Four-star tight end talks official visits

Four-star tight end DeAndre Goolsby is moving forward with his recruitment. It's just that he's doing it slowly and mysteriously.

With 13 scholarship offers to his name, Goolsby says he'd like to trim his list but won't feel comfortable doing so until he takes a few more visits. And with only one unofficial visit ( a trip to Arkansas for a 7-on-7 tournament) left on the docket this summer, he's strapped for time.

And so Goolsby, the No. 5 tight end in America, has shifted his focus to the business of plotting in-season officials. The Derby (Kan.) High School standout has a solid idea of which schools will receive his trips. He lays them out on the table, all the while insisting that he hasn't yet settled on a list of favorites.

The gist of the situation is as such: Goolsby will start taking official visits, some of which will be repeat trips, before he announces any sort of frontrunners. It's all very nuanced. It's also a tad confusing.

"There are still a couple more places I want to see before I narrow the list," Goolsby said. "I want to get up to Oregon, but that will probably be my first official visit.

"With the other officials, I haven't really thought about it much, but I want to go back to Ohio State and back to Florida. I want to go to Wisconsin, too."

Even the timetable for Goolsby's commitment is a bit muddied. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound prospect once said he intended to wait until signing day to make a decision, but that timetable may now be accelerated. These days, he says graduating high school early is a strong possibility.

And so too is a mid-season decision.

"I guess I'll just do it when I feel like I found the right place," he said. "My family and me are kind of talking about the timing. We're still talking about if I am going to graduate early or not. I'm wanting to get out in December and I know I can do it grades-wise."

But at least for the next few days his graduation date and thoughts on trimming his options will be firmly pushed the periphery. This weekend, he'll focus on Arkansas and the football to be played on the school's campus.

"For right now, I'm getting ready to head to Arkansas for the 7-on-7 tournament," Goolsby said. "I already talked to [Razorbacks assistant Michael Smith], and we're going to look at the facilities again as soon as I get there tomorrow."

As a junior at Derby, Goolsby helped lead a Panthers team that averaged 42 points per game and amassed a 10-2 record.