Tinley Park (IL) Andrew junior defensive end/tight end recruit Mike Dehaan (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) became the second known in-state recruit to give Northern Illinois University and head coach Rod Carey his verbal commitment.
Dehaan via text discussed why he decided to pledge to NIU:
"I felt very comfortable at NIU. NIU is close to home, they have a great coaching staff and they play very good football. NIU is also usually at the top of the MAC year in and year out."
Dehaan, who recently added his first offer from NIU, made an unofficial visit to the DeKalb based campus a few weeks go and came away impressed with the Huskies.
"Saturday was my first visit to NIU and my Dad also went along," he said. "I had a great visit. I really liked the campus and the coaches at NIU are great guys. The coaches really stood out to my at NIU. I had a great talk with my recruiting coach Mike Uremovich and all of the coaches at NIU just made me feel welcomed. NIU offered me as a more of a tight end for them but they also said they like me as a defensive end. It seems like most schools are looking at me for now as a defensive end recruit."
Dehaan was drawing recruiting interest from Northwestern, Miami of Ohio, Illinois State, Purdue, Princeton, Dartmouth and also Minnesota so far this winter.
Dehaan joins Danville OL Julian Pearl (6-foot-7, 250 pounds) in the NIU recruiting Class of 2018.