Jefferson still looking

Five-star defensive end CeCe Jefferson of Glen St. Mary (Fla.) Baker County plans on waiting until National Signing Day to make his announcement and doesn't plan on releasing a top five in the meantime. But he has listed UCLA and Alabama as schools he intends on taking official visits to, with Florida, Florida State, Georgia and LSU as potential landing spots.

The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Jefferson has visited all of his current finalists and of those, enjoyed UCLA the most.

"It's California," he said. "It seems like there's always something to do out there, so I had a blast. I enjoyed myself."

His most recent visit was LSU, where he was visiting for the first time.

"It was a great visit," he said. "It was great getting a chance to visit with the coaches. I had a great time and I didn't know they have a live tiger on campus - Mike the Tiger. That took me by shock and amazed me. The field was huge and the new locker rooms they're putting in are beautiful. I enjoyed myself."

As he's narrowing down his schools, the deciding factors are simple: he wants to be around good people, get a good education and win football games.

"That's pretty much all I'm looking for," he said.

From an academics standpoint, Jefferson wants to major in sports management. He believes the Crimson Tide offers the best program for his major, and that was one of many reasons why Alabama is a finalist.

"Alabama is great," he said. "All their facilities are top-notch. The coaches are great and their background speaks for itself. And (Nick Saban) is a great guy. Every time I'm in his office, 10-percent of the time we talk football but the other times we talk about life and about players he puts in the league who are successful and that's something I take note of."

Florida is a school that's been in the mix for awhile.

"It feels like home when I go there and I just enjoy myself," he said. "With all my top schools, me and the coaches just have that bond and it's amazing."

It was at Florida where Jefferson and Byron Cowart met. They were until recently thought to be a package deal, but that's no longer the case.

"Me and Byron decided not to go as a package deal," Jefferson said. "There's more opportunities out there. Me and him started liking a few more different schools and started seeing what others schools can do for us and just parted ways."

Florida State is the other home-state school vying for Jefferson's services.

"Coach Sal Sunseri and (Jimbo Fisher) are great coaches," he said. "Every time I go there, there's something new for me to see and I just enjoy going there every time."

At Georgia, he's built a relationship with Bulldogs defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt and said he wants to ask him what's going on with the Bulldogs' recent arrests.

"A lot of their players are getting in trouble lately," Jefferson said. "That's a caution flag for me. I don't know what their problem is, but it's kind of crazy to me how their top players are getting in trouble. … Something seems to be up down there, so once I go back I've got to sit and talk with coach Pruitt and ask about that."

Jefferson also noted that more teams could enter the mix, as his recruiting process is still fluent.

"I haven't visited enough places," he said. "Once I see the Michigans, the North Carolinas, the Penn States, all that, then I'll probably have more of a feeling of what I'm looking for, as far as staying home or going out of state.

"Home proximity is not a factor for me. I'm going to go where I can benefit myself the most."

Adam Krohn is a Southeast Region football recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.