Doherty to refocus on recruitment

Marquise Doherty is dead set on playing baseball in addition to football in college. He has plenty of offers to participate in both sports. Finding a landing spot won't be a problem for the four-star running back. Still, it's baseball that's holding his recruitment back. Funny how that works

Summer tournaments leave no time for summer unofficial visits, so Doherty has found himself a bit behind in the process. That's fine by him, though, he doesn't understand why some of his peers are in such a rush to begin with. The Kansas City (Mo.) Winnetonka High School star has a measured take on the process.

"I don't know why everyone else wants to commit so early," Doherty said. "It's not just football players. It's with baseball, too. I guess that if you don't play two sports like I do and you can actually get out to see all the schools on unofficials, I could see why you could decide this early. But you get five officials, why wouldn't you take all of them?"

Doherty has just one more baseball event left this summer, but he won't rush to schedule unofficial visits. Instead, he'll wait for the fall, when he plans to hit the road for five official visits.

As for the destinations, well, those remain uncertain.

"I don't even know yet," Doherty said. "I should be cutting my list down soon, though. When I do, I'll just visit those five schools. I'm thinking of announcing that in August sometime. Probably the middle of August."

With his summer baseball season almost behind him, Doherty doesn't plan to rush through his recruitment in some misplaced effort to make up for lost time. Instead, his recruitment could run into the winter.

"I'll try to get all five visits in before I choose," Doherty said. "I mean, I don't know what will happen. If something feels perfect on a visit, I might just do it, but I plan to take all five before I announce."

A four-star prospect, Doherty lists a total of 12 scholarship offers. He is ranked as the No. 26 running back in the class of 2014.