Antonio May, a defensive end from Dodge City (Kan.) Junior College made a visit to Utah State's campus this weekend.

The 6-foot-4 prospect was a three-star recruit out of a high school in Arkansas, but went the junior college route and is now a recruitable athlete who has apparently earned his associates degree.

May committed to Houston last fall, but would really help the Aggies, who need a quick, pass-rushing defensive end.

Help is already on the way for Utah State's defensive line, as the Aggies signed Casey Davis of Snow College and Magnum Mauga, a one-time BYU recruit, earlier this year.

Last year, the Ags ranked last in the WAC in rushing defense (196.2 yards per game) and last in sacks (12).

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Jake Heaps, the junior-to-be from Skyline High in Issaquah, Wash., continues to rack up the scholarship offers, according to Scout.com.

Heaps, a major BYU target, received an offer from South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier on Friday and an offer from the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pounder now has eight Division I offers.

C.J. Wilcox, the highly recruited shooting guard from Pleasant Grove High who will be a senior this fall is getting close to making his college decision, his father, Craig, said this afternoon.

Then again, C.J. Wilcox might make a decision that prolongs the decision.

Here's what is going on with the player considered to be the No. 2 college prospect in the state, only slightly behind Lone Peak's Tyler Haws:

Wilcox, a 6-foot-5 shooitng guard went on an unofficial (paid his own way) recruiting visit to Washington a few weeks ago. Shortly after his return, he told a national recruiting Web site analyst that he had narrowed his choices to Utah and Washington.

However, when word got out that Wilcox was down to two schools, a couple of schools in Florida -- Miami and Florida State -- got in touch with Craig Wilcox (a former BYU player) and said they wanted C.J. to visit their campuses before he makes a commitment to the Huskies or Utes.

Trouble is, schools can't begin paying for official visits for a couple of months, so C.J. would have to get out there on his own dime.

Craig Wilcox said that they will talk it over this weekend and decide whether to open the recruiting process back up to include the Florida schools, or just stick with the Utah/Washington plan.

At any rate, C.J. hopes to have a decision made before the July all-star club circuit begins, Craig said.

He said that California, San Diego, Iowa State, Nebraska, BYU and Utah State have also offered scholarships to C.J., along with the four previously mentioned schools.

The father said he has had conversations with coaches at BYU, Utah State, Iowa State and Nebraska and they know they are out of the running.

I asked him if he had some heartburn that C.J. had eliminated his former school, BYU, so quickly.

"To be honest, I could care less if he goes to BYU or Utah State or goes out of state," he said. "His experience at BYU would be a lot different than mine was, because he is a much better player than I was. He's got to make the decision that is right for him."

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I also talked this afternoon with Cory Wilcox, father of LeSean Wilcox, another rising senior at Pleasant Grove High. LeSean and C.J. are cousins, but LeSean is somewhat shorter (about 6-foot-1) and will probably end up playing football in college.

Cory said that LeSean does not have any offers yet, but that interest in him seems to be higher among football coaches than basketball coaches. LeSean was a standout running back and safety on the Vikings' football team.

LeSean recently did well at the Scout.com combine in Phoenix and will participate in a bunch of camps in June.

Recently, coaches from Washington and California visited Pleasant Grove -- "on their way to Timpview," Cory joked -- and met with Vikings football coach Dale Sampson about LeSean.

The debate over whether BYU recruits players from other programs who are on LDS Church missions -- and whether it is unethical or runs contrary to what BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall has said he will or won't do -- has gone on all week.

You are probably as sick of it as I am.

However, several readers have wondered why, in my initial post about Riley Nelson's transfer to BYU, I mentioned that the situation would "undoubtedly cast some suspicion on BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's claim last fall that he does not recruit athletes who are on missions."

Several of you have said that I pulled that claim out of thin air. Well, I didn't. I've heard Mendenhall talk about the policy several times, although I haven't been around him nearly as much as other reporters.

When my colleague, Michael C. Lewis, was researching the topic for a story that appeared in Wednesday's Tribune, he found this article that I wrote in October of 2006.

The second half of the overall article -- which was entitled "BYU Notes: Fullback's kin get bonus" -- is about receiver Austin Collie, who was on a church mission at the time. Mendenhall's quotes were taken directly from a taped interview.

Here's the second half of the article that was published Oct. 20, 2006:

Collie's calling

Receiver Austin Collie, the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year in 2004 before leaving on an LDS Church mission to Argentina, is now a recruitable athlete again and is scheduled to return home Jan. 3.

However, Mendenhall said he has no reason to believe Collie won't return to BYU, despite some internet chat room prattle that other Division I-A schools, most notably Oregon, have contacted the native of El Dorado Hills, Calif.

Collie, the younger brother of BYU senior Zac Collie, caught a team-high 53 passes for 771 yards and eight touchdowns in 2004 while being coached by Gary Crowton, now Oregon's offensive coordinator.

"We are recruiting Austin Collie the same way we do all our missionaries - with a letter once a month pertaining to something of the spirit," Mendenhall said. "We stand ready to embrace him as soon as he comes back. . . . From what I understand right now, there is no risk that he won't come back."

Mendenhall said that if there are schools recruiting BYU athletes currently on missions, "it is a shame they don't see the big picture."

The coach said BYU rarely contacts recruitable athletes from other Division I-A programs who are on missions, and only after "strong recommendations from their parents that they have an interest" in BYU.

"We don't go looking for them," he said.

(c) 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.

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Got another "missionary-transfers-to-BYU" story to report, but this one shouldn't be as controversial. At least, let's hope not.

As first reported by the Web site totalbluesports.com, Malosi Te'o, a running back from Kahuku, Haw., will sign with BYU when he returns home from his LDS Church mission in December or January. Te'o signed with UNLV out of high school (in February of 2006), but did not play for the Rebels in 2006 before leaving on his mission in February of 2007.

Te'o's father, Ephraim Te'o, confirmed that his son is going to BYU, but refused to call it a "transfer" because Malosi never suited up for the Rebels.

"Malosi has wanted to go to BYU his whole life, but [the Cougars] were out of scholarships when his senior season ended," Ephraim said. "UNLV came in and offered and so he signed with them."

Ironically, Ephaim Te'o learned about the school switch from UNLV coaches, who apparently received a letter recently from Malosi informing them of his decision.

The father said that as far as he knows, BYU coaches have not been informed by his son that he is accepting their scholarship offer, which was made in April.

Perhaps wary of the uproar that ensued when Utah State quarterback Riley Nelson announced Monday he was transferring to BYU, Ephraim Te'o pointed out that his family contacted BYU coaches first about Malosi's interest in becoming a Cougar.

He also said that BYU coaches did not get back to the family with their interest until his son had been on his mission for more than a year.

I called Logan football coach Mike Favero this afternoon, hoping he could shed some light on the situation that has dominated sports talk radio shows and captured newspaper headlines around Utah the past two days.

I didn't get much.

Favero coached Riley Nelson, the quarterback who is transferring from Utah State to BYU when he returns home from his LDS Church mission to Spain, when Nelson played at Logan High, just down the road from USU.

Let's just say the affable coach was a lot more talkative when Nelson was setting all those records for the Grizzlies.

I asked the question a lot of people have asked me since the story broke on Memorial Day. Did BYU initiate the contact with Riley, or did Riley's family contact BYU?

"I'm not sure," Favero said.

I told him that Riley's father, Keith, has said in various interviews that Favero told the family of BYU's interest a few months ago after Favero talked with BYU receivers coach Patrick Higgins, who recruits the area for the Cougars. Is Mr. Nelson's account accurate?

"Sure, you bet," he said.

So did the BYU coach bring up Nelson first, or did Favero mention him first?

"I don't even remember," he said. "A number of people have asked about Riley."

As readers of this blog are well aware, college recruiters are beating a path to Logan High again because the Favero has another dandy at quarterback, 6-foot-4 senior-to-be Jeff Manning. Certainly, BYU has its eye on Manning, too.

Favero then said that he has had " a lot" of college coaches from "a number of schools" ask about Nelson since he's been on his mission which, ironically, began before Nelson turned 19 so he would be home in time for USU's spring camp in March of 2009.

"And it wasn't always BYU," Favero said. "I had a number of schools, a number of people, a number of football fans ask about Riley.....I've been asked many times how he was doing and what his plans were. I've said the same thing the whole time: I'm not sure."

Favero said the only communication he has had with Riley is a congratulatory letter that Riley sent after the Grizzlies won the 3A state championship last fall.

I asked Favero if it was common for college coaches to ask about guys who are in other college programs.

"When you are as decorated as Riley Nelson was as a high school player, a lot of people ask," he said.

Like I said, I didn't get much.

Remember the days when the top prep football players in the state went to BYU or Utah and rarely ventured out of state? Remember when big schools rarely came into Utah because they were aware of that fact?
Those days are gone.
The latest example -- and there are going to be a bunch this year -- is Spanish Fork tight end Richard Wilson.
Sure, Wilson started a few months ago with offers from BYU and Utah. Now he has a few more.
Scout.com is reporting that Wilson received offers Tuesday from Tennessee and Arizona. Now he has five overall, with BYU, Utah and LSU having previously extended written scholarship invitations.
Wilson spent the Memorial Day break in Phoenix at the UnderArmour/Scout.com Combine, and made the all-combine team. He had 46 catches for 690 yards and eight TDs as a junior last season.

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Jake Heaps, the quarterback who will be a junior this fall at Washington’s Skyline High sent an e-mail to various media outlets on Wednesday saying that he recently received an offer from Arizona State. He now has eight offers, including one from BYU.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound QB led his team from Issaquah, Wash., to the 3A state championship as a sophomore last fall. Stanford, UCLA and Washington are among the schools that have offered Heaps.

Spurned recently by UCLA (which offered and received a commitment from another prep quarterback over the weekend), highly touted prep quarterback Josh Nunes of Upland, Calif., has cut down his list of potential college choices to eight.

Locally, BYU made Nunes' top eight list. Utah did not.

Nunes was originally going to narrow his choices to five, but told rivals.com that at this point he could not get it lower than eight.

The top eight (all the schools have offered) are Arizona State, BYU, Florida, Harvard, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Stanford and Tennessee.

The Cougars still have to be considered a longshot to land Nunes, who is not LDS.

Also, it is not clear yet if BYU is still interested in Nunes, after Monday's announcement that USU quarterback Riley Nelson is transferring to BYU. Both quarterbacks would be available for the 2009 season, but both would have redshirt seasons at their disposal.

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Olympus ended up placing fourth in that AAU Pacific Northwest tournament in Reno, Nev., over the weekend. The Titans lost to Bingham 52-49 in the third-fourth place game.

Olympus defeated Cameron Park of Northern California 51-32 in the quarterfinals behind 14 points from Corbin Green, bbrother of University of Utah foward Shaun Green.

The next time I go to IKEA (if there is a next time), I'm taking my cell phone.

When I got back from my little Memorial Day shopping spree, there was a doozy of a message on my cell phone -- from Keith Nelson, father of Utah State quarterback Riley Nelson.

Well, FORMER Utah State quarterback Riley Nelson.

In case you haven't seen the news on The Tribune's Web site http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9385596 , Riley Nelson announced this weekend that he transferring to BYU when he returns home from his LDS Church mission in Barcelona, Spain in March of 2009.

Keith Nelson said Riley will be eligible to play in 2009, but may be asked to redshirt. BYU starting quarterback Max Hall has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

The news is sure to send shock waves through both programs, and will undoubtedly cast some suspicion on BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's claim last fall that he does not "recruit" athletes who are on missions.

When rumors were swirling last fall that Nelson was considering a move to BYU when he got home, I asked Mendenhall about it and was told that BYU only contacted guys on missions who were already in its program.

Another source at BYU told me at the time that the Cougars were not interested in Nelson and had not even offered him a scholarship out of high school.

Well, something apparently changed. It also may be true that Nelson contacted BYU first after learning through his former high school coach that the Cougars were interested in him.

According to Keith Nelson, e-mails between Riley and BYU coaches started this spring. Apparently, BYU receivers coach Patrick Higgins and Nelson's high school coach, Mike Favero, were chatting a few months ago and Favero apparently mentioned that Nelson might have some interest in transferring and Higgins mentioned that BYU might be open to taking Nelson.

One thing led to another, and BYU offered a "full-ride scholarship" a few weeks ago, Keith Nelson said.

Nelson, a physician, didn't want to list the reasons why his son is transferring and was unclear about who contacted who first. He said Riley might release a statement explaining his thinking in the next few days.

My guess is we might not know how it all went down until March of 2009 when Riley returns home.

According to the Birmingham (Ala.) News, UAB has received a commitment from a top junior college player whom the University of Utah was apparently interested in.

Maurice Bolden, a 6-foot-10 center who is ranked as one of the top five JUCO players in the country by the Midwest Scouting Service, committed to UAB coach Mike Davis on Saturday. Bolden played at Wingfield High in Jackson, Mo., before moving on to Marion Junior College.

The News said Southern Miss, Iowa, Auburn and Utah were also after Bolden.

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Utah State's football program got a late commitment recently from Micah Parker, a tight end from Mesa (Ariz.) Community College. Parker recently visited Logan and told Scout.com that he will become an Aggie.

"I was offered and have the paperwork and I will sign when I get home," he told the Web site via a text message.

A 6-foot-1, 250-pound sophomore, Parker played high school football at Gilbert High in Arizona and two seasons at Mesa. He caught 29 passes for 437 yards last year.

Looks like Olympus High is going to have another outstanding basketball team next winter. A collection of players who will attend Olympus won their first game at the Pacific Northwest AAU Championship in Reno, Nev. The Titans defeated Spanish Springs High (Nev.) 61-51.

Some 20 teams from California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Utah are in the varsity division.

Olympus coach Matt Barnes coaches the team, which includes Joey Bourne, Connor Brady, Corbin Green, Spencer Hille, Adam Mahas, Nicholas Paulos, Sam Spafford and Will Watkins.

Attention high school football players:

Here's your chance to show college football scouts what you can do -- and it is all free.

Hillcrest High in Midvale will host the 10th annual Utah High School Football Combine on Tuesday (May 27) at 5 p.m.

Admission is free, thanks to sponsors Athletic Edge, Best Buy and the Huntington ACT Prep Learning Center. All participants will receive a T-shirt.

The event will include the following tests: 40-yard dash, vertical jump, standing broad jump, three-cone L drill, pro agility shuttle and bench-press repetition test. Height, weight and wingspan will be measured, and all results will be made available to colleges.

Football players who will be freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors are eligible to attend. Bring your cleats and tennis shoes for the testing.

Questions? Call Jordan football coach Alex Jacobson at (801) 256-5535.

Utah and BYU have more company in the battle for one of the best high school quarterbacks in the country, Josh Nunes of Upland, Calif.

Superprep.com reported today that Nunes just received a scholarship offer from Florida.

In other words, don't expect the Utes or the Cougars to land the four-star recruit who made an unofficial visit to BYU's campus last month.

Nunes received the Florida offer from offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, who was quarterbacks coach at Utah when Florida head coach Urban Meyer was the head Ute.

Nunes said he is impressed by Mullen's resume of working with quarterbacks such at Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, Chris Leak and, of course, former Ute Alex Smith.

"[Mullen] compared me to Smith and said he thinks I would be a great fit in that offense," Nunes told Brandon Huffman.

Nunes has repeatedly said he will narrow his list of schools to five on or before May 27. Right now he has offers from the likes of Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Louisville, Nebraska, SMU, Stanford, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas Tech, along with the Utes and Cougars.

A source who knows Nunes quite well told me a few weeks ago that he doesn't expect BYU or Utah to make the top five because the rising senior does not have ties to either school.

Westminster men's basketball coach Tommy Connor has signed two more players for the 2008-09 season, the school announced today.

Joining the Griffins will be Nick Honda, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound guard from Emmett High in Emmett, Idaho, and Jeramie Hopson, a 6-3 guard from Montana Tech.

Honda averaged 20.1 points and five rebounds a game last season at Emmett, and was also an all-conference receiver and kicker on the school's football team.

Hopson averaged 12.3 points and four rebounds per game last season for the Orediggers. He played high school basketball in Gardena, Calif. and also attended L.A. Harbor Community College before joining Montana Tech.

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Salt Lake Community College has signed a pair of players from Toronto Academy, a college prep school in Toronto, Can.

D.J. Wright, a small forward who averaged 22 points and 12 rebounds a game last season has signed with the Bruins, along with Mike Luby, a 6-11 post player.

In my opinion, the best returning high school quarterback in the state is Logan's Jeff Manning, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound rising senior who helped the Grizzlies win the 3A state championship last fall.

Actually, I think Manning is one of the top five prep quarterbacks in the western United States, having watched most of them throw at a 7 on 7 passing camp in March a few weeks ago.

I talked to Manning in Provo last week, and I was surprised to learn he doesn't have a single Division I offer yet.

What's going on?

Manning says he isn't worried about the situation, but he thinks college coaches have been slow to offer because he is very upfront about his LDS mission plans.

"I tell them that I turn 19 in January [2010] after I graduate and that I am going on a mission," he said. "That doesn't cause them to back off, but it does seem to make them slow down."

Manning said schools have talked to him about greyshirting his first year (enrolling, but paying his own way) and then signing in 2012 when he returns home.

Manning attended several University of Utah practices and scrimmages during the Utes' spring camp, and most people figures the Utes would offer the lifelong Ute fan. However, they recently offered Taysom Hill, the prep standout from Pocatello, Idaho.

"I have no problem with that," Manning said. "He's a good athlete. He deserves it."

However, Manning does want to sign with a school next February (to show commitment, as much as anything else) and has had serious discussions with BYU, Colorado State, Boise State, Washington, Utah and Utah State.

"I will eventually get some offers from some great schools," he said. "I'm not worried about it too much."

Manning threw for 2,280 yards and 29 touchdowns last year and also rushed for 490 yards and 10 TDs. He said he is going to try to hit as many camps as possible this summer, even if it is for just one day.

One of the many misconceptions that some parents have about the recruiting process is that the bulk of recruiting and evaluating is done during the high school sports seasons. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Chris Washington, a junior at Northridge High in Layton is a prime example of that.

Washington, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound safety and part-time receiver, was hardly known after his junior season last fall, and did not make even honorable mention on The Tribune's all-state football team.

But he was lucky enough to be invited to play for one of the Utah teams in March's 7 on 7 passing camp in Las Vegas, and since then college scouts have been well aware of him.

Washington told me at last week's recruiting deal at BYU that he doesn't have any offers yet, but expects a few shortly.

"I think I may get one soon from BYU," he said. "It's possible. I talk to BYU coaches a lot."

Washington's stock has risen so fast that he now warrants three stars from Scout.com. You'd be hardpressed to find another three-star prospect out there who wasn't even honorable mention all-state in his previous season.

Washington said that after Las Vegas he started hearing from Boise State, BYU, Oregon State, New Mexico and Utah. He's been invited to an all-star camp in California and recently had to turn down an offer to attend one in Texas.

"Interest in me really took off," he said.

Washington, who is not LDS, said he would have no problem handling BYU's unique atmosphere and stringent honor code and alluded to the success that another non-LDS, African-American standout from Northridge, tight end Dan Coats, had at the LDS Church-sponsored school.

Washington met with some BYU coaches when he was on campus last week, and also attended BYU's Junior Day. He noted that BYU is being extremely cautious with its scholarship offers this year because it only has about 15 to give out.

He plans on attending camps at BYU, Utah and, possibly, Oregon State this summer.

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I haven't been able to reach Taysom Hill, the all-everything quarterback from Highland High in Pocatello, Idaho, the last few days. However, several outlets have reported that Hill recently received offers from Washington State and BYU.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound QB previously had offers from Stanford, Utah, Arizona, Boise State and Idaho State.

I caught up with Bingham High linebacker L.T. Filiaga, who will be a senior this fall, at the recent meet and greet at BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium last week.

Filiaga said he has been sitting on the same three scholarship offers -- BYU, Utah and Stanford -- for quite a while now. However, Boise State, Washington and Notre Dame have been in contact and a Notre Dame coach recently visited Filiaga and some other prospects at Bingham.

"Really, I'm not really focusing on [recruiting] a lot right now," he said. "I am more focused on my schoolwork and getting ready for my senior season."

Filiaga has a 3.9 GPA and recently scored a 19 on the ACT college admission test. He told me that because his GPA is so high in core curriculum courses, that ACT score is high enough to get him in to almost any school in the country.

He said he is in absolutely no hurry to make a college decision, and plans to wait right up until just before signing day next February to decide. He's confident that the offers will still be there, he said.

"I don't want to worry about which schools want me during my senior season," he said. "I want to take care of all of that after [the season] is over."

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Bingham High' s Mike Edmunds was also at the deal put on by recruiting guru Tom Lemming at BYU.

Edmunds, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound receiver, is not well known because he was not a big part of Bingham's offense last year. The Miners had a great rushing attack and one of the best tight ends in the country, Austin Holt.

Edmunds should see the ball a lot more this season, and not just because Bingham has an excellent quarterback coming back in Jake Soffe.

However, Edmunds is drawing recruiting attention because he fast (4.47 speed in the 40) for an athlete his size.

Along with Filiaga and Bingham defensive end Remington Peck, Edmunds has been invited to play in the American Classic Bowl in the Super Dome in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2009.

Bingham coach Dave Peck has been invited to be the defensive coordinator for the West team.

Edmunds said he does not have a Division I scholarship offer yet, but has had communication with BYU, Stanford, UNLV, Washington, Washington State and Colorado.

After catching up on some e-mail and phone messages from over the weekend, we've got some more signing news to report:

* Judge Memorial baseball star Tyson Moll, who recently helped lead the Bulldogs to their first state baseball championship in school history (Class 3A), has signed with the University of Redlands (Calif.). Moll will play both football and baseball for Redlands, which is why he picked that NCAA Divsion III school over overtures from some Division I schools. He was a first-team all-stater in baseball as a junior and a first-team all-stater in football last fall.

* Two more players from Riverton's excellent girls basketball team have signed with out-of-state schools. Malissa Ingram is headed to Montana's Miles City Community College, while Chelsea Arnell has signed with Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo.

* We've mentioned these signings before, but it is worth noting again: four Wasatch High grapplers are going to four different Division I programs.

Jake Salazar has signed with Michigan, while Ethan Smith has signed with Purdue. Both will go to the Big Ten schools after LDS Church missions. Meanwhile, Blake Mangum has signed with Oklahoma and Cole Shafer has signed with Iowa State and former Wasatch standout Cael Sanderson, coach of the Cyclones.

Mangum and Shafer transferred to Wasatch from Lone Peak and Brighton high schools, respectively.

I mentioned last week that I was at BYU's LaVell Edwards Stadium when noted recruiting guru Tom Lemming visited Provo to meet with some of the state's top football recruits who will be seniors this fall.

I was able to chat with four or five of those prospects and will be providing updates on their recruitment this week. I'm sorry I didn't get to it last week. I also cover motorsports for The Tribune and it was one of the biggest weeks of the year for Miller Motorsports Park, with the American Le Mans Series coming to town.

I'll start with Spanish Fork tight end Richard Wilson.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Wilson, who has reportedly posted a 4.68-second time in the 40-yard dash, said he has offers from BYU, Utah and LSU. He had received the written offer from LSU in the mail a few days before we talked, and noted that former BYU coach Gary Crowton, now LSU's offensive coordinator, was at his school a few weeks ago.

"I am still pretty open," Wilson said. "The earliest I will commit is right before my senior season starts. But I may wait until the season is over."

Wilson carries a 3.8 GPA, but has not taken a college admission test such as the ACT or SAT yet. He plans on going to LSU's summer football camp, if he can make it, and hopes to hit a day at BYU and a day at Utah.

Wilson said Auburn, Cal and Stanford have also expressed some interest lately, and he was invited to participate in the Scout.com combine in Glendale, Ariz. this coming weekend.

Wilson has been invited to play in recruiting specialist Max Emfinger's all-star game next January in New Orleans, but hasn't committed to that because he hopes to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, the game that is televised nationally by NBC.

BYU's women's basketball program has received its first commitment from the class of 2009.

Kim Parker, a 5-foot-11 junior from Wasatch High in Heber City, committed to BYU coach Jeff Judkins on Thursday, according to Mary Waters, the manager of her club basketball team, Utah Flight.

Parker is a two-time all-stater in both basketball and soccer and helped the Wasps' girls basketball team go undefeated last season.

College coaches cannot comment on specific recruits until they have signed. Parker will sign with BYU in November, Waters said.

Parker averaged 15.1 points, four assists, four steals and two blocks per game for Wasatch as a junior and received a scholarship offer from the Cougars two weeks ago. She was also receiving interest from Utah, Utah Valley and Northern Arizona.

The Web site Hoopscoop.com recently ranked the top 75 high school basketball players at the Houston Kingswood Classic basketball tournament.

The Kingwood Classic is considered to be one of the top national tournaments in the country and is attended by hundreds of college coaches.

Some 261 teams of 17-and-under players were at the tournament.

Here are the Utahns who made the top 75:

* Pleasant Grove's C.J. Wilcox at No. 17

* Lone Peak's Tyler Haws at No. 26

* Brighton's Corbin Miller at No. 40

* Lone Peak's Nate Austin at No. 58.

Of note is the fact that Miller is just a freshman. He was the second-highest ranked freshman at the tournament.

Austin, who was barely known before the tournament, recently committed to BYU.

Wilcox was the 11th ranked junior and Haws was the 16th-ranked junior.

Westminster College in Salt Lake City has announced four women's basketball signings for the 2008-09 season, including three Utah high school products.

Some of these have been reported previously by The Recruiting Trail, but here's the complete list:

* Keisha Catten, a 5-8 guard from Murray High and Salt Lake Community College. Catten averaged 11.7 points a game last year for SLCC.

* Jessica Huebner, a 6-0 forward from Smokey Hills High in Centennial, Colo., Huebner averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds per game as a high school senior.

* McKenzie Jessop, a 5-10 forward/guard from Murray High and SLCC. Jessop averged five points and five rebounds a game for the Bruins.

* Beverly Smith, a 5-11 forward from Jordan High. Smith averaged 11.2 points and four rebounds a game for the Beetdiggers last season.

OK, time for some wrestling recruiting news.

Utah Valley wrestling coach Greg Williams announced the signing of seven wrestlers from Utah and Nevada earlier this week. The Wolverines will wrestle in the Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) in 2008-09.

Here are the signees:

* Layton's Adam Fager, a two-time Utah state champion who was fifth at the high school nationals as a senior.

* Trey Edmunds of Damonte Ranch High in Nevada. Edmunds was a state champion and a two-time state finalist.

* Morgan's Josh Wilson, a two-time All-American who signed in the fall and was a two-time state champion. He was a national champion at the high school nationals as a junior and third as a senior.

* Lone Peak's Paul Johnson, a three-time state champion in Utah.

* Roy's Wyatt Ray, a state champion and two-time finalist. He's the brother of currernt UVU wrestler Flint Ray.

* West Jordan's Nicko Paraso, a state champion and two-time state finalist.

* Nick Flores, a three-time state placer.

Brigham Young's basketball program has landed its first recruit from the class of 2009.

The Cougars have received an oral commitment from Nate Austin, the 6-foot-10 center from Lone Peak High.

I haven't been able to reach Austin yet today, but a source told me last night that Austin visited with BYU's coaches on Monday and then made the commitment on Wednesday.

Austin, of course, is not the most coveted junior at Lone Peak. That would be guard Tyler Haws, who has not made a decision yet.

Still, Austin's stock has risen the past few months because of his strong play in spring club basketball tournaments, especially in Las Vegas.

In one particular game in front of dozens of college coaches, Austin had 24 points and 22 rebounds.

Austin turns 19 in October of 2009 and is expected to go on an LDS Church mission before enrolling at BYU.

He was a member of Lone Peak's 5A state championship team in March, but his playing time was somewhat limited because the team had so many talented seniors.

Austin also had an offer from Utah State and was drawing interest from Boise State, Fresno State and others.

South Sevier's Jaden "Jadie" Parsons was in a hurry to get to her junior prom, and she was apparently in a hurry to commit to a college basketball program, too.

Parsons, a junior who was featured in a Tribune article a few months ago for the extreme measures she took to make it to prom, has orally committed to play basketball for Southern Utah University.

The 5-foot-8 Parsons averaged 13.9 points, five assists and 2.5 steals per game last year for South Sevier and was the Tribune's 2A MVP after leading the Rams to consecutive 22-2 seasons and back-to-back 2A state championships.

She carries a 3.98 GPA and played the past three years for the Salt Lake Metro club basketball team. She's ranked as one of the top combo guard prospects in the state by the Intermountain Hoops Scouting Service.

Parsons is the first Metro player from the class of 2009 to commit to a D-I program.

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The Tribune's prep softball writer, Chhun Sun, has informed me that Taylorsville softball pitcher Ashlee Moore has signed with the College of Southern Nevada. Moore is the sixth senior on Taylorsville's powerhouse softball team to sign with a college program.

Some more girls basketball signings to report, courtesy of Cedric Williams, coach of the Utah Hornets Girls 17U basketball club. Williams is also director of operations of Utah Basketball Growers.

The following girls played for the Hornets this past year:

* Bingham High's Monique Bruggeman, a 6-foot-1 small forward, has signed with Western Wyoming Community College.

* Izzy Gustafson, a 5-11 shooting guard/wing from Jordan High has signed with Northwest Wyoming Community College

* Brighton High's Audy Bell, a 6-2 post player, has signed with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, a Division II school.

* Mountain View's Caitlyn Boswell, a 5-7 guard, is leaning toward the College of Idaho for basketball and soccer.

Saturday, we mentioned that Jeremy Olsen, a 6-foot-9 forward from Collins Hill High in Suwanee, Ga., had committed to play basketball for the University of Utah.

At least one national recruiting Web site that reported the commitment noted that Olsen also had an offer from BYU.

Not true, according to a source close to the recruitment of Olsen. The rising senior is LDS and lived in Utah until he was 7.

The Cougars had some interest in the big guy, my source said, but never made an offer after watching him rather intensely during the spring evaluation period.

I got the feeling that the Cougars, who will have four, maybe five, scholarships to dole out to the class of 2009, were probably not going to offer Olsen, either.

It is well known that the Cougars have offered Lone Peak guard Tyler Haws, Pleasant Grove guard C.J. Wilcox and Provo big man Brandon Davies.

Of those three, they are least likely to get Wilcox, who recently added offers from Miami and Washington to his list and had seven the last time I checked. Utah, Utah State, BYU, UNLV and Iowa State have also offered the 6-5 shooting guard.

My gut feeling is that the race for Haws will come down to BYU and Stanford.

As for Davies, he did not have the best spring, at least two college coaches have told me, and will be watched closely in July's evaluation camps.

That brings us to a local big guy whose name keeps popping up more and more: Lone Peak's 6-10 Nate Austin.

Utah State has offered, and he is getting a lot of interest from other intermountain area schools, including BYU.

Some of the top football prospects in the state of Utah were at LaVell Edwards Stadium today, but not to be recruited by BYU coaches.

Instead, they were there to meet Tom Lemming, perhaps the most well-known recruiting expert in the country. Lemming invited the prospects, most of whom will be seniors next fall, to the gathering so he could get their picture, contact information and anything else that will help him in his reports for CBS College (formerly CSTV), USA Today and other national media outlets.

Lemming graciously allowed me to attend the get-together, and I will have more detailed information on many of the recruits in subsequent posts.

Lemming's opinion is not only valuable to recruiters. He also helps select players for several of those January all-star games such as the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio and the UnderArmour All-Star Classic in Florida.

First, here's a list of players (I counted 17) that made the trip to Provo:

* Bingham WR Mike Edmunds and LB L.T. Filiaga

*Jordan linemen Vyncent Jones, Tyler Larsen and Kyle Johnson and RB/LB Dillon Hill

* Timpview's Chris Badger, Tui Crichton, Craig Bills, Xavier Su'a-Filo, Bronson Kaufusi and Travis Van Leeuwen

* Pleasant Grove RB/DB LeSean Wilcox

* Nothridge DB/WR Chris Washington and LB/RB Peni Maka'afi

* Spanish Fork TE Richard Wilson

* Logan QB Jeff Manning

The top Utah recruit from the class of 2009 in most minds, Cottonwood's John Martinez, was not in attendance. But it is not like Martinez needs the exposure -- every college recruiter in the country knows who he is and I will be stunned if he's not invited to the premier all-star game, the one in San Antonio.

The group included three players who have committed to BYU -- Timpview's Bills, Crichton and Kaufusi (who will be a junior) and one who has committed to Utah -- Jordan's Jones.

The University of Utah men's basketball program has picked up its first oral commitment from a member of the class of 2009.

Jeremy Olsen, a 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward from Collins Hill High in Suwanee, Ga., committed to Utah coach Jim Boylen on Saturday afternoon. Olsen is orginally from Utah and still has a lot of family in the Salt Lake area.

Olsen, rated as a three-star recruit by scout.com, drew interest from Xavier, Tulane, Iowa, Notre Dame, Alabama, Auburn and BYU, according to the Web site.

Olsen visited Salt Lake City the weekend last fall that the Utes football team upset UCLA.

Honors and opportunities keep pouring in for Lone Peak High junior Tyler Haws, the 6-4 guard who is the focus of many local and national colleges' recruiting efforts.

According to Salt Lake Metro coach Dave Hammer, Haws has been selected to the NBA Players Association Top 100 player camp.

The camp, in its 12th year, will be held June 18-21 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and is considered one of the most prestigious camps in the country.

Each year, 25 current and former NBA stars visit the camp to work with the players and teach them what they will need to do to become a professional basketball player some day.

The Utah State Aggies added depth and size to their guard line by signing Stavon Williams, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard who just completed his sophomore season at San Jacinto Junior College in Houston, Texas, coach Stew Morrill announced today.

Williams, from Minneapolis, Minn., will have two years of remaining eligibility.

"Stavon is a talented and skilled offensive player who was a proven scorer in a very good junior college league," Morrill said.

Williams earned all-region honors as a sophomore and helped his team go 23-8 and take third place in its conference. He averaged 15.4 points and 5.3 rebounds a game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from three-point range.

He averaged 10.2 points and 2.6 rebounds a game as a freshman.

Four baseball players from Draper's Juan Diego Catholic High School announced their college choices earlier this week. The four boys have played together all four years at Juan Diego and were part of the school's 2005 state championship and 2007 region championship.

Jordan Cox, a lefthanded pitcher, will attend Cal Lutheran, a Division III school. Cox carries a 3.6 GPA and will receive a Provost and other academic scholarships.

The three other players -- Patrick Fratto, Bryan James and Michael Lipsey -- will attend Taft College in Southern California.

Fratto has been awarded a co-scholarship with the Italian American Civic League and will go to Taft on an academic and baseball scholarship. A middle infielder and pitcher, he hit .516 last year, best on the team.

James will likely play in the outfield for Taft and plans to study computer science.

Lipsey, a third baseman, played on the senior all-star team last fall and has lettered in baseball all four years at Juan Diego.

All four have been coached at Juan Diego by Steve Cramblitt, one of the winningest prep baseball coaches in state history.

Westminster College in Salt Lake City has signed former Park City high school basketball star Brandon Buford to an NAIA letter of intent. Buford is currently on an LDS Church mission but will be back in time for the 2008-09 season.

Buford led 3A in scoring his senior season, averaging 23.1 points per game.

A 6-foot-4 guard, he also collected six rebounds a game and was a first-team all-state selection his senior season.

Buford had a 3.93 GPA in high school and was a four-year member of the National Honor Society.

Southern Utah University sent out a news release on Wednesday announcing that head coach Roger Reid had "wrapped up" his 2008 signing class with the addition of Byron Byrd, a 6-foot-5 forward from Newark, N.J., who played at New Mexico Military Institute the past two seasons.

It took a lot of wrapping paper to bring in this signing class, which has to be one of the biggest in school history. The Thunderbirds signed seven players this spring, although one of those players -- former Alta center Tyson Koehler -- will go on an LDS Church mission before enrolling at SUU.

Koehler played for Grayson County (Texas) Community College last season.

Byrd should give Reid a scorer to help replace Geoff Payne, who averaged more than 20 points a game last season.

Byrd averaged 17.5 points and 8.7 rebounds for NMMI, and earned Western Junior College Athletic Conference first-team honors in 2008. In high school, he averaged 22 points and 12 rebounds a game for Newark's West Side High.

SUU assistant coach "Johnny Brown did a great job finding Byrd and getting him to sign with us," Reid said.

Here are SUU's other signees: Lucas Jones (6-9, 230, Volunteer State JC), Kemo Duncan (6-10, 210, Spoon River CC) Jake Nielson (6-3, 200, Aurora, Colo., Grandview HS), Euless Thompson (6-2, 170, LA Southwest CC) and Cory Davis (5-11, 175, New Mexico JC).

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A reader inquired recently about Utah State women's soccer and which players the Aggies signed from the class of 2008. Here's the list, courtesy of the USU sports information department:

Utah State Soccer 2008 Signing Class

NAME POS HOMETOWN (HIGH SCHOOL)
Brittney Boyack F Las Vegas, Nev. (Spring Valley HS)
Shantel Flanary F Highland, Utah (Lone Peak HS)
Allie Maduell M Pleasanton, Calif. (Foothill HS)
Molli Merrill GK Bountiful, Utah (Bountiful HS)
Megan Rhoads D Sandy, Utah (Brighton HS)
Chandra Salmon M Provo, Utah (Provo HS)
Marissa Sanchez F Twins Falls, Idaho (Twins Falls HS)
Danielle Shorts F Gilbert, Ariz. (Highland HS)
Summer Tillotson D Sandy, Utah (Alta HS)
Lexi Venable D Layton, Utah (Northridge HS)

Another member of Lone Peak High's nationally ranked state championship basketball team has signed to play for a four-year college.

Point guard Kimball Payne will play for Dixie State College.

Payne took a trip to St. George last week and met with coach Jon Judkins and his staff. He apparently liked what he saw, because he committed to the Rebels and told the other school that he was close to going to, Western Wyoming CC, that he is headed to Dixie State.

Three of Payne's fellow seniors at Lone Peak are also college-bound. Josh Sharp signed with Utah, Justin Hamilton signed with Iowa State and Bracken Funk signed with Fresno State.

Next year, the Knights will have two more Division I recruits as guard Tyler Haws and center Nate Austin are also seeing heavy recruitment.

Payne could have chosen Utah as a preferred walk-on, but opted for a scholarship from Dixie State instead.

The Rebels have also signed Snow Canyon's 6-foot-6 Dalton Groskreutz.

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Former Pleasant Grove High volleyball star Tela Burnett has signed with Cal State Northridge. Burnett, a 6-0 middle blocker, played for Salt Lake Community College in 2006 and 2007 after an all-state career at Pleasant Grove.

Matadors coach Jeff Stork said Burnett was attractive to his program because SLCC runs a similar defensive system to his.

Geoff Payne, the former Alta High, Snow College and Southern Utah University standout, isn't done playing college basketball just yet.

He will transfer to Westminster College, an NAIA program in Salt Lake City, for his senior season.

Payne's appeal to the NCAA to return to SUU for another year was denied last month, thereby ending his eligibility at Southern Utah.

However, NAIA rules are different, and Payne is eligible to play at that level and head coach Tommy Connor has accepted the Summit League newcomer of the year in 2007-08 into his program.

After an all-state prep career at Alta, Payne began his college career by walking on at the University of Utah.

According to NCAA rules, once a student has enrolled full time, he has five years to complete his eligibility and his "clock" begins. LDS Church missions turn off the clock, but only if the athlete stays out at least one year.

Payne returned early from his mission, so his year spent assisting at Alta High was counted by the NCAA as year two.

He then played for Snow College for two years before transferring to SUU.

Because Payne has only used eight semesters of nine or more hours of classwork, he is eligible to play at the NAIA level because NAIA rules don't require consecutive years as NCAA rules do.

Payne averaged 20.8 points a game for SUU last season in coach Roger Reid's first year. Southern Utah went 11-19.

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Mandi Divino, a member of Alta High's 5A state championship girls tennis team, has signed to play tennis for Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo.

Readers of this blog are by now familiar with two of the top junior football players in the state of Utah, Cottonwood's John Martinez and Timpview's Xavier Su'a-Filo. Both are being pursued by the top programs in the country -- LSU, USC, Florida, etc.

It may be time to add another name to that list: Highland High defensive tackle Latu Heimuli.

The 6-foot-305-pound Heimuli, a junior, told me on Monday that he has four offers right now, from BYU, Utah, Arizona and Colorado. He expects more in the coming weeks.

Heimuli said Nebraska, Notre Dame and Colorado were at Highland last week to watch him work out and talk to his coaches. Florida will be in on Friday or Saturday and is trying to set up a workout.

Heimuli's coach, Brody Benson, said Georgia coaches are also trying to get in town to see Heimuli.

"He will be our most-recruited player, by far," Benson said, noting that linebacker Sam Nielson and lineman Tevita Kinikini could also see some Division I attention.

Heimuli said that BYU defensive line coach Steve Kaufusi is his father's cousin. He is also related to former BYU and NFL star Vai Sikahema.

However, Heimuli said he is not leaning toward BYU, or any other school right now.

"I am pretty wide open," he said. "I don't have a favorite, or a leader.'

Heimuli said he will go to the one-day NIKE Sparq camp at BYU in June, but does not plan on attending weeklong camps at either BYU or Utah because he already has offers from both schools.

The Nike camp falls on the same day that Heimuli was going to take the ACT test, so he may take the test in October instead. He said he is a "decent" student and does not foresee any problems qualifying academically.

A coach with some inside knowledge of what went on at the Las Vegas Spring Showcase a few weeks ago passed along some numbers that junior superstar Tyler Haws put up in the event featuring some of the top players in the country.

Haws played with his Lone Peak High team at the tournament.

Here's what he did:

Three-point shooting -- 50 percent (7 of 14)

Field-goal shooting -- 63 percent (71 of 113)

Free-throw shooting -- 85 percent (33 of 39)

Haws averaged 32.8 points in six games for a team that went 4-2. His lowest output was 38 and his highest output was 37. He also averaged eight rebounds a game.

By the way, Haws carries a 4.0 grade point average.

It is easy to see why BYU, Utah, Stanford and several other programs want this kid in the worst way.

Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, has landed one of the state's best post players from the Class of 2008.

Pine View High center Jordan Rex has signed with the junior college, according to the coach of his club team, Salt Lake Metro.

Rex, 6-foot-9, averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds a game last season for the Panthers. His teammate at the St. George school, Louis Garrett, recently signed with the College of Southern Idaho.

Rex was an honorable mention all-state selection in Class 4A and was named Region 9's most improved player.

A third Utah high school boys basketball star has signed with Northwest College, a junior college in Powell, Wyom.

Jay Peters of Kearns High, who averaged 17.8 points per game last season, fifth-best in 5A, has signed with the Trappers.

He will join East's Malcolm Colbert and Scott Odekirk of Northridge at the school.

Peters, a 5-foot-11 guard, was a 2008 McDonalds All-American nominee and an honorable mention all-state selection.

His signing makes a total of 16 players off the Salt Lake Metro club basketball team to receive a college basketball scholarship.

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We generally don't have the space in the printed version of the Tribune to run summer basketball camp announcements, but will gladly put them in this blog. Just send them to drew@sltrib.com and I will get them in.

Jordan High basketball coach Rob Geertsen will be running a camp on May 27-29 and June 3-5 for next year's 7-12 graders.

For more information, visit www.jordanbasketball.net or call Geertsen at (801) 256-5500. Cost is $65.

University of Utah basketball coach Jim Boylen announced today that he has hired College of Southern Idaho coach Barret Peery to be an assistant coach on the Utah staff.

Peery becomes the second Utah assistant with strong Utah ties, after Boylen hired former Taylorsville High star Stan Johnson, 29, two weeks ago. Peery and Johnson replace Chris Jones, who left for Utah State, and Marty Wilson, who left for the head job at Pepperdine.

As far as recruiting is concerned, the hirings have to mean that the second-year Utah coach is serious about going head-to-head with BYU (and Utah State) for the top local high school players. Frankly, there was a lot of concern about that when Jones, who played at Judge Memorial, left to join Stew Morrill's staff at USU.

Peery, who was 85-19 in three years at CSI, is highly respected by Utah prep coaches. Like Johnson, he also played for Southern Utah University. After playing for the T-Birds, he was an assistant coach at SUU from 1998-2002.

He played high school basketball for Payson and is known as an outstanding recruiter. Recently, he persuaded Pine View High star Louis Garrett to sign with CSI. Garrett is the younger brother of Oklahoma State's Brad Garrett, who missed the season after injurying his shoulder while catching some waves on a boogie board in Hawaii after the Maui Classic.

"[Peery] has national recruiting connections [and] is aggressive and sharp," Boylen said in a Utah news release.

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Cottonwood High's John Martinez, ranked as one of the top offensive linemen in the country by every recruiting service and Web site out there, told the Web site tigersportsdigest.com, part of the scout.com network, that two colleges are now at the top of his list.

Not surprisingly, they are LSU and USC.

"Those are the two schools that I am definitely taking visits to this summer," Martinez told the LSU-based site.

Martinez said former BYU coach Gary Crowton, now LSU's offensive coordinator, visited Cottonwood last week.

The first-team Tribune all-stater from 2007 reported that he just got his ACT college admission test scores back and that he received an 18.

As BYU continues its search for the quarterback who will replace Max Hall in 2009, it could be interesting to note that a quarterback who committed to BYU years ago could be LSU's starter this season.

News reports Friday that LSU coach Les Miles has kicked troubled quarterback Ryan Perrilloux off the team means that Andrew Hatch, a junior from Las Vegas, is the front-runner for the starting job with the bayou Bengals.

Hatch, who is LDS, committed to ex-BYU coach Gary Crowton in Crowton's last season, but when Crowton was fired, Hatch became dis-interested in BYU, according to a report in the Orlando Sentinel.

Hatch ended up at Harvard, then went on an LDS Church mission to Chile after playing one year for the Crimson. In Chile, Hatch suffered a knee injury while playing soccer, and returned home midway through his scheduled two-year mission for surgery.

Crowton, now LSU's offensive coordinator, kept track of Hatch through his ordeal and lured him to Baton Rouge.

As the backup to Matt Flynn (who is now trying to make the Green Bay Packers' roster) and Perrilloux, Hatch threw all of two passes for the Tigers last season, completing one for 9 yards.

Hatch had the best spring game of all the quarterbacks, according to various newspaper reports, and is a battle with redshirt freshman Jarrett Lee to be the starter when the Tigers open against Appalachian State on Aug. 30.

Brian Green, the guard from Davis High who helped lead Salt Lake Community College to the NJCAA championship game, will continue his career at Utah State University, the Aggies announced today.

First, though, Green will go on a two-year LDS Church mission.

"Brian Green is a tough, hard-nosed competitor who is used to winning and expects to win, and we are delighted that he has decided to join our program," said USU coach Stew Morrill in a school news release.

Green, 5-11, 170, averaged 14.1 points and 2.6 assists per game for the Bruins as the team went 32-4 overall and won the SWAC tournament.

When he enrolls at Utah State in 2010, he will have two years of eligibility remaining.

At Davis High, Green was a first-team all-state selection as a senior and averaged 17 points per game.

More college basketball signings to report.....

* Yahosh Bonner, a former Cedar City High star who spent last season at Salt Lake Community College, has signed with the University of Northern Colorado.

Bonner, a 6-foot, 185-pound point guard, helped the Bruins get to the NJCAA national championship game last month. He also played at Mountain View High in Mesa, Ariz., and Cochise College in Douglas, Ariz.

* Another SLCC player, guard Chris Medina, has signed with Carroll College in Montana. Media played high school basketball at Ogden's Ben Lomond High and was also a key part of that SLCC national juco runner-up team.

* Former Riverton High star Eric Dearden has signed with Western Wyoming CC. Dearden is transferring from the College of Eastern Utah, where he sat out the year with an injury. Both Dearden and Medina played club basketball for Salt Lake Metro.

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We mentioned yesterday that BYU has offered a scholarship to Josh Nunes, a 6-4 quarterback from Upland, Calif.

Nunes, a four-star recruit, released a statement a few days ago saying that he will announce his top five choices on May 27, the day after Memorial Day.

"Shortly after that I plan to pick my college," he noted.

He listed several reasons for wanting to commit early, including the desire to spend more time working with his younger brother, who is also a quarterback. Also, he wants to be able to allow the schools that do not get him to continue their recruiting efforts with a little more clarity.