Prospect Spotlight: Chase Androff: Lakeville South (2022)

With interest from the Big Ten to the SEC to the Ivy League, Lakeville South junior [player_tooltip player_id="18432" first="Chase" last="Androff"] is one of Minnesota’s most recruited football players in the Class of 2022. Once his junior season started, Androff’s recruiting took off. The quick and intense interest was a surprise to the Cougars’ big man. "Recruiting has been great," Androff said. "Through the summer, I only talked to Iowa State. When September 1st hit, I had ten to fifteen schools reaching out to me. It was cool. I realized college football was really going to happen – I didn’t expect it. I have nine scholarship offers and four Ivy League offers." Androff has offers from Kansas State, Michigan State, Colorado State, Central Michigan, Buffalo, Nebraska, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Miami (OH), Iowa State, and Central Florida. Vanderbilt, Tennesee, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, South Dakota State, and Harvard have not extended an offer but are looking at him. Because of COVID, Androff has not been able to see many campuses live. "The only campus I have visited is Nebraska because my sister went there. I have been on some virtual junior days." With Ivy League schools in the mix, Androff obviously has a solid GPA. As a two-sport athlete, the 6’6" 230 athlete has to find a balance between school, sports, and social life. "It is just effort. I take a lot of pride in my grades. I am always working with my teachers to see what more I can do." This season, the Cougars made the most of their shortened season. "The season went great," Androff said. "We took it one game at a time. We were lucky, most teams had to miss a game because of COVID, but our team stayed healthy and ended up going 8-0. We were the Associated Press 6A state champion." "Offensively, with our Power T, we were good at making adjustments," Androff continued. "We were able to counter what defenses were trying to do to stop us. Our offensive coaches did a good job of countering whatever the defense is doing. Defensively, we had a ton of returning starters and guys that work hard." The junior knew his role was not going to result in any gaudy stats. "Being a tight end in this offense, I only caught two passes, but I had quite a few good blocks. I mean, 8-0, I can’t complain about that." Androff focused on the offensive side of the ball. "I would play a handful of plays at defensive end, but nothing like last year. Last year I switched in a lot on defense, but this year I focused on offense." He felt being available to his teammates was time better spent. "I feel I am a good leader. During defense, we would make adjustments on offense. Our offense is based on countering what the defense is doing. It would have been hard to know what the adjustments were going to be on offense and help the guys with the adjustments." Although the Cougars’ offense always includes two tight ends, Androff would line up on both sides of the ball. "(Senior, Wisconsin commit) [player_tooltip player_id="18025" first="Riley" last="Mahlman"] was out some games, so we were rotating tight ends a lot. We had a lot of guys filling in, so if they didn’t feel comfortable or didn’t know what they were doing, I would switch on a certain play or tell them what to do. Basically, every play call, I would decide which side to line up on." Androff’s strength on the field is evident for a converted offensive tackle. "Blocking is my strength. I played offensive tackle until 9th grade, when I started playing tight end. I have always taken pride in my blocking. For our team, playing tight end is like a glorified tackle. In 9th grade – which was our first year running the Power T – my coach told me I was playing tight end." Androff – who likes to golf in his spare time – knows what he needs to work on for college football. "I have been working on my receiver skills. I can catch and know how to run routes, but we don’t pass very much, so I want to experiment with that a little bit more  and hopefully improve in that area." Improving his receiver skills starts in the winter – on the basketball team. "We are 7-6. I think we are still finding ourselves. I am mostly a role player. I rebound, play defense and get blocks – anything the team needs from me." He also gets some receiving work in on the weekends. "On Sunday mornings, we have seven on seven. Then on Sunday nights, we get together and run plays and work on new stuff we are putting in for next year." Not a surprise now; next year, he will be putting in his application to one of the many big-time college programs.