It’s like I always say: no recruiting class is truly complete if it doesn’t have its quarterback.

On Friday, Eastern Michigan received a commitment from just the type of guy it needed to have in this class: a big, college-sized QB that’s shown that he’s able to push the ball downfield.

Ben Peterson, from Geneva, Ill. (Geneva HS) made his announcement on social media to say that he picked EMU over South Dakota, and also held offers from Miami OH, Toledo, Lindenwood, and Albany.

In a recent phone interview with The Ypsilanti Eleven, Peterson said that he narrowed his top two schools to EMU and South Dakota as he built positive relationships with the people at both programs, but having family ties in the Mitten State certainly helped Peterson want to stay more local.

Peterson said his father grew up near Lansing, and his brother, Will, is a redshirt-freshman long snapper at Western Michigan.

“So we're Michigan State basketball fans,” Peterson said “[my dad] grew up a Bulls fan because of [Michael] Jordan, but we're big Lions fans.”

Being from Illinois and having familiarity with some parts of Michigan is one thing. But not every recruit can say that one of their current high school coaches and future college coach were once league foes.

EMU offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Piatkowski played his college ball at Drake (under Chris Creighton’s leadership) from 2008-2012, and Geneva assistant coach Sean Grady, a Geneva graduate himself, was at Butler from 2009-2013. Both were named to All-Pioneer League lists — Piatkowski as the league’s best offensive player in 2012 and helped Drake earn a share of the league title in his last two years. Grady, who played safety for Butler’s defense, was an all-conference honorable mention player in 2011, and a First Team honoree in 2012 and 2013.

In 2009 (before Grady saw the field), Drake lost at Butler 20-17 to spoil Drake’s shot at a Pioneer League title. But Drake ended up beating Butler in 2010 (10-7), 2011 (24-14), and 2012 (45-20).

“Coach Pike, the quarterback coach played college football at Drake, and one of our coaches at Geneva played at Butler,” Peterson said. “They played each other a couple times, so they knew of each other.”

A pile of injuries to key contributors on his high school team last season led to a 4-5 finish on the record books for Geneva, but Division I colleges were still clearly interested in the quarterback as Peterson also drew interest from schools like Kansas State and Western Michigan.

Said Peterson on how his recruitment with Eastern began, “I reached out [to EMU] first, and then [Piatkowski] came to see me throw in January, and that was the first time we met. After that, it just kept building up and up from there. I have every single coach's phone number from the staff before I even committed. So they just did their best job trying to connect with me… I made the spring visit this March to watch practice.”

Ever since he left his visit in Ypsilanti, Peterson kept EMU and the connections he was able to make there in mind, and it only took a couple of months for him to figure out that that’s where he wanted his college life to begin.

Now, as the third player committed (first on offense) to EMU’s next signing class, it’s his turn to show some excitement with other guys his age. Peterson said that now the expectation from Eastern is to be a class leader and get other recruits to think about joining him in the green and white next year.

“The quarterback has to be the program leader. I'm the class leader. So now [Piatkowski] expects me to do my end of the recruiting and try and get people to come down to Eastern now,” Peterson said.

To Peterson, the quarterback has a lot of duties and responsibilities.

He’s got to be a self-starter. He has to have great work ethic. Leadership ought to be second-nature. Athletically, being able to push the ball downfield is a requirement.

But as a passer, Peterson’s not being asked to throw the football through a tireswing.

As Peterson went to visit an EMU spring practice in March, the young quarterback received some mental programming from Creighton, himself a former quarterback. Instead of stressing accuracy in his passes, Peterson said what Creighton wants is a quarterback who’s smart enough to have a good idea of where the ball should be thrown just by knowing the playbook and reading the opposing defenses.

“Putting it where you want it has something to do with reading the defense on a deeper level and understanding what you're seeing in front of you,” said Peterson. “A quarterback can be accurate, but they're not always the best decision maker.

“I believe I can do that and bring that for this offense in the future years.”