Lloyd has started to pick up offers

Ricky Lloyd put up the statistics last season and now here come the offers. Louisiana Tech was the first school to offer and now Southern Mississippi has also extended one to the Concord, Calif., pro-style quarterback who threw for 2,852 yards and 39 touchdowns in his junior season.

"I got film in (to Louisiana Tech) and once (offensive coordinator Tony) Franklin saw the film he said he wanted to come out and watch him throw in person," Concord coach Brian Hamilton said. "Coach Franklin came out and went outside and watched him throw and an hour later they had offered him.

"When you put him up against most of the guys he's already outperformed them so I don't know how it's all going to work. He can out-throw just about everybody because he has to in our offense. We have to throw 14 different routes. That's what we do."

A spread offense in college might be most suitable to Lloyd, who is getting interest from Oregon, Arizona, Tulsa and many others.

Maybe more important than name recognition in colleges will be the offensive system, where Lloyd can drop back and pick apart defenses with his strong right arm. If that means going to Louisiana Tech or Southern Miss - or maybe someplace else far from home - then that's what Lloyd will do.

"For Ricky, he's looking for the system that fits him best," Hamilton said. "What Pac-10 team runs the spread besides Oregon? The Pac-10 has a lot of big-time schools and they do a lot of stuff with pro-style offenses. I don't know how many fits there are in the Pac-10 for him.

"The University of Houston, that kid threw for (more than) 5,000 yards. That sounds like a lot of fun to me if I was a quarterback. That's someplace where I'd want to go - Cincinnati, Tulsa. Arizona is coming out to watch him throw. Those are the guys that are going to want to come out and see him."

Lloyd, a 6-foot-2, 182-pound prospect who attended the Rivals.com Five-Star Academy at Cal, will work out at the Elite 11 in Berkeley on Friday. One coach told Hamilton after that event that Lloyd should pick up even more interest and maybe some more offers. Hamilton agrees because he believes he has one of the best quarterbacks around.

"I've had some talented kids in the past but this is the first quarterback," Hamilton said. "Normally when you have a linebacker that's just heads and tails above he's sitting on 20 offers but you can't be wrong with a quarterback."