Logan-El engaged to Maryland

Forestville, Md. offensive guard Antonio Logan-El is another player on the list of the 27 five-star prospects from 2006. What was the 6-foot-4, 307-pounder's reaction to the news?

"Really, I didn't even know, you know it caught me by surprise," he said. "Since I was in high school I wondered how it would be to be a five-star guy and now I'm just speechless, and if I'm speechless you've actually done something. I have to same it's a great honor and I know a lot of guys are great players and to say I'm a five-star player is just, wow."

What does it mean for him to be a five-star player?

"It means a lot, I knew I was a good athlete and I wanted to see what everyone else ranked me as, but that's as high as I can get. That lets me know what everyone else thinks of me," he said. "It's my best accomplishment in a while. Honestly, I don't know what to say, I always dreamed where I'm going to be ranked, it just never crossed my mind that I'd be a five-star player.

"My football banquet is tomorrow and this is something else to tell my coach. And to be amongst the other lineman like Jared Gaither is a great feat."

Logan-El confirmed that he has opened things up slightly and is just testing the waters.

"I've opened my recruiting back up, but it's not as much of a decommitment," he said. "It's like I'm engaged to Maryland, but before I get married I want to see if there's anything else out there. Maryland it still number one and I'm still committed to them."

The Rivals100 lineman confirmed that six schools are still in the running for his services.

"I'm narrowed it down to Maryland, Penn State, Florida, Illinois, Boston College and Oklahoma," he said. "A kid by the name of Andre Jones got a scholarship from Boston College. He and I are almost identical with values -- our family basis -- and he choose Boston College. So once I got a chance to talk to the coach from Boston College, I got to see why Andre chose them and I decided maybe I'll take a look at them, too.

"One thing that Penn State, Oklahoma and Florida did that no other schools did was they talked about everything except football. That was the last thing they talked about and that caught me by surprise and showed that they were more interested in me as a person, not just how this kid can help them win football games. They impressed me, my family and my coach. Finally, Illinois was one of the first schools that showed interest in me and that was before I became well-known. They saw something in me before a lot of other schools did and they've been contacting me since ninth grade."

Logan-El plans to have all of his visits done by October so that he can make his decision by the end of October or early November.

"I plan to take official visits to Penn State and Florida," he said. "I'm also thinking about taking official visits to Boston College and Oklahoma."

This Saturday, the lineman plans to take in Maryland's one day senior camp on June 4th.

"I'm not sure if I'll participate because I had a bad experience at the Virginia Tech camp when one of the kids dove at my ankles, so I don't know if I want to take that risk," he said. "It's going to be a big day there. They're going to talk about their academic perspective and introduce their new recruiting coordinator for the area. I get to hang out with the coaches and maybe get a little jump start on things there."

The biggest news concerning Logan-El during this offseason may be that he has joined the track team.

"This is the first time I've ever done track -- the shot-put and discus," he said. "I practiced one day with the shot and discus and then the next day I went to the county championship. I came in fourth in the shot and sixth in the discus with just one day of practice. Then I got a weekend of practice and went to the regionals and I qualified for state by placing fourth there. I was pretty impressed with myself as I talked to some of the other guys who had been doing this for ten years, and I was competing after not even doing it a month."

What are his feelings on joining track?

"It's a different experience with the shot and discus," he said. "It's the best individual sport you can get -- you're in the circle and everyone is looking at you. I had down time at the end of this year so I decided to join and I'm staying in shape with the track team. I'm definitely going to do it next year because I came in fourth and two guys above me are seniors, so I could be one of the top guys in the region in the shot-put next year."