The motion picture "Blind Side," based on the best-selling book by New York Times writer Michael Lewis, will be released nationally on Friday. And I'm in it--for all of about 60 seconds.

"Blind Side" is about Michael Oher, the former University of Mississippi football star who grew up homeless in Memphis, Tennessee, and was a first-round pick in the NFL draft. In the current issue of "Sports Illustrated," NFL writer Peter King rates Oher, a dominating offensive lineman, on his All-NFL team for 2009.

In his book, Lewis devotes a chapter to me, about how I evaluate high school players, my relationship with college coaches and how I helped to discover Oher and how coaches such as Nick Saban, Phil Fulmer and Lou Holtz became aware of the 310-pounder.

This is the "Year of the Quarterback" in the Chicago area and most of them have performed up to expectations. I've gone on record as saying that Prospect's Miles Osei is my choice as Player of the Year. He amassed nearly 4,000 yards of total yardage and accounted for 39 touchdowns in an 8-3 season.

But several other quarterbacks stood out, including Hinsdale Central's John Whitelaw, Lake Forest's Tommy Rees, Rolling Meadows' Jimmy Garoppolo, Downers Grove South's Chandler Whitmer, Marist's Mike Perish, Maine South's Tyler Benz, Morgan Park's DaRon Brown, Montini's Brandon Pechloff and Glenbard West's Tyler Warden.

One who is never mentioned is Glenbrook South's Mike Pullano.

In our recent discussions about which candidates are primed to be the next head coaches in the Big 10, the name of Charlie Strong hasn't come up. But it comes up now. A reader, an avowed SEC fan, recommended Strong, Florida' defensive coordinator.

"Not only is he widely respected as one of the nation's best defensive coordinators, he also is an awesome recruiter and developer of athletes into great defensive football players," the reader e-mailed.

"The fact that he is an African American coach in the SEC plays to Illinois' favor. He has been a legitimate candidate for multiple head coaching positions in the SEC and time and time again he has either not been interviewed or passed over for less proven or resume impressive candidates who were white."

I've scouted some recent games in the Chicago area and I've watched a lot of film. Here is what I've seen and what I know and who I recommend as Division I prospects. It is difficult to understand why some seniors aren't being more highly recruited than they are. But, after 31 years, I've learned that is the nature of the business.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Big 10 should be recruiting quarterbacks Miles Osei of Prospect and Jimmy Garoppolo of Rolling Meadows. I think Hinsdale Central's John Whitelaw is a big-time prospect, too, but he apparently got frustrated by the process and opted to commit to Yale. So who can argue that he didn't make a good decision?

Both Osei and Garoppolo have had good senior seasons. They have been very productive. They have major college arm strength, speed and athleticism. In my view, there is no good reason why they shouldn't be offered.

Mike Leach of Texas Tech would be my choice to be the next head coach in the Big 10. There are at least two coaches on the hot seat at the moment, at Illinois and Wisconsin, and although Illini athletic director Ron Guenther is standing behind Ron Zook through the 2010 season, alumni aren't too happy about what is happening in Champaign.

Leach brings an exciting, innovative offense to college football. He is quirky but intelligent and seems to be one step ahead of everyone else offensively. He has proven to be a good recruiter but hasn't been able to beat Texas head-to-head, although he has begun to land blue-chippers because of the high-profile games he has won.

Here is a man who has a reputation as a players' coach, a good recruiter and a good evaluator of talent but, most of all, a good teacher of the offense he has invented.

It is frequently debated what should be the criteria for selecting an All-America football player, an All-Stater, an All-Chicago Area player, a Player of the Year.

Surely, it takes more than statistics...passing yardage, rushing yardage, receptions, receiving yardage, touchdowns, tackles, interceptions, sacks.

In my view, the key item in separating one player from another should be production, the guys who have the best years statistically. But competition counts for something. It means you are playing against better teams. Wins and losses shouldn't be of paramount importance but helping a team to have a successful season counts for something, too.

In the end, the easiest way to determine an all-star is if he is a dominant player.

I received an e-mail from the father of 6-3, 225-pound senior linebacker J.C. Barchard of Crystal Lake South. By all accounts, he is a very good high school football player. All of which makes his father wonder why his son isn't attracting more attention from college programs. It is a dilemma that many fathers face.

"He is still being recruited by several schools," Dean Barchard's e-mail stated. "Some of the schools that have shown recent interest are Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota State, Illinois State, Northern Illinois and Buffalo University. But no offers yet. Many schools are asking: 'Who do you have offers form so far?' as though they would offer if someone else had offered. Just haven't gotten that first one yet."

This is a familiar story.

Chance Carter, Loyola Academy's highly promising 6-4, 245-pound defensive end, got tangled up in the recruiting process to the point where he almost got left out in the cold. But he finally took his coach's advice and pulled the trigger, accepting Northwestern's scholarship offer before anyone had a chance to think twice about it.

I saw Carter as a sophomore and was so impressed that I put him down as the best sophomore prospect in the state. Before his junior year, I selected him to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio. He had so much size and potential.

Then I saw him three times as a junior. I was disappointed. I saw no aggressiveness. He didn't excel in pursuit and didn't demonstrate great change in direction and movementthat you see in great defensive linemen.

The lengthy and flattering article on NFL veteran Jeff Zgonina in the current issue of Sports Illustrated rekindled a lot of old memories of a time when he was building a reputation at Carmel of Mundelein and going through the recruiting process.

At Carmel, he was an outstanding and dominating defensive lineman, a blue-collar and aggressive player who was as tough as nails. But Notre Dame and Michigan didn't think he was good enough for their programs. I always felt more schools should have recruited him but few big-time schools thought he was a big-timer.

He was recruited by then Illinois assistant coach Bill Kollar along with Hersey's Frank Kmet, King's Payton Minter and Fremd's Jim Schwantz. But when the NCAA began to investigate Illini head coach Mike White, the recruiting became unglued. White was fired. I called Purdue coach Freddy Akers to recommend Kollar. Akers hired Kollar, who took Zgonina and the others with him.

Penn State was known as Linebacker U. for a long time, producing some of the best linebackers in the nation. With commitments from three of the best linebackers in the nation, it appears coach Joe Paterno is rekindling that reputation.

The Nittany Lions have landed Khairi Fortt of Stamford, Conn., the best outside linebacker in the nation; DaKota Royer of Manheim, Pa., and Mike Hull of Canonsburg, Pa.

This is USC Week at Notre Dame and the Irish have accumulated a distinguished list of visitors, including offensive tackle Seantrel Henderson of St. Paul, Minn., the nation's No. 1 player; safety Corey Cooper of Proviso East, who earlier committed to Illinois; defensive back Dietrich Riley of LaCanada, Calif.; wide receiver T.J. Jones of Atlanta, who earlier committed to Stanford but whose father played at Notre Dame; free safety Devon Carrington of Phoenix, who earlier committed to Stanford; and running back Jordan James of Corona, Calif., who has been offered by USC and UCLA, is averaging 10 yards per carry and is my choice as the most underrated player in the nation.

USC is countering Notre Dame's recruiting effort on Henderson by pushing hip-hop. Rap artist Snoopy Dogg is trying to woo the 6-7, 325-pound lineman from Minnesota to the West Coast.