Jeremy Werner has the scoop on the latest Illini commitments on his blog. Read about Austin Teitsma here.

VERMONT – Michael Heitz drives over the trapezoidal-framed wood bridge, almost filling the narrow passage with his father's white Ford F-350. As he hits the downslope, he's awaited by two high school classmates in a white compact car.

The driver immediately shifts into reverse, not only because the full-size pickup would flatten her like a cowpie, but she knows better than to challenge Heitz. Not on this Vermont road. Heitz owns it – well, it shares his namesake.

Roads in Fulton County were given simpler names when the 911 emergency service number was installed more than 20 years ago. The Heitz family had been settled there since 1960, so 830 North Road became Heitz Road.

In this remote farmland of western Illinois, the youngest Heitz boy is kind of a big deal. The 6-foot-6, 265-pound senior is the largest student at V.I.T. High School, the salutatorian of his graduating class, an all-state offensive lineman who will sign a letter of intent to play football at Illinois on Wednesday.

But in June, Heitz will become a walleye in a 40,000-fish pond on the UI campus, just another big body trying to find his way on the Illini football team.

The small-town kid has no qualms about leaving the farm for the crowded campus. He can't wait for the challenge.

"I'm ready for it," Heitz said. "I can't wait to get up there and start learning."

***

With a population of 801 – proudly painted in bold white on the town's green welcome sign – Vermont has never been much to look at. But economic hardship is even more apparent in the dilapidated and abandoned structures that line the village streets.

The elementary school on the north end of the town was once the hub of activity. Now it's hard to find an unshattered window in the vacant two-story brick schoolhouse, which was renovated into a roller skating rink for a few years before the business went under. At the roundabout in the center of town, a filling station has remained untouched since it collapsed during a storm last year because the owner lacks the funds to repair the structure.

"When I was 10 years old, there were three grocery stores and three or four gas stations," said Chris Heitz, Michael's father. "Now, we have a little convenience store that just went in and no gas stations. It just turned into a ghost town."

Chris Heitz is one of the few who have stayed in Vermont over the decades and remained successful, farming more than 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans and raising 75 head of cattle. His father Cecil, who died 10 years ago this summer, built up the operation from almost nothing after weathering the Great Depression.

The town has seen better days. But the people rally around the local high school football team, the South Fulton Rebels, a co-op between V.I.T. and Astoria High School.

"This isn't a wealthy part of the state, but we got good people here," South Fulton coach Dave Wilson said. "At the school, people are always there to lend a hand."

Led by their burly offensive tackle with strong German features and blond hair – Wilson calls Heitz "Dauber" because of his resemblance to Michael "Dauber" Dybinski, a character on the long-running ABC sitcom "Coach" – the Rebels reached the quarterfinals of the IHSA Class 1A playoffs last season despite an 0-2 start and several injuries to key players.

Rebels fans have supported South Fulton whether the team was playoff-bound or not. Friday night is an event at the field to the east of V.I.T. Jr. and Sr. High School with fans often tailgating just after the work shift ends. But the towns of Vermont, Ipava, Table Grove and Astoria went "football nuts" for the 2009 Rebels, Chris Heitz said, the most successful team yet.

"You couldn't drive through town without 'Go Rebels' this, this and this," Wilson said. "People go make signs ... and it's not that they just put down five or six signs out on the highway. There's a sign every 10 yards for a few miles."

South Fulton entered the playoffs the No. 12 seed with a 6-3 record. The Rebels upset fifth-seeded Pawnee 24-14 on the road in the opening round before beating 13th-seeded Greenfield 16-6, South Fulton's first home playoff game.

The Rebels lost to the eventual state-champion Tuscola Warriors 38-0.

"That was something special for us," Michael Heitz said of the playoff run. "It didn't end how we wanted it to, but it's better than a lot of people said we would do."

***

Chris Heitz knows college coaches are better served scouting Chicago-area large-school games than a Class 1A game in Podunk. So when Michael started showing the potential of carrying his father's frame as a freshman – Chris is 6-6, 300 pounds – he scoured the Internet for venues to get his son noticed, finding the National Underclassmen combine in St. Louis.

That started a series of camps and college visits that would put Michael in position to become a Big Ten prospect. He was invited to camps at Western Illinois and Illinois State and combines in Indianapolis and Atlanta.

Heitz had solid showings leading to his big break: an invitation to the Football University training camps in Kansas City and Orlando. The latter featured top prospects in the nation.

"I went there against some bigger schools and they were like, 'How did you even get there?' " Heitz said. "Sometimes I was thinking the same thing, but we went up against each other and I just had to remember my technique, go as hard as I can and it worked out good."

Heitz met Jim McNally, an NFL offensive line coach for 28 years, in Orlando. After coaching Heitz for three days, McNally approached the South Fulton lineman and propositioned him: tell me your dream schools, and I'll get you there.

At the top of Heitz's list was Illinois, a school that had kept an eye on the South Fulton lineman since he passed Kurt Beathard's "visual test," according to Wilson, when the former UI assistant met Heitz at the school in the spring.

Illinois gave Heitz – who had offers from Northern Illinois, Western Illinois and Illinois State – his biggest scholarship offer to date.

"It was a miracle," said Kelly Heitz, Michael's mother.

Wisconsin offered days later, but Heitz was sold on Illinois from the minute Ron Zook interrupted his workday at the family farm with a scholarship offer.

"Coming from around here, everybody is Illinois fans," Heitz said. "Everybody has something Illinois in their house. It was pretty much an easy decision."

***

South Fulton feeds from enrollment of 245 (123 from Vermont and 122 from Astoria). Some fans criticized the Illini for accepting a commitment from a 1A kid. Heitz, named to the 18-team Class 1A all-state team, hears the doubters.

"It kind of makes me try harder," Heitz said. "They're saying, 'No, you can't do that.' That kind of makes me a little mad and makes me go, 'You know what? Let's go. I'll show you.' "

Heitz started every varsity game during high school, making 41 consecutive starts at left tackle.

"Nobody would question it if he was playing 6A football or 7A football because there's not many kids walking around like him," said Wilson, who coached Division III football at Upper Iowa. "It's hard to find guys with his long arms, reach, who can move the feet and do those type things."

Chris Heitz said he never reached his potential as a football player because he never understood the importance of hard work on the football field. But he's tried to instill those values in his three sons: Michael, 18; Aaron, 22; and Ryan, 25. All three of the Heitz boys worked on the farm at an early age.

"Ryan was driving through Vermont pulling big bales in the pick-up when he was probably 14 years old," Chris said.

Without a complaint, Michael helps his dad with day-to-day chores: feeding and weaning cattle, checking for breaks in the fence line, planting and harvesting.

"He works so hard; he's so driven," Wilson said. "He's going to keep getting better. A lot of times those kids (with his size) get by by being sloppy or just bulk strength ... but when they go against people that are bigger they can't get it done because there's no skill involved and technique. That's something Michael really works on."

***

Heitz will become the first Class 1A product to sign with Illinois since Tuscola grad Fred Wakefield, who played 1A ball with the Warriors as a junior and 2A ball as a senior, in 1995.

In his first days on campus, Wakefield caught himself sizing up his teammates in the hallways of the football facilities.

"The biggest (adjustment) I think is to get over the fact that you came from a Class 1A school," Wakefield said. "I think early on you get there and see these kids from Chicago, St. Louis and Florida and those type places and, at least for me, I had to get in there and see that there's not a big difference (between us). Obviously, there's a reason they brought (Heitz) in. They must think he can play, and he needs to understand that and realize that those kids aren't any better than he is.

"I don't care what high school you played at, it's not the same as Division I football."

After joining the Illini with little fanfare, Wakefield said he felt he had something to prove, a chip on his shoulder that helped him turn football into a career. After earning All-Big Ten honors in 2000 as a senior, Wakefield was signed by the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent. He played six years for the Cardinals and two more for the Oakland Raiders before retiring from the NFL last year.

"The biggest thing, just like the NFL, is find your niche," Wakefield said. "If you're an offensive lineman, figure out what it's going to take to get your butt on the field. Get in there, don't worry about measuring yourself up to these guys and do what they're doing, figure out what works for you. ... Keep doing the little things: watch more film, get more practice time, take extra reps, when they need someone to jump in there jump in there.

"The big thing for me was just going out there and playing my butt off as much as I can."

***

Michael Heitz can't imagine growing up in a place where he couldn't "mess with the cows," ride his ATV, fish or hunt.

"They're pretty free-range around here," Chris Heitz said. "Boys can be boys here."

But Michael Heitz – don't call him Mike ("Mike Heitz? It just doesn't sound right," he said) – is ready for something new.

"I love it around here, but you need something different every so often," Heitz said. "I can't wait to get up (to the UI) and start learning."

The transition from Vermont to a Big Ten campus is bound to be somewhat bumpy. Heitz says he will miss his mother's cooking, a statement that brings tears to Kelly's eyes.

"I'll have to make him treats so we can send them back with him when he comes home," Kelly said.

To which Chris said, "If he's eating like they do at the Varsity Club, I'm sure they'll feed him enough up there."

In fact, UI coaches have told Heitz his "job is to eat and lift" as he redshirts his first year to try and fill his massive frame. Kelly and Chris have worries like any other parents sending their baby to college, but they're comforted by the football support system.

"He will survive fine," Kelly said. "I think he's been brought up to be responsible. I think he'll work things out."

Chris thought his son could play college football but never thought football already would have taken the family across the country. Chris wants to visit every Big Ten campus during Michael's time at Illinois.

"I hope every Jan. 1 I'm going somewhere, too," Chris said.

Michael's commitment to Illinois has made the map seem smaller for the Heitz family.

"Our world was this big," Chris said, putting his hands together to form a circle on the kitchen table.

"It was this, now it's here," he said, stretching his albatross wingspan to its limits.