LOI Capsule: Perry Dorrestein Sticks it Out

A sun-blotter. That's huge 6-7, 300-pounds offensive tackle Perry Dorrestein. And once he received a Michigan offer this past October, it didn't take long for him to blot out all competing schools for him and pick the Wolverines.

If a young man wants to play football for the Maize and Blue, the best way to get noticed my the Wolverine coaching staff is to come to the Michigan summer camp. And that's exactly what Plainfield (Central High School) Illinois offensive tackle Perry Dorrestein did.

And secondly, if you do come to camp, don't be totally bummed out if you leave without a U-M offer. Very few kids earn offers immediately upon leaving camp -- Dorrestein didn't. In his case, the top right tackle prospect in the whole country (Sam Young) had just been at U-M for an unofficial visit the two days before camp started, and it would have been hard for ANY RT prospect to have gotten a camp offer in the aftermath of that.

However, Perry wisely stayed patient, believing the Michigan coaches when they said that after watching his September game film that an offer could well be forthcoming. And that's exactly what happened. At the Penn State game, there was Dorrestein, in for an unofficial visit -- and on that visit he received a Michigan scholarship offer.

In the meantime, another prominent football program was hot on the trail of Scout.com's #63 Midwest prospect -- namely Nebraska. The 'Huskers had offered him early, in the summer, and they were his leader going into the PSU game visit (and Northwestern was strongly in it for him as well). But once U-M offered, the race for him became neck and neck.

What was on Dorrestein's mind seemed evident when he scheduled his Michigan official visit for the very first December recruiting weekend -- the December 2nd weekend.

And sure enough, Dorrestein committed to to the Wolverines right at the visit.

As Dorrestein said on the GBW/WTKA Signing Day radio show, "I always liked Michigan, and I'd gotten to know the coaches and some of the players at camp. It didn't bother me that they didn't offer me at camp, they just said they wanted to see me in my first few games. And that was the truth -- after the saw some film of me in September, they offered. And then I was on my official visit with Justin Boren, who had already committed there, and with Steve Schilling as well. So I just liked the people that I was around at Michigan."

As to which side of the center he'll play on, left tackle or right ... Dorrestein seems to have the frame for the right tackle spot, but he told us he wasn't settled on that. "I can play either," he said. "I'm sure Michigan will try me at both, and we'll just see where I'm more comfortable, and where I'm needed."