First offer arrives for Lawshe

Junior offensive guard Tevin Lawshe is the first to admit he benefitted from having five-star class-of-2012 tackle D.J. Humphries as a teammate last season at Charlotte (N.C.) Mallard Creek.

"Because he was going through the recruiting process, we knew what colleges were looking for and we coached ourselves up," Lawshe said.

On Friday, the 6-feet-5, 265-pound Lawshe landed offer No. 1 when East Carolina pulled the trigger. He is optimistic many more will follow.

"My first reaction was relief," Lawshe said. "Now, I can just enjoy the rest of the recruiting process. I can just keep working hard and focus on my season."

The good news came from ECU offensive line coach Brandon Jones.

"We were communicating on Facebook and then I called him," Lawshe said. "We talked for a little bit, and he gave me a verbal offer over the phone. They started sending me mail during the season, then they popped up a few weeks ago and started recruiting me. They have an energetic coaching staff up there. They're close with all the players."

Other schools also are showing interest.

"I'm also hearing from Wake Forest, Duke and Tennessee," Lawshe said. "I'm getting high interest from Auburn and I'm talking to South Carolina, too. And I visited North Carolina yesterday. They told me some stuff up there. They told me they enjoyed my film and said I was a good technician. They said all I had to do was come up for camp and prove I could be a center. They're recruiting me as a center/guard."

Lawshe will be on the road a lot in the coming weeks.

"I'm going to ECU on April 14 for junior day," he said. "My next visit is Wake Forest this upcoming Saturday. Then I think the next weekend I'm going to a spring practice at Duke."

Keith Niebuhr can be reached at Keithrivals@yahoo.com. You can follow him on Twitter @KeithRIVALS.