Humphrey focused on four schools

Highland, Mo. wide receiver Jerrill Humphrey is focusing on four schools.

"Jerill has kind of begun to look at four schools pretty much," Highland coach Kevin Hillman said. "It is Iowa, Kansas State, Missouri and Kansas right now."

Hillman said the four schools have had an opportunity to show Humphrey their school first hand.

"He has visited all four of them," he said. "Iowa was an official visit (Sept. 9) but the others were all unofficials this summer. I wouldn't say any school has the edge over the others.

"I thought he was leaning toward Missouri and would commit to them before our season started. But, that doesn’t appear to be the case now. It looks like it will be sometime this winter before he chooses. He has found something he likes at each school when he has been there. Any of them are really good programs. They all have nice facilities and everything too. He needs to find a good coaching staff that he fits in with and everything."

Humphrey has lined up two other official visits. He will travel to Missouri on Dec. 5 and to Kansas State on Dec. 19.

Some have questioned whether the academic hurdles might be too high for Humphrey to be on a Division I roster in 2004, but Hillman thinks his standout athlete will be fine.

"He’s not qualified yet. He’s extremely close. We feel he will make it. It’s not like we’re saying 'How are we going to get him in?' but he needs to stay focused. He needs to work hard the rest of this year."

Highland has struggled through injuries which has limited Humphrey's chances to show his skills.

"Jerrill's numbers aren’t where we’ve expected entering the year," Hillman said. But, we’ve had a lot of injuries. Our quarterback, our tailback and our fullback have all been out. We're just 1-4 on the year. He hasn’t had the chance for a a big breakout game this year yet. He has always had three or four guys keying on him every game. We are getting some guys back this week, so maybe we can change that."