DE Miller weighing his options

The list of schools that want to sign Corey Miller keeps growing and the Duncan (S.C.) Byrnes defensive end said he has no favorites yet and is still waiting to take a few more visits before he narrows his ever-growing list to a few top programs.

Maybe no school is the clear-cut leader but Miller has taken a few visits that could be telling in the long run. The 6-foot-4, 227-pound prospect has visited Tennessee twice, North Carolina twice, Florida State, South Carolina and Clemson.

Before any decision is made, though, Miller said he wants to take a trip to the West Coast to check out the schools that offered. California, Oregon and Stanford are three Pac-10 schools involved with Miller, rated as the No. 113 recruit by Rivals.com.

LSU, Notre Dame, Michigan, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Purdue, Syracuse, Duke, Michigan State and a whole lot of others are also pursuing Miller, who finished with 119 tackles and eight sacks last season. In his sophomore campaign, he had 109 stops and four sacks.

"I was thinking about narrowing it down by the end of this month, sometime soon just to get a decent set of schools," Miller said. "I'm going to look at the academics at certain schools, how I get along with the coaches and the area around the place.

"If I see something, it's not much of a capricious thing, but if this pops to me, it's a great place to me. Things like a great atmosphere, I love where they're at, they love the things they're doing - things with a positive upside."

No schools are in the lead and no other visits are planned at this juncture but Miller said before he chops schools off his list he wants to head out west to see what those programs have to offer. That will be the important next phase in his recruitment.

After visiting North Carolina and Tennessee twice, the Byrnes standout has a good grasp of what's happening in Chapel Hill and Knoxville.

"They're making some renovations, putting in some new stuff (at North Carolina)," Miller said. "Coach (John) Blake and coach (Butch) Davis have some great resumes. They have a great upside to them. They have respect as coaches. They're getting the program going there. They're going to do all right."

Tennessee could also make a serious push for Miller, who said what stood out about his most recent visit to Knoxville was the enthusiasm shown by new coach Lane Kiffin and his entire staff.

"Since the last time I visited, Lane Kiffin came in and brought a whole new staff and those coaches are fired up," Miller said. "Everything is excited. From watching film, to meetings, to practice, it stays hyped over there. It seems they're really excited about getting it going. They're constantly getting after it. That's a plus for them."