Williamsville (NY) North's Rob Gronkowski has quickly emerged as one of the most heavily recruited tight end prospects in the country.  The 6-6 250-pounder was one of the few bright spots on a 3-5 team, registering 36 catches for 648 yards and seven touchdowns.  His offer list continued its march toward thirty members when three more schools tendered scholarships last week.  One of those programs was Michigan.

"I have offers from Penn State, Maryland, Arizona, Clemson, Florida, Michigan State, Michigan…I have about 25," Gronkowski said.  "Michigan offered last week.  My coach sent them some tape and they've been sending me mail for the last month.  They've been showing a lot more interest lately.
 One of the coaches came in, then I called Coach Carr and he offered me over the phone.

Gronkowski indicated that he will begin visiting many of the aforementioned programs in the very near future and that Ann Arbor will be one of his destinations.

"Yep, I plan to visit Michigan," he said.  "I've already been to Syracuse Maryland Florida, Arizona, and Duke.  In the next three weeks, right after the baseball season, I'm going to start making visits to five or six schools and I'm going to go to the Maryland football camp."

Gronkowski's trek to Michigan's campus this summer will actually be his second in the last few years.  While it is clear that his first experience left a good impression, it is also clear that the Wolverines need to make up some recruiting ground with this trip.

"I've got a lot of schools in front of Michigan right now because I hadn't been hearing that much from them," said Gronkowski.  "But I've been down there once for camp when I was going into my sophomore year, and I thought it was a pretty cool place.  I liked all of the facilities…especially the stadium."

After taking the unofficial visits, Gronkowski plans to trim his list to five at the end of the summer.  When the time comes to settle on one of those programs, the winner will fit some very specific criteria.

"The factors will be a good business program, a good feel with the coaches, and a football program that's up there," Gronkowski said.  "I'll make my decision near the end of the season, or after it."