After extensive traveling during the recruiting process, Chandler Whitmer has landed close to home.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Downers Grove South junior quarterback made a verbal commitment last week to play football at the University of Illinois for head coach Ron Zook beginning in the fall of 2010, ending a thorough process for Whitmer.

“I’ve been to 13 states since Thanksgiving,” said Whitmer, who also had offers from schools such as Stanford, Arizona and Iowa State. “I went to all of the schools that I had offers from, just to see and experience what each campus was like, and I went to six games in six different states (last fall).

“I had several good options, and I was attracted to Stanford and Arizona by the weather out there. What it came down to was that I realized Illinois had everything I wanted. I love Coach Zook — he’s a great guy, a great player’s coach.

“It’s a fantastic program, they just made a lot of improvements to Memorial Stadium, and my family won’t have to travel far to see our games,” added Whitmer, who moved to Downers Grove from Georgia after his freshman year of high school. “And academically it’s a top-10 public school in the country. Everything seemed to work for me at Illinois. I’m happy I made the decision.”

The thoroughness that Whitmer put into his college choice was no surprise to Downers South coach John Belskis.

“He’s a goal-oriented kid,” Belskis said. “He wants to win a state championship this year, he wants to win a national championship at Illinois, he wants to win the Heisman Trophy and play on Sundays (in the NFL).”

Whether or not Whitmer achieves those dreams, he has taken steps to make them come true.

“He’s a football gym rat: that’s probably the best way I can describe him,” Belskis said. “He can’t get enough football, and he marketed himself very well. He went down to Illinois (last summer) and won the Quarterback Challenge down there, and he’s still in the process of trying to get to the finals of the Elite 11 (Quarterback Camp) in California (this summer).

“He’s been at a (quarterback) camp in San Antonio and did well down there, and he was in a 7-on-7 tournament at Ohio State with players like (Proviso West star receiver Kyle) Prater and (Proviso East’s) Corey Cooper. He’s done everything he could to showcase himself, and it’s really helped.”

Illinois always ranked high on Whitmer’s list, even after a coaching shakeup.

“He was close to Mike Locksley, the offensive coordinator at Illinois last year,” Belskis said, “but then Mike took the head coaching job at New Mexico and Chandler didn’t know if the interest level would be the same after Mike left.”

But the arrival of new Illinois offensive coordinator Mike Schultz from Texas Christian University erased any doubts.

“Coach Schultz’s offense at TCU put up a lot of points and passing yards,” Whitmer said. “As a quarterback who loves to throw, it’ll be fun to play in an offense like that.”
Already strongly sold on Illinois, Whitmer’s decision was made easier by recent events.

“He was interested in Arizona,” Belskis said, “then a kid from Texas committed there. When that happened, he looked at everything and decided this was the time to make his commitment. And I think it worked out well for everyone. He said to me, ‘Every day since I committed, I’ve felt better and better about this.’

“I’m glad selfishly that he went to Illinois because it’s close to home and I can watch him play, but I never related that to him. I wanted him to make an informed decision on what’s best for him.”

Through a lot of travel and effort, Whitmer clearly arrived at that point.

“(The recruiting process) was a whirlwind, but everyone made it great,” Whitmer said. “I can’t complain. Having all these options and meeting great coaches — me and my parents being able to experience that was so much fun. Now I’m looking forward to heading down to Illinois.”

Whitmer’s 6-1 height is relatively small by current quarterback standards, but his fundamentals, decision-making and confidence are harder to measure.

“You can take a lot of kids who are 6-4 and don’t have the skills of a kid like him at 6-1,” Belskis said. “He’ll either win for you or beat you. You decide.”