Marian Central’s Christian Bentancur is racking up D-I scholarship offers

Christian Bentancur’s tweets through the winter months were sparse, while January mainly consisted of retweets of what recruiting websites wrote about him.

But over the last three weeks, @cbentancur18 has been on full blast.

Since March 29, the Marian Central sophomore wide receiver has posted nine tweets about football scholarship offers, seven of which are from Big Ten Conference schools. From last Tuesday through Monday, there were seven.

Bentancur posted about offers from Iowa, Michigan and Washington all on last Thurdsay.

“It’s been crazy. It’s been absolutely nuts,” Bentancur said. “I’ve been getting calls in the last week so much, all the people talking to me and interested in me. The more offers I get, the more people that call. It’s fun.”

Bentancur (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) played wide receiver as a freshman and sophomore and caught the most passes of any area player (92) over the last two seasons. He was a Northwest Herald All-Area first-team selection both seasons.

And now, his recruitment has gone wild.

Bentancur’s first offer was announced on March 29 after he visited Iowa State. Then came Nebraska (April 9), Penn State (April 12), Iowa, Michigan and Washington (April 14), Northwestern (April 15), Wisconsin (April 16) and Michigan State (Monday).

Bentancur heard from a few colleges during the season and seems to be hearing from just about everyone now. He makes most trips with his parents, Pat and Elizabeth, driving to most of the schools. Bentancur also made visits to Ohio State and Duke, but does not yet have offers from those schools.

“I’m more known now,” he said. “For everyone, once they get that first offer it’s kind of like a snowball effect, where it keeps rolling and you get more.

“I came in freshman year. I was pretty good and brought up to varsity and that was exciting. I didn’t know how good I was actually going to be. I heard all these people saying D-I and I’m really good, but I don’t really know that until high school. I got offered a few weeks ago from Iowa State and ever since then it’s blown up and it’s just been crazy.”

Bentancur lifts weights at Marian Central after school and trains at Davis Speed and Agility with Pat Wenzel.

“I have one more place,” Bentancur said. “I’m pretty sure I’m visiting Illinois. If any more come up, then I’ll see if I can. This summer I’ll probably go to two or three (one-day) camps, not too many so I don’t get burned out.”

Jacobs sophomore tight end Grant Stec (6-6, 225) has also been busy with recruiting. Stec has offers from 12 schools, five of which have offered Bentancur. Stec’s list is comprised of Arkansas, Cincinnati, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Louisville, Michigan State, Minnesota, Rutgers, Northwestern, Tennessee and Wisconsin.