New SEC offer for Bookser

Few recruits in the country have been pulling in offers like Alex Bookser. The offensive lineman from Mt. Lebanon (Pa.) has picked up offers from big name schools like Tennessee, Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State and at least fifteen others. This week Bookser was offered by the Georgia Bulldogs.

"One of the coaches contacted me on Facebook about a week ago and I wasn't able to contact him until the other day," said the 6-foot-6, 295-pound Bookser. "This was the first time I had come in contact with the University of Georgia and I wasn't expecting an offer from them. When he answered the phone he was really excited to hear from me and the second thing out of his mouth was that they were offering me.

"Obviously, it's one of the better programs in the country," he said. "Every year they're working towards getting that SEC championship and it's the best conference in college football. It's pretty cool to get an offer from them."

Clearly, there are plenty of schools that would like to land Bookser but there are a few that are contacting him more than others.

"Of course Pittsburgh because I'm so close and my old high school coach is there now coaching the linebackers," Bookser said. "I kind of have more of a connection with them by default. I know a lot of people up there and it's pretty close to home.

"Recently, I've been talking to Ohio State a lot," he said. "There isn't really a reason other than the fact that it is Ohio State. It's close to home and I have family that lives in Columbus so that's a place that I would probably put close to the top of my list because it's a place I know I could be comfortable at.

"Penn State has been consistently sending me mail and I've been in contact with them," said Bookser. "It's one of those things where they don't have many scholarships to offer. I might be going up there in a couple of weeks and get to know them. I feel like they're the only one that I'm in contact with that hasn't offered me yet."

This has been a crazy time for Bookser but he has thought about when he wants to take the next step in his recruitment.

"I have said I want to cut the list to either ten or eight by the end of spring and then take those eight or so teams and then try to go to most of those places during the summer," he explained. "Then I'd want to figure out a top five by the fall and take my official visits and try to figure it out. If I find somewhere and I absolutely love and I know I really want to go there and I get along with all the coaches and I love the campus I'm going to want to make my decision quicker so I can start getting down there and getting to know who is going to be in that recruiting class and who are going to be my teammates."

Leading up to the time Bookser makes those cuts, everyone will be wondering which schools will make the cut.

"Right now, I kind of have my schools split up into two categories," Bookser said. "One is big time football schools with football towns. That's places like Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio State and Georgia would fit into that list also. I want to compare them to schools where football might not be as big as it is at some of these SEC schools. Schools like Northwestern and Virginia, places that are really good schools and I can get a job where ever I want. I want to compare these two types of schools and see where I fit in more."

Bookser will be competing in the Rivals Camp Series presented by Under Armour when it comes to Pittsburgh.