Plant’s Charles Puts College Plans On Hold

Posted Sep 4, 2008 by Katherine Smith

Updated Sep 4, 2008 at 08:36 AM

The lights went out on Orson Charles Wednesday night - literally.

As the last guy to walk off the field at Plant’s Dad’s Stadium, the senior tight end got in some extra stretches following the Panthers practice as the lights were turned off. Charles wanted to soak up as much as he could to get ready for Armwood.

What he’s not ready to do is narrow down his list of nearly 30 Division I scholarship offers. Charles had hoped to whittle down his lengthy list to five before the start of the season. Not gonna happen. Charles said he can’t even get his list to 10. That’s because more schools have contacted Coach Robert Weiner and said they want to see Charles in action this season.

So instead of taking official visits this fall, he’s going to concentrate on his senior season.

“Coach Weiner said there’s new people looking at me and they want to see how I play,” said Charles, who plans on attending Saturday night’s game between Florida and Miami, two schools that have made him offers. “They don’t want to go off the summer. They want to see how I play in pads. So now I’m wide open and I’m going to wait until the end of the season because I don’t want it to interfere.

“I’m not really thinking about college right now. If they want me, they’re still going to be there at the end of the season.”