Florida TE holds four offers

The talent in the state of Florida is seemingly endless and more and more prospects emerge each day. Belleair Beach (Fla.) Catholic tight end Paul Freedman is one of those emerging prospects though at 6-foot-6, it's hard to see how he was overlooked to begin with. As the summer gets into full swing, Freedman is suddenly sitting with four official offers.

"I've got offers from Duke, Virginia, Indiana and FIU," Freedman said. "I had FIU for a while. I had that since February. This spring Indiana offered me and then Virginia and then Duke. All of those schools stopped by in the spring. Probably 40 or 50 schools stopped by."

Freedman is being recruited by several other programs as well and is attending the camp at the University of Florida on Monday. Among the other schools that are showing Freedman interest are Boston College, Florida and Vanderbilt.

"I definitely want to go to a school where a degree definitely means something like Duke, Virginia, Boston College and Florida," he said. "I'm looking for top academic schools that play in a BCS conference. I'm looking for a good balance and coaches, getting to know the coaches and having a good relationship with them."

Along with Freedman's appearance at the Florida camp, he hopes to take in several other campuses this summer.

"I'm going to Gainesville tomorrow for a one-day camp," he said on Sunday night. "I'll be running some routes and probably mix it up with the linemen too. I'd like to go check out Vanderbilt as well. I'm not going to go to too many camps but I might go look at some of my top schools. I may go to Indiana."

Freedman is versatile enough to play both offense and defense and though he is being recruited primarily as a tight end some schools have expressed interest on defense as well. However, Freedman, who has been clocked at a 4.8 40, feels that he has a lot to contribute on the offensive side of the ball.

"I think some of my strengths are just how I use my size and my hands for my size," he said. "I have soft hands and I use my size well."

The Florida product is open to any school that offers him, but there is one school that may stand out to him were an offer to come his way.

"Miami was my school when I was younger," he said. "They still are but when it comes to recruiting, if Miami offered me, I'd obviously be excited because it's my childhood school. They'd shoot up to the top definitely."