Max Merril is taking a hard look at his power five options
Max Merril added a couple of power conference options over the last couple of weeks.
Louisville was the first power five program to reach out with an offer and they’ve been recruiting the three-star offensive lineman hard.
“They were my first power five and have had a lot of time to show what they’re all about,” Merril said. “The other two powers I have, I don’t know much about them because we just started talking.”
The others are Colorado and Indiana. Colorado offered last Friday and Indiana immediately followed suit.
Offensive line coach Mitch Rodrigue is recruiting the 6-foot-4, 275-pounder for the Buffaloes.
“It was Coach Rod, he reached out to me first and I just talked to him that night,” Merril said. “And then the next day that Friday, he showed the film to the head coach and after he showed the boss, he got the go ahead and I was able to get the offer. It was really cool.”
Merril said he hasn’t gotten to talk much to any of the coaches at Colorado, only brief conversations with Rodrigue but he loves what CU has to offer visually and academically.
“I definitely like Colorado, I know it’s a beautiful place,” Merril said. “It’s beautiful in the summer and it’s a lot nicer than Texas in the summer that’s for sure.”
Merril hails from the Houston area and is interested in studying business. He wants to follow in his mom’s footsteps.
“Connections and kind of a network that I can build up there because that way I can use that later on. It's really helpful for me,” Merril said of what he’s looking for in a school. “And my mom works in the business world already. And she's pretty well connected and knows how important it is. So her connections that I have access to as well as the ones I'll make in college are going to be the ones that helped me the next 40 years.”
Boulder isn’t the usual college town and the Leeds school of business does a great job with connecting students to the business world. Merril said he’s focused on what the school is offering him academically not only for his parents but also himself.
“It's for my parents and everything, but they want what's best for me,” Merril said on prioritizing academics. “And I recognize that the academic aspect is really important for my future and I can't play football for 50 years, even if I am one of the best--and I don't think that I am just yet I’m going to have to prove that everybody-- but I gotta do something afterwards. And you know depending on what it is, I want to make sure I have a good base to go off of for that.”
That does not mean that he doesn’t care about the football side of things. He just wants to win on the gridiron.
“I just want to be competitive,” Merril said on the type of team he’s looking for. “I love the game. And there's a reason why I'm being recruited because I'm competitive. And I want to compete at a high level and every power five conference has that for me. So really, it's about finding that fit after that.”
Merril has already taken a virtual visit with some of the Ivys and Louisville. He was impressed with what Louisville had to offer.
“I'm still a 17 year old kid who loves playing football and things that excite me are like weight rooms and stuff,” Merril said. “So it makes me happy to see the weight rooms and everything like that, but I do also like looking at the campus and seeing where I'm going to be spending probably the majority of my time anyways.”
He hopes to schedule a virtual visit with Colorado and Indiana in the near future. He would also like to take actual visits to all of those places but doesn’t know when that’ll be possible.