Pendleton driven to earn more offers

The nation's No. 2 fullback prospect, Portsmouth (Ohio) West's Trevon Pendleton, has picked up two scholarship offers thus far and has at least a half dozen BCS Conference showing interest. He knows his senior season will be important if he is to add to his scholarship totals.

"I have offers, but I want to get as many opportunities as I can and have a wide variety to pick from," Pendleton said. "It really motivates me. I'm a really driven person and I'm not going to stop until I get it."

Air Force and Ball State are the two schools that have already extended an offer to Pendleton. Additionally, Arkansas, Michigan State, Boston College, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, Minnesota and LSU are showing interest. Pendleton has been taking steps throughout the summer to turn that interest into scholarship offers.

"My highlight film did not have much blocking on it, so I went back and made just a blocking tape," Pendleton said. "I've been sending that out to a lot of schools that wanted to see that. Other than that, they want to come watch me in person."

Additionally, Pendleton attended college camps at Ohio State, Cincinnati, Michigan State, Toledo, Bowling Green and Arkansas. Following those appearances he feels three of the schools are the most interested and he detailed his recruitment with those programs.

"Arkansas - I went down there and had a really good camp," Pendleton said. "The coach seemed to like me and I've been keeping in a lot of contact with them.

"Michigan State - I had a really great camp up there and ran really well. I've been talking to them quite a lot and later this week I will send my blocking tape out to them because that's what they are waiting to see.

"Cincinnati - I went down there for defense at first, but they have decided to recruit me as a running back. I've been talking to them quite a bit."

Pendleton is not overlooking the two programs that have offered a scholarship - Air Force and Ball State. He plans to see both schools at some point this fall.

"They are both really great schools," Pendleton said. "I haven't gotten a chance to visit them, but I do plan on visiting both schools. I've talked to the coaches on the phone, but to take it further I really need to go visit the schools."

Besides Air Force and Ball State, Pendleton expects to attend games at Arkansas, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Toledo this fall. He has already made plans to attend Toledo's opening game of the season against Arizona.

Pendleton will also be juggling his responsibilities to his team this fall. As a junior he rushed for 1,471 yards and 20 touchdowns on offense and tallied 96 tackles including 25 for loss and eight sacks on defense. He will be reprising both roles this fall for Portsmouth West and he is being looked at on both sides of the football by colleges.

"Most BCS schools are looking at me on offense, but I have been getting a lot of MAC and Conference USA looks at linebacker," Pendleton reported. "There's a lot of talk of running me in bigger back sets, and some are talking fullback."