Favorite emerging for Washington

It was a quiet summer on the recruiting scene for Cincinnati (Ohio) Taft defensive end Adolphus Washington, who was involved with AAU basketball in June and July, but decision time is not too far off for the Rivals100 prospect and his list of favorites is starting to come into focus.

"My top [group] would be Ohio State, Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Michigan State and UC," Washington reported.

Ohio State was Washington's dream school entering the process. After taking a slight dip on his board earlier this summer, the Buckeyes are back on top for the Cincinnati native.

"I feel real good about them and they are kind of the leader right now," he said. "I don't know much about Coach [Luke] Fickell, but in talking to him he seems like a real nice guy and is all about his business. The guy that would be coaching me, Coach [Jim] Heacock, he's pretty good and he puts guys in the league."

The last time Washington was in Columbus was for the NIKE Camp in May. He expects to be back on campus the weekend of Sept. 10 to see the Buckeyes take on Toledo in Ohio Stadium.

Washington does not plan to take his recruitment into the winter. He did not get a chance to visit any campuses this summer because of AAU, but is starting to formulate plans for official visits with his teammate and fellow Rivals100 prospect Dwayne Stanford.

"I will probably make my decision at the end of football season, if not earlier," Washington said. "I am really trying to take a lot of college visits in September and October. Me and Dwayne have been talking about taking officials lately. We have a scrimmage tomorrow, so we will probably sit down with our coach and talk about all of that."

Two schools Washington knows for sure will receive official visits are Alabama and Ohio State. He had originally planned to take an official visit to Miami for the Hurricane's Sept. 17 matchup with Ohio State, but the recent allegations against the Miami program have he and Stanford reconsidering their interest in the Hurricane's program.

"I kind of dropped their interest too," Washington said. "I have only talked to Dwayne about [the Miami situation] and he kind of explained to me what was going on, but I don't know exactly what is going on."

Taft starts their 2011 season next Friday against Badin High. The 6-4, 230-pound Washington will reassume his spot at defensive end for the Senators and expects to see spot duty at tight end. Despite playing basketball for much of the summer, Washington feels that he is in great football shape and plans to live up to expectations for his squad this fall.

"We do have a lot of expectations because we made it to the playoffs for the first time in school history last year," Washington said. "Now we're trying to take it a couple steps farther and make it to the state championship. Expectations are pretty high, but we've had high expectations our whole life, so we can take care of it."