Miami, Michigan, Iowa impress TE

Franklin (Pa.) Franklin Area tight end Nate Byham now holds approximately 18 offers. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder just picked up a handful of offers from the SEC, Big Ten and ACC.

Byham received offers from Tennessee, Clemson, Wisconsin, Penn State, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio State and Michigan in just the last few weeks.

"I really like them all," he said. "All the schools offering me are pretty big and I don't know what to exactly say about them because they are all good offers."

One of the offers that definitely got Byham's attention was the one from Michigan.

"That was great; one of the good things about them is that I want to play at a huge football stadium and that's the biggest stadium in the country," he said. "They are definitely tempting and a top program."

Although Byham will be too busy with AAU basketball this summer to attend any camps, the top tight end prospect is planning to take unofficial visits to West Virginia on June 4th along with Ohio State, Michigan and Iowa during the week of June 11th. Byham also is looking to make a trip to Miami at the end of July after AAU nationals in Orlando.

With May behind him, the evaluation period has come and gone for Byham. Have any schools impressed the prospect during this time?

"I was definitely impressed with Miami, Michigan and Iowa," he said. "Those were the three coaches that impressed me the most and they are all really awesome guys to talk to."

Besides those three schools, Byham has three others that are also at the top of his list including Southern Cal, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

"I like all those schools, but my list can change quickly," he said. "Everything for me is really open, but I really like the coaches at these schools because they have come and seen me and they are all pretty good teams."

After being named all-conference, all-district and all-region last year by posting 45 receptions, 883 yards and nine touchdowns, Byham is looking to improve on those marks this year.

"I'm mostly working on my weightlifting a lot," he said. "I'm trying to get a lot stronger and bigger. A lot of coaches say I have the speed and agility, but I just need to gain weight and muscle. Some of my goals are already accomplished, my top goal last year was to get a Division I offer and now I'm racking them up. But I did get third-team all-state last year and I want to make it first team all-state tight end this year. I'm also hoping to help the team to a winning record and just break some of my records that I accomplished last season."

Byham is very versatile on and off the field as he was also named second team all-state in basketball last year and he posted an impressive 1470 on the SAT.