MORE
Most Recent Entries
- Riverview's Byrd Signs With Elon
- Two Eagles Make College Choices
- Gaither's Lattimore Gets Another Offer
- Offers Still Rolling In For Jackson
- McAllister Refines His Fave Nine
- Wharton Lineman Gets First Offer
- Plant's Womack Headed To Oklahoma State
- Holloway Commits To Liberty
- Zaccario Headed To Memphis
- Giles Picks Tennessee
- Smith Has Auburn At Top After Visit
- Dupree To Sign With Palm Beach Atlantic
- Giddins Gets Big Offer
- Gilliam Lands First Offer
- Illinois Latest To Offer Jones
Monthly Archives
|
|
Latest Prep Recruiting Updates |
|
 |
|
Former Riverview High offensive lineman Rashaun Byrd has signed a football scholarship with Elon University, a Football Championship Subdivision program (formerly I-AA), Sharks coach Bruce Gifford announced Thursday.
Byrd, a two-year starter for the Sharks, had been prepared to accept a preferred walk on position at Bethune-Cookman before Elon jumped very late into the picture. Gifford said Byrd and his family made a trip to Elon’s campus and then the lineman recently signed with the program.
“He’s headed up to start working out with them next week,” said Gifford, who added Byrd also had a few Division II offers.
Gifford said Byrd will be shifted over to the defensive line in college and is set to play at defensive end, a position he saw limited action at during his senior year at Riverview and one in which he performed well.
As a senior with the Sharks, Byrd, a recent graduate, earned All-Western Conference second team honors. He was also a Tribune All-Hillsborough County honorable mention selection.
“He was a real solid palyer for us,” Gifford said.
Former Brandon High football players Tyrone Comer and Taylor Lentz have decided where they’ll play college football.
Comer, a defensive back, will walk on at Division II powerhouse Valdosta State, while Lentz, an offensive lineman, is headed to Division III Anderson University in Indiana, Eagles coach John Lima announced this weekend.
Both players, each recent graduates, were first team All-Western Conference selections as seniors last season while helping the Eagles win a district title.
Gaither’s Justin Lattimore picked up another offer on Friday. Illinois State University offered the Cowboys tight end a scholarship.
Lattimore has received several other Division I offers and is expected to pick up several more before the football season begins.
He is expected to attend a camp at Georgia later this summer where Gaither coach Mark Kantor said Lattimore should come home with an offer.
Armwood’s Mywan Jackson continues to attract the attention of college recruiters, and the Hawks’ rising senior quarterback picked up three scholarship offers recently to run his total to 18.
Jackson said Auburn, West Virginia and Colorado are the latest programs to offer, joining a list that already includes Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina and USF, among others.
Jackson isn’t the only Armwood rising senior to pull in an offer recently, though.
Defensive back Angelo Hadley picked up one from Kansas, and linebacker Casey Callahan picked up his first offer from Division I-AA Stony Brook.
Wharton rising senior and offensive lineman Hunter Stout picked up his first official offer last week when Middle Tennessee State decided to offer, Wharton coach David Mitchell said. Stout (6-5, 280), is the second rising senior from Wharton to receive an offer. Strong safety Jairus Jones is actually up to six, highlighted by interest from LSU.
Mitchell is hoping the offers will start rolling in for quarterback Andrew Clifford. If you haven’t seen his highlight film on Rivals.com, here it is
Alabama’s out. Clemson’s in.
Alonso defensive lineman Demonte McAllister amended his top nine college list. Two weeks ago, McAllister narrowed his rather large list of Division I scholarship offers down to nine. Check out McAllister’s blog style here. He wrote his own blog for TBO.com when he narrowed the field.
At the time Alabama made the cut. One of Hillsborough County’s top lineman has since had a change of heart and added Clemson. The rest of McAllister’s list remains the same: Arkansas, Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Tennessee and USC. McAllister will begin taking some trips soon. One of his first visits will be FSU.
One day after it was made public that Sirchauncey Holloway would miss his senior season due to violating an FHSAA bylaw, Holloway locked up an offer to ensure he’ll play the season following the suspension.
On Tuesday, Holloway verbally committed to Liberty, a Football Championship Subdivision program (formerly Division I-AA) that had extended a scholarship offer last week.
“I’m very happy,” Holloway said. “I can’t wait to get up there.”
Armwood High football coach Sean Callahan announced Monday that the FHSAA ruled Holloway, who transferred to Armwood from Plant City in January, was ineligible to play next season because he falsified his living address to gain admittance to Armwood. Callahan said he and Holloway both spoke to Liberty coaches on Tuesday and when they said the offer was still there, Holloway accepted.
“Everyone was very positive about it,” Callahan said regarding Liberty’s coaching staff. “Liberty really wanted him, and he felt good about it.”
Holloway said Tuesday it’s still uncertain whether he will be allowed to remain at Armwood to complete his senior year of school. Armwood athletic director Don Hill said Monday that Armwood was awaiting word on the matter from the school district.
Holloway rushed for 972 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior at Plant City.
Jared Womack, a recent graduate who was one of the top hitters on Plant’s baseball team the past two seasons, has accepted a scholarship offer to Oklahoma State, Panthers coach Dennis Braun said Tuesday.
Womack, a catcher and a Tribune All-Hillsborough County first team selection in each of the past two seasons, originally signed with Division I High Point in November. However, Braun said Womack asked for and was granted his release from that Letter-of-Intent, and, after fielding offers from several other Division I programs decided to join the Oklahoma State squad.
Womack was one of the area’s top hitters as a senior, hitting .514 with 11 doubles, five home runs and 43 RBI. As a junior, Womack hit .487 with 12 doubles, five home runs and 37 RBI.
Former Plant standout Dylan Brown also plays for Oklahoma State’s baseball team.
Armwood rising senior linebacker Petey Smith made his first trip to Auburn University this week, and the Hawks standout came away very impressed with the surroundings at one of the program’s that made his final cut when he trimmed his list to five in late May.
“Everything went real good,” Smith said. “I got a chance to talk to all the coaches again, went to the stadium and looked around. It’s a football town all the way.”
“I didn’t commit, but they’re probably at the top right now.”
Smith made the trip to help older brother Eric, a former Armwood running back who signed with Auburn in February, move his belongings and settle in to his new home. He said he didn’t get much time to spend with his brother, who was going through the standard freshman orientation, and instead toured the campus with his parents.
Smith, who holds scholarship offers from many of the nation’s top programs, trimmed his list of potential schools to five. The list included Auburn, Alabama, Illinois, Louisville and North Carolina.
Smith said he didn’t get a chance to visit the University of Alabama while in the state, but said he plans to take a trip there later this summer. He also is scheduled to make an unofficial visit to North Carolina next weekend.
Smith said he’s planning on announcing a verbal commitment to a school toward the end of the summer.
The University of Tennessee has long been a front runner for Jarvis Giles.
Today, Giles made them the clear-cut favorite. The Gaither High running back verbally committed to Tennessee on Friday after spending nearly a week on campus. With almost 20 Division I offers to choose from, Giles had recently narrowed the field to five, which included Clemson, Georgia, Nebraska and South Carolina.
“I’ve just never seen anything like this being from Florida,” Giles said. “I just feel real comfortable here. Everyone has been so nice to me.”
One of Hillsborough County’s leading rushers the last two seasons, Giles had always ranked Tennessee high because of the fact that he has family that lives close by, but also because of the sincere interest from the coaching staff.
Giles arrived in Knoxville on Sunday and has spent time touring the campus. He was impressed by the rather expansive weight room and also by the academic facilities.
“They showed me where Peyton Manning used to study,” Giles said. “That was really cool.”
The recruiting process is finally over for Newsome’s Vinny Zaccario.
Zaccario, a recent graduate, said Friday he’s headed to the University of Memphis as a preferred walk-on. But, Zaccario said it may not be long before he’s on scholarship.
Zaccario will head to Memphis Aug. 3 to begin competing for the place kicker job, and he said that there’s a good chance he’ll see the field as a true freshman.
“It sounds like they expect me to take the kickoff position right away and then compete for field goal spot,” Zaccario said.
If Zaccario makes his mark at those positions, he said he’s been assured he’ll be placed on scholarship after the season.
“They did guarantee if I did win both positions I would get a scholarship next semester,” he said.
To start, Zaccario said he’ll be given academic aid to help offset the costs of tuition. He said one possibility was the university waiving out-of-state tuition costs.
Regardless of the situation, Zaccario, who turned down a scholarship offer to Division I-AA Idaho State and also considered walking on at FAU, is happy to be heading to a Division I program and glad to finally be done with the recruiting process.
“The main thing is I’m just relieved,” he said. “Now I can stop making 1,000 phone calls a week and stop worrying about the thing.”
Plant City’s Johnathon Dupree will sign a soccer scholarship with Palm Beach Atlantic University, Raiders athletic director Trent Hobbs announced Thursday.
Dupree, a recent graduate, was a starter on the Raiders’ district title teams in 2006 and 2008. As a senior, Dupree led the team in assists.
The Palm Beach Atlantic University men’s soccer team finished as the national runner-up in the National Christian College Athletic Association this past season.
Durant offensive lineman Cole Gilliam has picked up his first scholarship offer.
Cougars coach Mike Gottman said Wednesday that Elon, a Football Championship Subdivision program (formerly I-AA), extended a formal offer to the 6-foot-5, 333-pound tackle who earned Class 6A all-state honorable mention honors as a junior.
The first Division I offer could be close for Gilliam, who will certainly have his chance to impress college coaches. Gottman said Gilliam has a busy summer with stops at several football camps at Division I schools and also will head to the Down & Dirty Linemen Camp at Stetson in the coming weeks.
Gottman also said Wednesday that linebacker Kevin Szczypinski, a recent graduate, will continue his career at Division II West Virginia Wesleyan. Offensive lineman John Piascik also is headed to the program.
Armwood standout defensive lineman Ryne Giddins recently picked up what could be his biggest scholarship offer yet: an offer from national power Southern California.
Giddins said Wednesday morning that USC pulled the trigger within the past two weeks, joining a long list of offers for the Hawks rising senior that includes many of the nation’s top programs - Florida, Florida State, Tennessee, Miami, Auburn, North Carolina, USF, Rutgers, Vanderbilt and Louisville are a few.
Giddins also said he’ll narrow down his choices to a list of six sometime between the end of June and beginning of July. He wouldn’t budge on giving insight as to which programs would make the cut, but from the sound of Giddins, USC and USF figure to be two.
Giddins has been very impressed with the hometown Bulls - from the athletic facilities (which is the best he’s seen), to the coaches and to the chance to play in Raymond James Stadium. But, where the Bulls staff is making its mark is in the attention they’re showing toward the four-star prospect, who was recently rated the nation’s No. 98 prospect by Rivals.com.
“That means a lot to me because it shows they want me real bad,” Giddins said. “Any other school can do the same thing, but they’re not.”
Giddins, and the rest of the Hawks players, will head to the University of Central Florida (another program that has offered) for a football camp next week. Giddins also will make an unofficial visit to North Carolina sometime in the next month.
Giddins added teammate Mywan Jackson, the Hawks’ rising senior quarterback, recently picked up an offer from Auburn, meaning Armwood’s top four prospects all have an offer from the Southeastern Conference school. Giddins, defensive back Angelo Hadley and linebacker Petey Smith, who is at Auburn this week with his brother, Eric, previously had been offered by the Tigers.
Several Armwood football players have been on the recruiting scene for quite some time, and a new player could be joining that front very soon: rising senior receiver Rob Jones.
Hawks assistant Evan Davis said Monday night that Jones performed very well at football camps at Louisville and Middle Tennessee State this weekend, enough so to land himself on the recruiting radar for those two programs. While Jones did not pick up a scholarship offer from either program, Davis said those schools have requested some film on Jones, who played receiver, quarterback and returned kicks for the Hawks as a junior.
Jones, Davis, and Hawks rising seniors Mywan Jackson, Matt Eastman and Justin Cabbagestalk all went on a trip this weekend to attend those football camps and to visit a few other college campuses. Cabbagestalk, an offensive lineman, actually ended up verbally committing on Monday after an unofficial visit to Vanderbilt, one of the stops the Hawks caravan made during the trip.
The emergence of Jones as a possible Division I recruit could help Armwood’s Class of 2009 go down as the best football recruiting class in program history.
Defensive lineman Ryne Giddins, linebacker Petey Smith and defensive back Angelo Hadley are among the area’s most heavily recruited prospects, each holding more than 15 Division I scholarship offers. Jackson, the quarterback, also holds double-digit Division I offers. And Cabbagestalk has already committed to the Commodores, a Southeastern Conference school. That gives the Hawks five solid Division I prospects.
Throw into the mix players like linebacker Casey Callahan, running back Sirchauncey Holloway, Jones and Eastman, all of whom are likely to land somewhere (be it Division I-AA, II or higher) and the Hawks could have nine players sign in February.
Armwood’s 2005 signing class also had nine. Four players signed Division I scholarships, four with Division I-AA programs and one with a Division II school.
Advertisement
