Carlisle plans some summer visits

Since last June, Amir Carlisle has been committed to Stanford and he has never wavered from that pledge.

But the Sunnyvale (Calif.) Kings Academy running back has never hidden from the fact that he wants to take some visits, too, and he did just that Sunday at Cal for the All-American Showcase.

"Right now I'm committed to Stanford, solid to Stanford, but my father also wants me to keep all my options open and I'm going around visiting various schools and Cal is one of the schools I'm pretty high on right now," Carlisle said.

Rated No. 129 in the 2011 class by Rivals.com, Carlisle also plans to visit Southern Cal, Alabama, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt this summer, an attempt to see what other options are available even though he's staying committed to Stanford at this point.

Before heading out on the road, Carlisle, who also shined at the recent Palo Alto NIKE Camp, said Cal is his favorite among those showing interest in him.

"Probably right now the highest on my list is Cal," said Carlisle, a four-star recruit.

"Location, close to home, the style of offense I feel as though it plays to my abilities, the coaching staff, I like coach (Jeff) Tedford, (running backs) coach (Ron) Gould is a great coach, he has a good history of putting running backs in the NFL, so you can't really go wrong."

There might be something else keeping Carlisle interested in Cal - quarterback commit Kyle Boehm. The two have known each other for years and Boehm said he has chatted with Carlisle multiple times about possibly playing together in Berkeley. Boehm and Carlisle were seen working on routes during Sunday's camp.

"It was really good," Carlisle said. "Kyle is a great quarterback. It was my pleasure to work with him. We've talked about (playing together). He's mentioned it a few times. I like this place so we'll see what happens in the future."

Cal might be the biggest threat to Stanford for Carlisle, rated No. 12 among running backs by Rivals.com, but this summer could provide even more heat after Carlisle visits Alabama, Notre Dame and Vanderbilt.

"My father just talked to the Alabama running backs coach (Burton Burns) so he set up a little unofficial and I previously had talked to Notre Dame when coach (Charlie) Weis was there but once he got fired it tapered down but I'm going to be through Indiana so I'm going to stop by their camp for one day," Carlisle said.