Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Christian French tries to stop Andy Didio of Cedar Rapids Xavier during a game at Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids August 27, 2010. (Cliff Jette/The Gazette)

The game changed this week for Christian French.

As the Cedar Rapids Kennedy senior’s college stock soared on the football field, he’d been fairly insulated by NCAA rules. Summer contact with schools couldn’t be direct, and coaches had to go through Kennedy head coach Tim Lewis.

But beginning Wednesday, coaches could begin phoning or writing the 6-foot-6, 230-pounder. The only folks calling him before that were recruiting website folks. That part hasn’t been easy, either.

“Yeah, sometimes that’s difficult,” said French, whose Cougars (0-1) host Linn-Mar (1-0) tonight at 7:30 at Kingston Stadium. “You’ve just got to weigh out your time. Between answering calls and calling people back, sometimes that’s stressful. But you’ve just got to get over it, because that’s part of the game.

“You come out here and play and do something well, there’s people going to ask you for interviews. Just part of football. It could be worse.”

Yeah, way worse. The athletic French — timed at 4.4 seconds in the 40-yard dash — will be playing big-time college football. It’s just a matter of where. He has taken two unofficial visits each to Iowa, Iowa State and Notre Dame. Other offers include Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Oregon and Nebraska.

French is in demand, probably as a defensive lineman or linebacker. At Kennedy, he does a little bit of everything, including playing tight end and wide receiver.

“I want to probably take a couple of official visits,” French said. “I don’t want to wait too long in the season. A couple of weeks within the season and make that decision. Find a home, a place where I feel comfortable and I feel like I can do the best I can to get an education and perform on the field.”

He doesn’t have a leader.

“Not right now,” he said. “Pretty soon I’m going to narrow it down to my top five and then list them one, two, three, etc.”