Mount Carmel’s Jack Elliott was set to go to Yale before Vanderbilt of the SEC came calling.
Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times
Jack Elliott knows how a lot of college football recruiters look at him.
The junior’s body of work for two-time defending Class 7A champion Mount Carmel matters less than one particular metric.
Never mind his 4,088 total yards and 41 touchdowns last fall in his first season as a varsity starter for a team that went 13-1.
“The size thing was a factor,” said Elliott, a 6-foot, 205-pounder. “No one wants to take a chance on a barely 6-foot quarterback.”
Elliott, who carries a 4.77 grade-point average, did have plenty of interest from the Ivy League with offers from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell and Penn. And most of the Mid-American Conference had offered him.
The consensus three-star prospect was more or less resigned that a Power Five offer wouldn’t be forthcoming. He was at peace with heading to the Ivy League for an elite education and a positive football experience.
Then life took an interesting turn. On Tuesday, Elliott committed to Vanderbilt, taking his football career in a different direction.
“I was kind of set on Yale if I hadn’t gotten another [high-major] offer,” he said. “My dad loved it. It would take a big Power Five school with high academics to change my mind.”
That’s exactly what happened.
Elliott had a talk with Caravan head coach Jordan Lynch about his plans to go to Yale unless a big-time offer came along. Lynch told Elliott he’d connected with his former Northern lllinois coach, Jerry Kill, who’s at Vanderbilt as chief consultant to head coach Clark Lea and senior offensive adviser.
“He sent them my film, [said], ‘He’s a winner. He plays like me but a lot better,'” Elliott said.
One thing led to another, and before he knew it, Elliott had the Power Five offer he’d been looking for.
It didn’t take long to commit. “SEC football, top 10 [academic] school in the country,” he said. “The coaching staff, they love me and I love them.”
That means something in the days of the transfer portal.
“In college football, you don’t know who’s going to take care of you,” said Elliott, who is the only quarterback in the Commodores’ 2025 recruiting class.
National recruiting analyst Clint Cosgrove likes Elliott’s upside.
“As a player he reminds me of his head coach [Lynch],” Cosgrove said. “He’s a phenomenal runner, runs with power. He’s a phenomenal passer, a precision passer who knows where to go with the ball.”
And now Elliott knows where he’s going to college.
“It’s definitely a weight off my shoulders, to be able to say I’m committed … have my future planned out,” he said.
Condors turn to Lewis-Bey
Curie was long one of the Public League’s elite programs, qualifying for the IHSA playoffs 23 times — including 10 times in 13 seasons from 2007-19 — and advancing to the second round in 2014 and ’17.
But the Condors have fallen on tough times with just four wins over the past four years including a pair of winless seasons.
Jarve Lewis-Bey aims to turn that around.
Lewis-Bey was hired in February after productive head-coaching stints at Senn and Marshall along with a run as Hyde Park’s defensive coordinator. In 13 seasons as a head coach, he’s 71-53 with five trips to the IHSA playoffs. He took last season off from coaching.
“I’m excited to get myself back going,” Lewis-Bey said. “Just sitting out I was so anxious [to return].”