Dylan Merrell's gotten familiar with Duke

Dylan Merrell is a 6-foot-1, 178 pound safety at Alpharetta High in Georgia and the talented junior is up to half a dozen offers.

Coastal Carolina, Duke, Georgia State, Indiana, Liberty and Wake Forest are the schools that have offered. He is drawing interest from plenty of other schools, including Cornell, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Louisville, UCF, Vanderbilt and Yale.

With travel shutdown for recruits, Merrell has not gotten out in March like he had hoped. He would love to get up to check out the Hoosiers, see what the Demon Deacons have to offer and get familiar with more schools on his list.

The first school to offer the 2021 prospect was Duke and he has learned a lot about the ACC program. Merrell has taken three trips to Durham, so he has gotten a good feel for the Blue Devils.

"I have visited Duke three different times now, so I know a lot about them," said Merrell. "All my visits have been for games, so I have a good feel for the environment on game-day.

"It is a great family environment to be in, the players were fired up and I had a great time each visit."

Merrell's lead recruiter is now Matt Guerrieri, and he took over where Derek Jones left off after leaving for Texas Tech.

"I have been in contact with Duke consistently. They have recruited me well and I am very interested in Duke. It is a great college, they were first to offer me and I like the vibe there a lot."

It is still early in Merrell's recruitment, and he is not ready to name Duke or any other school his leader, but this ACC program is definitely high on his list.