Miami OL staying patient

Miami (Fla.) Killian offensive lineman Ian Bustillo is one of the top lineman in South Florida. Some consider him to be a little short for an offensive lineman, but he is still catching the eyes of many recruiters.

“I think some teams might be a little bit afraid of me because I’m only 6-foot-2,” Bustillo said. “My dad is a doctor and he took me to a bone specialist to see how tall I was projected to be and he said that he thought I had a good two inches left to go.”

The 6-foot-2, 280-pound Bustillo runs the 40-yard dash in 5.1 seconds and plays offensive tackle for his high school team. However, he projects as a center on the next level.

“I’m still sitting on my Auburn offer,” Bustillo said. “That is a great offer and I’m proud of it. I am hearing a lot from LSU, Rutgers, Mississippi State, Florida, Ole Miss, and NC State. Two schools that have really come on strong that I feel good about are Oklahoma State and Alabama. Oklahoma State needs to sign a center this year and coach (Paul) Randolph at Alabama has been talking to my coach a lot and has been sending me a lot of stuff.”

He has a 325-pound bench press, a 510-pound squat, does 20 reps on the bench press and has a 27-inch vertical jump.

“I went to camp at LSU and coach (Nick) Saban named me to his all-star team and named me the top offensive lineman at the camp. They had me blocking Demarcus Granger and he was a handful, but I think that I held my own with him. They told me that they aren’t offering many lineman this year, but that they will be keeping an eye on me and said they would see where the chips fall later in the process.”

Bustillo was recently named as the No. 98 ranked prospect in the Sunshine State by Rivals.com. Both his father and uncle played for LSU in the early 80’s.

“I sent my film to Alabama late last week and I am going to call coach Randolph Wednesday and see what he thought about it,” Bustillo said. “I think that if I go out and have a big senior season I could earn up to ten offers. I’m just going to keep working hard and see how things go.”