Folstons focus isnt on recruiting

Cocoa (Fla.) four-star running back Tarean Folston is a talented 5-foot-10, 195-pound athlete. The Rivals250 prospect has been difficult to track down, but according to his head coach, John Wilkinson, that is due to the fact his focus is elsewhere.

"He is really just focusing on track right now and then spring football," Wilkinson said. "He doesn't really want to focus on recruiting."

Wilkinson doesn't expect his two-way star to hit the road in the coming weeks to check out any colleges.

"He isn't going to take any spring visits," Wilkinson said. "He is busy with track. He has district, then region, and finally state, so he is concentrating on that right now. He hasn't been to any junior days or anything like that. He won't do anything until after spring football. I think this summer he is going to take some visits."

With regards to a short list of top schools, Wilkinson said that Folston has yet to reach that point in the process.

"To be honest with you, I've talked to him about needing to come out with a top five pretty soon or at least a top ten," Wilkinson said. "He just says he wants to wait until he gets through track season."

At this stage, Folston claims verbal offers from Arizona State, Auburn, Boston College, Cincinnati, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville, Marshall, Nebraska, Notre Dame, South Carolina, South Florida, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and West Virginia. Schools such as Arizona, Clemson,Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, and Rutgers are also showing attention.

Wilkinson shed a bit of light on who some of the schools in regular contact with include.

"I know the people that he talks to the most," Wilkinson said. "The newest offer came (yesterday) when Arizona State offered. He talked to them for a while. He talks to FSU quite a bit as well as South Carolina, Florida, and a few others.

"I know he gets along pretty well with Coach (Curtis) Luper at Auburn. I think he also knows someone else on the staff that actually recruited his dad, so that is a bit of an in," Wilkinson added. "He talked to Coach (Grady) Brown at South Carolina quite a bit. He also talked with Coach (Brian) White at Florida on Monday. He talks to Coach (Peter) Vaas at USF."

Folston hasn't provided a timeline for when he wants to make a decision to his head coach.

"He just tells me that he is going to know when he is going to know," Wilkinson said. "I think he is going to take one of if not all five of his visits and find a place that he falls in love with and just do it then. I think that will happen, that is my personal opinion."

As a junior, Folston rushed for 1,295 yards and 17 touchdowns on 153 attempts. He also had 12 receptions for 324 yards and two touchdowns. He also recorded six interceptions while playing as a safety on the defensive side of the ball.

Folston's father, James Folston, was a second round NFL Draft selection and played for the Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals after his collegiate career at Louisiana-Monroe. Folston starred at linebacker.