The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
EC junior commits to Ball State for football
Elyria Catholic’s Jaret Frantz has made his college decision.
The junior will join Ball State in 2021 after completing his final season with the Panthers.
The Cardinals are on the rise in the MAC under Coach Mike Neu, formerly the quarterbacks coach for the Saints. They ranked as the conference’s top offensive team in 2019, averaging 463 yards and 34.8 points a game.
Both are major reasons why Frantz decided to start his college football career in Muncie with the Cardinals.
“The head coach Mike Neu, used to coach with the Saints and he coached Jimmy Graham and he had these plans for me and says that I have a similar skill set to him,” Frantz said. “And also Ball State was the No. 1 offense in the MAC last year in passing yards per game. So having an offense like that really helped.”
Frantz narrowed down his choices to his top three schools May 27 after receiving six D-1 offers. The three finalists included Austin Peay, Eastern Michigan and Ball State.
His recruiting process was unusual, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, so he was only able to take two visits, including one to Ball State.
It’s a trip Frantz said played a big factor in his decision.
“It was definitely really fun, but it was also kind of weird for me with the coronavirus. It was really difficult to really get on campus anywhere,” he said.
“I took a visit to Miami (Ohio), and I took a visit to Ball State just this past weekend. But I couldn’t go in anything. It was just a player-led tour around the campus.”
As a junior, Frantz led Elyria Catholic’s receiving corps with 31 catches for 640 yards and 10 touchdowns. But when he makes the jump from Elyria Catholic to Ball State, he’ll be playing tight end instead of receiver.
“At EC I was just a wide receiver, but the goals are to put on weight to be able to play a bit of a flex position,” he said. “Where I can do a little bit of both, slipping inside to block and then spreading outside to catch passes.”
Listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, Frantz plans on using his senior season as a way to bulk up and ready himself for his new position, by bulking up and playing as an in-line blocker.
But like many others, Frantz has been unable to use school facilities to work out during the coronavirus shutdown. Instead, he had to get creative and bring the facility to him.
“I asked Coach before the shutdown happened if I could grab some weights out of the field house because I couldn’t get up there every day and he said yeah,” Frantz said. “So I’ve got a bench, I’ve got a bunch of plates and dumbbells.
“So I’ve got just about everything I need to be able to maintain my weight over the quarantine and add some more.”
While Frantz is using his senior campaign to prepare himself for the physicality of playing tight end for a D-I football program, he is still incredibly focused on what he hopes will be a successful final season for the Panthers.
“The way things are coming together right now I think we have a bunch of weapons, so it just depends on how we can put those together and hopefully Coach Fox has a good game plan so we can get things done,” Frantz said.
A year ago Elyria Catholic stormed into the playoffs with five straight wins after falling to 2-3 at the halfway mark. Frantz was a key part of that run, catching a touchdown in the opening win of the streak over Holy Name.