college and some said I could return kicks,” said Jefferson. “I like playing both ways. If you’re having a bad day on one side of the ball, you other side can give you that spark. It’s advantage to be able to play offense and defense. I love it. I was on kick return all this season. It was fun. I liked it because it was exciting.”

Jefferson will be visiting the Hoosiers during his spring break in two weeks.