Denton's Destination Is Decided

Bloomington – Jack Denton’s decision to commit to IU didn’t come in the most conventional of places.

The 6’2”, 230-pound Zionsville (Ind.) H.S. athlete wasn’t stewing over his options in his living room or in his high school coach’s office. Instead, he found himself on his way to a high school whitewater rafting trip when the decision became clear.

“It just hit me out of the blue,” Denton said of this past weekend’s trip. “They have a great class coming in for 2010, a great business school. They have everything I wanted, so I decided why wait? It’s what I want to do.”

So Denton called IU assistant coach Kyle Conner and let him know that he was headed to IU.

While Denton said Indiana has always been very high on his list, the decision to commit now wasn’t necessarily an easy one. Indiana, Ball State and Ohio were among his early scholarship offers, and other big names were hoping to evaluate his first handful of senior season games before making a decision about offering.

Purdue and Central Michigan were among those who were close to offering, while summer camp stops at Michigan, Michigan State and Cincinnati had piqued their interest as well.

“It was a little tough to not see what happened with the other schools, but IU is my best fit,” Denton said. “I don’t want it any other way.”

Now that Denton is headed to IU, the next decision will be where to play him beginning next fall. Linebacker, fullback, safety and even tight end are all possibilities, and Denton said the IU staff is leaving that option open until they get him on campus.

“Coach Conner said we’ll have to talk to Coach Lynch (about what position I’ll play), but he said I can hit, I can run, and they want me to know that they think I’m a hell of an athlete,” Denton said. “So they said they wanted to get me, and then they’d figure out the rest about where I’ll play.”