Holmes in no hurry
When Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei offensive lineman Khaled Holmes was first offered by USC a few months back, many expected the lineman to jump on it. Fast forward to July and Holmes said he's still in no hurry to make a commitment anywhere.
Holmes, 6-5, 300 pounds is one of the top line prospects in the West this year. He earned 1st team all-state underclass honors as a junior and has the versatility to play guard or tackle at the college level.
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As many already know, Holmes is the younger brother of former USC tight end Alex Holmes. While in college, Alex should come out every summer and catch passes at the Elite 11 QB camp and we remember this little, chubby kid who used to come out and watch as well.
"Yeah, that was me," Holmes said. "I used to always come out and watch that camp, that was fun. That was a long time ago, I've grown up a lot since then."
He has indeed and schools from all over the country have since taken note. With offers from national programs, Holmes said four schools stand out with one clearly on top.
"USC is still my top school," Holmes said. "I know a lot of people expected me to commit right when they offered but that is something that just didn't interest me.
"With my brother going there and the fact that USC is such a great school and everyone else was committing so early, naturally, people expected me to already be a Trojan. I'm not ready to do that though and just want to take the recruiting process real slow right now.
"This is such a big decision and I don't want to commit without knowing what else is out there. I know all about USC but there are other schools I like too and I want to take some official visits before committing anywhere.
"Along with USC, I also really like Cal, Stanford and Notre Dame. I would like to take some unofficial visits but with our schedule, I don't think that will happen. So I'll just to have to wait and take official visits to each of the schools and I'll probably do that sometime during the football season.
"I'm hoping that we'll be playing until December and it might be late to start taking visits at that time so I'm going to try and take them during the season and then commit sometime shortly after the season."
As for what he's looking for in a school, Holmes was somewhat vague on that.
"I guess I'm just looking for that special feeling that you hear people talking about," Holmes said. "I think on my visits, I'll know where to go based on just how I feel while I'm at the school.
"Of course I would like to play early but I think that is more on me than anything else. If I work hard and play how I know I can, I think I'll be good to go."
Holmes said USC is recruiting him at guard while the other three schools have said he could play tackle or guard.