An Illinois rising high school freshman performed well in front of the Iowa State coaching staff twice in a span of six days and picked up a scholarship offer this past Saturday.
Getting in on a prospect early is the name of the game in today’s world of college football recruiting, and the Iowa State coaching staff did just that on Saturday night by offering a Class of 2021 quarterback who had just participated in the Saturday Night Lights camp in Ames.
LaGrange Park (Ill.) Nazareth Academy rising freshman J.J. McCarthy showed the staff everything it was looking for throughout the course of the evening.
“It’s so breathtaking how amazing this is,” said McCarthy of his ability to showcase his skills in Jack Trice Stadium. “To take this all in is crazy. Iowa State had a really nice campus when I toured. Everything is so neat and organized. What they’ve been telling me, the school is fantastic. I want to major in Engineering and they said it’s the number-three program in the country.”
The 5-foot-11, 150-pound McCarthy was shuffled by staffers into a meeting with head coach Matt Campbell following the camp. A short time later, he announced the offer on his Twitter page.
“It was really cool meeting with Coach Campbell and he has an amazing staff,” McCarthy said. “It was great that they brought me in. They offered me to come out to a game and told me that I’m more than welcome in any future camps that I want to come to.”
As far as the camp itself, McCarthy said he enjoyed doing some additional testing that he had not completed before.
“It was really cool how they had us do our 40, pro shuttle and triple-jump,” he said. “That was the first time I’ve ever done the triple-jump. We went into the agility stuff and not many camps that I’ve been to have done that. The individual stuff was very hands on and there was a coach always watching. I liked that a lot.”
But the highlight of the night was McCarthy performing in one-on-one drills under the lights in Jack Trice Stadium.
“I felt good but had the receivers that went and got it,” he said. “There were some crazy receivers out here and give them all the credit for catching those balls.”
The ISU staff originally came across McCarthy at the North Central College satellite camp last Monday, and encouraged the quarterback prospect to attend the first Saturday Night Lights camp this past Saturday.
“I went to the camp at North Central College and they really liked how I threw the ball and how I performed in competitions like one-on-ones,” McCarthy said. “I kept performing well and they asked me to come out here and camp.”
