One of Floridas elite talks recruiting

Tampa (Fla.) Middleton athlete A.J. Jones has been one of the most difficult prospects to track down so far this summer, but today Rivals.com caught up with Jones, who has offers from coast to coast.

"Pretty much every school has offered me except for Florida State and Miami," Jones said. "Right now my top five are LSU, Florida, Southern Cal, Alabama and Auburn and they have all offered. There are still some other schools that are in the mix, but those are some of the main ones."

The 6-foot-1, 182-pound Jones attended the NIKE camp in Tallahassee where he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.64 seconds, ran the shuttle in 4.19 seconds, posted a 31-inch vertical jump and did 12 reps on the bench press.

"Most schools are just kind of telling me that they want to get me on campus and that they will figure out whether to play me at safety or outside linebacker later," Jones said. "Pete Carroll came by in the spring and told me that I could fit in their system as either."

Jones was named the 2004 Hillsborough County player of the year, where he made 146 tackles and 16 sacks. He has attended camps at Florida, Alabama and Rutgers this summer.

"The Florida camp was a three day camp and we went up and participated in a 7-on-7 and went all the way to finals before we lost to Ely," Jones said. "The Alabama camp was a one day camp and it was great. I got to see the facilities and I talked to coach Shula. He's a real laid back, cool dude. He introduced me to Tim Tebow while I was up there."

Jones is ranked as the No. 19 player in the state of Florida by Rivals.com and is a member of the Rivals 250 squad.

"I'm looking at academics because I want a good education," Jones said. "I've been in church my whole life so I want to find a school where I can find a good church to go to. I want to make sure that I get along with the coaches as well because I will be going there the next four years of my life."