Mayo shaking things up

Hampton (Va.) Kecoughtan linebacker Jerod Mayo once looked as though he was leaning towards Virginia. Now that he's back from an official visit to NC State, some things have changed.

The 6-foot-2, 214-pound linebacker runs the 40-yard dash in 4.62 seconds and is considered to be one of the top 5 players in the state of Virginia. Does he have a leader?

"If I had to pick a school right now, at this moment, it would be NC State," said Mayo. "I was just blown away by the official visit this weekend. I'm sure it would have been even better if I had gotten to see a game while I was there too. Everybody was having a really good time. The coaches are all really cool, and the players are great to hang out with. You can tell they're building something that's going to last for a while."

But fans of teams other than NC State shouldn't panic just yet. Mayo still has four visits left.

"I know I still have a lot left to see at different schools," he said. "And who knows ... maybe I'll be more impressed somewhere else. But I really didn't expect to like it as much as I did. That's one reason I think they're my favorite school."

Mayo will still take official visits to Virginia (Dec. 12), Purdue (Dec. 19), Tennessee (Jan. 9) and Virginia Tech (Jan. 16). When will he make a decision?

"Right now I'm thinking that I won't have a decision until I'm done with my visits. There's a chance something could happen I guess, but ideally I would wait and see each school."