Fort Worth Dunbar has more than just talent

FORT WORTH, Texas - With the spring winding down and another 7-on-7 practice in the books, Dunbar head coach Todd Lawson can't keep from smiling when talking about his team.

That team includes top recruits like top wide receiver Darius White, rising linebacker Rashod Favors, and versatile athlete Dominique Sanders. All three have plenty of college options, especially for White who Rivals.com has listed as the No. 3 overall prospect in the entire country.

You can't blame Lawson from smiling with that kind of talent.

It's a collection of talent that he says he's never had so much of at one time. But what really has him smiling is the fact that all three are more than just talented football players.

"It's never happened like this," Lawson explained after practice on Monday. "You may have one [top recruit], but I ended up having three. All of them are well grounded. To be that talented, you'd think some would be envious of each other. But they're not like that. All of the things they do is for the betterment of the team.

"That's the big thing. They're so great to coach – because they just want to win."

White, the 6-4, 205-pound prospect, has his pick of where he wants to go. The long list of scholarship offers include Auburn, Florida, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech… to name a few.

There was plenty of talk that his decision was coming up soon earlier this year.

Fast forward to this week.

Practice ends on Monday afternoon for another day and players walk back to the locker room slowly.

White walks over to do yet another interview. Despite the many interviews he does on a weekly basis, he smiles and still looks excited to be going through such an extensive recruiting process.

In fact, he says he received plenty of attention in the form of text messages and phone calls from friends who believed he was about to make a decision just a month or so ago.

But in mid-May, with his junior year of high school coming to a close, White remains undecided.

"I'm just sitting back and weighing my options," White said. "I'm looking to find a school I feel comfortable at."

As for when the next trips will be, White says it's likely that won't start until the fall.

"That's when we're probably going to take our trips," he said "We're really just waiting on our senior year. Whatever goes on then, goes on then."

When asked which schools that he hasn't visited but would like to see before making a decision, White listed off a few he's thought about recently.

"Florida, USC, UCLA, LSU, and I'm going to have to say Georgia," he said.

Though he has a general idea for some visits, he says he still doesn't have a set date for a decision.

On the defensive side of the ball, Favors, stands out at practice as a leader. He can be seen not only trying to better himself, but make sure everyone else is in the right position as well.

At 6-2, 215 pounds and holding numerous scholarship offers due to his athletic ability.

According to his coach, his academic ability has opened the door as well.

"Rashod, he's really big on his academics because he's in on the engineering program here," Lawson said. "His mom is looking at the academic side for him. People just look at his talent, and say, 'Oh he can go anywhere.' Yes he can, but he can also go anywhere academically he wants to go. He's sitting back and looking at his options."

Favors has talked to two schools, Oklahoma State and Miami, who both inquired if he'd be interested in a summer visit. He's had plenty of other stop by the school just this week including Baylor, LSU, and Nebraska.

This DFW prospect, ranked as the nation's No. 17 inside linebacker prospect, is certainly not rushing anything.

"I'm just trying to finish the last couple of weeks in my spring since I've got a lot of time before my senior year," Favors said. "I'm going to take my official visits, but I haven't talked to any schools about that."

Last but certainly not least is the 6-1, 190-pound athlete Sanders. During this week's 7-on-7 practice, Sanders was throwing the ball or lining up as a receiver. It's easy to see why he's grabbed the "athlete" description.

But, Lawson says that more people are seeing him as a wide receiver. Like his teammates Favors and White, he also has college scholarship offers. Those include Baylor, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Utah, SMU, and TCU.

His coach also added that Oklahoma is starting to pick up their interest in Sanders after making offers to Favors and White earlier.

"At first, whenever everybody came in, they saw Dominique's body, and said, 'Oh he's an athlete,'" Lawson explained. "Then they said there is more to it than that. But I think there are more people looking at him as a receiver now."

Regardless of where all three end up, Lawson is happy with not only how the spring has gone or the talented athletes who are working hard on the practice field in preparation for 2009 – he's excited at how the team is coming together.

"If these guys don't get as many balls as they normally would, that's fine," Lawson said. "They just want to win. They push each other but they (also) push the team."