Carol City, Northwestern top Miamis charts

Editor’s Note: Last week Rivals.com Southeast recruiting analyst Jeremy Patterson spent five days touring high schools in Dade and Broward counties collecting film and scouting the top players in the country's biggest talent pool.

Patterson will chronicle his tour of the 19 high school trip by summarizing each day of our trip for the next five days, writing about the corresponding day of the week. He continues with his visits from last Thursday.

MIAMI- Thursday was the biggest day of the trip and started out with a bang as we ventured to Miami Carol City to meet with the nation’s No. 4 player in safety Kenneth Phillips.

Phillips talked about recruiting, his playing style and just about everything else with the Rivals.com crew. He is truly a great kid and will excel no matter what school he chooses to attend. He is smart and articulate and a dominating football player. We also found out that he is not 6-foot-2, but he is easily 6-3 and has an absolutely amazing build for a college safety.

Ricky Jean-Francois was unavailable for an interview, but Rivals.com.com did get to watch him practice, and he looks bigger and more intimidating than ever. If there truly is a most intimidating player in the country, it would have to be him. It was also discovered that he made a surprise visit to LSU over the summer and it was rumored that Phillips went with him on the trip, but we learned that the rumor was not true and Phillips did not visit LSU.

After Carol City, rival Northwestern was up next. Northwestern is one of the top prospect producing schools in America, and easily the most impressive prospect on the Northwestern squad was offensive lineman Christopher Barney.

Linebacker Adam Coffee was a much more impressive athlete than expected. He is lean and has a great frame and moves really well on film. He could be a prospect to watch as the season progresses.

Linebacker Dustin Forston also looks the part of a Division I player.

Wide receiver Ulysses Alexander is certainly an impressive looking specimen. He is every bit of 6-foot-4, 186 pounds and ran an impressive 4.47 second 40-yard dash over the summer. He has had a groin injury that has hindered him over the past couple of seasons, but look for him to breakout this year.

After leaving Northwestern the Rivals.com crew hopped in the car and headed over to Miami Monsignor Pace to meet with Rivals 100 running back Conredge Collins. Simply put, Collins is a beast. He looks like a linebacker, but has all of the skills of a running back.

He runs well and has great strength, it is very possible that he could end up at fullback on the next level, but he also would make an impressive running back. Collins has made it very clear that he wants to attend a school that will give him the opportunity to play running back.

Monsignor Pace safety Quinton Andrews is a lean, good looking athlete who is one of the fastest rising prospects in South Florida. He has almost the same number of offers that his more highly rated teammate has.

The last stop of the day was Pompano Beach (Fla.) Ely where we attended practice.

Ely is another school that seems to have an endless supply of prospects. By far the best looking prospect on the field is offensive lineman Ronnie Wilson. He is a huge kid that plays with a mean streak. He actually looks to have slimmed down a little bit since we last saw him at the NIKE camp and appears to be more athletic.

Another impressive prospect on the Ely squad is tight end Michael Holton. Holton has an impressive build and has excellent hands. He has good quickness and is one of the top tight ends in Florida.

Biggest stock increase: Ronnie Wilson had a solid showing at the NIKE camp in Miami, but not good enough to earn four star status. However, after seeing him strap on the pads, he is much more impressive. He is very strong and most importantly extremely impressive along the interior line.

Sleeper who emerged: Northwestern wide receiver Ulysses Alexander has the look of a college wide receiver right now. He runs well and moves well, but has been hampered by a groin injury throughout much of his career. However, he and his coach both mentioned that is as healthy as he has ever been in his high school career at this point.

Top underclassmen: Northwestern sophomore running back Antwain Easterling is a 5-foot-11, 185-pound speedster who coach Roland Smith will be one of the nation’s best players in the class of 2007. When a coach that produces as many college athletes Smith does raves about a kid this early in his career, you had better take heed.