Porter picking up the pace

There's a lot to like about Redmond, Wash., three-star offensive lineman Colin Porter.

The 6-foot-5, 313-pounder is easily one of the biggest line prospects in the Northwest and a quite a few coaches believe he's one of the best, too. Rivals.com ranks him as the nation's No. 28 offensive guard, but some schools are talking to him about playing both tackle and guard on the next level.

"I've actually never played guard before in my life," he said. "I've always played tackle, but they just projected me as a guard. At guard, I think I would do pretty well against the larger defensive tackles since I have a good amount of natural strength.

"As a sophomore, I used to go up against Trevor Guyton, who went to Cal, from my high school. It was pretty surprising how well I did against him by the end of my sophomore year. I do well against the bigger, stronger guys in the box. My feet are a lot better now, and I can handle the speed rusher well as a tackle. The power is no problem for me, it's the speed I'm improving on."

Porter, who plays right tackle at Redmond, has offers from Stanford, Washington and Washington State. He said some schools can see both guard and tackle with him.

"A lot of schools and recruiting analysts I've talked to have said I'm too short to play tackle," Porter said. "I was down at the Army Combine, and people said I was too short to play tackle, but I think 6-foot-5 is pretty good height.

"Coach Dan Cozzetto at Washington told me height is not everything for a tackle. Tackle is what I would prefer, but guard is something I'd be willing to transition to in order to make an impact. Stanford said they'd give me the opportunity to come in at tackle and if that doesn't work then I'd go to guard."

Right now, Porter is working on working out the recruiting process.

"It's going all right," he said. "It's starting to heat up. I've got three offers so far and recently I've had some coaches come in and see me at my school."

So what schools have been by?

"This last week, Washington State came, but they had already offered me," Porter said. "Arizona State came up, and Oregon came up, too. Right now I really don't know (if they'll offer). I've have to see what Oregon's like. I have no idea how many linemen each of those teams are going to take in. Oregon has a lot of linemen, so I think they'll probably take in two and they have two linemen offered right now, so I really don't know if they're going to wait or not. We'll see.

"Outside of the schools that have offered me, I've had some initial contacts and contact with coaches a little. I don't really try and contact them too much, but I've talked with Arizona State three or four times."

Throughout most of the early recruiting process, Porter has listed UDub as the team to beat. That doesn't seem like it's changed now that more teams are in hot pursuit of him.

"Washington's still ahead," he said. "But it's always shifting because other schools have come in and offered me. I haven't put a whole lot of thought into who's leading for me or whatever. I'm just taking it as it comes. I'm giving them all the same chance to put their two cents in. Everything's kind of up in the air. I'm pretty much even right now, Washington might be ahead a little because they're my hometown school."

Washington State isn't the hometown school, but it's an in-state school that has caught his eye.

"I've talked to them a couple times on the phone, and they came over here," he said. "I'll probably call coach Paul Wulff in the next couple days to check in. I haven't heard from him in a couple weeks. I had talked to them once before coach Wulff called me up and offered me. It was exciting to have him offer me right off the bat."

Several other coaches have made a good impression with him so far throughout the process.

"I've always liked coach Cozzetto from Washington," Porter said. "He's a great guy, and we have a good relationship. Coach Jeff Mills is my recruiting coordinator from Washington. I talked to him a lot.

"Other than that, I really like coach Steve Greatwood from Oregon. I've met him a couple times and talked to him, I like him a lot. The Stanford coaches too, I've talked to coach Jim Harbaugh and coach Tim Drevno and they're two really great guys. My mom really likes them too, since they sent some nice Mothers Day greetings."

Porter is getting plenty of good attention, but there are a few schools he'd like to hear more from.

"I've always had an interest in Nebraska," he said. "They send me letters, but everyone knows that doesn't mean to much right now. I'd like to hear from them and Wisconsin, too. I've always been interested in Wisconsin. Also, Oregon State. I'm very interested in them, from what I've seen they have a great coach, and he's really a player's coach. I just recently sent their offensive line coach an e-mail, and now I'm just waiting to hear back from them."

Porter plans on taking a visit to Stanford this summer, and he might make it out to Pullman for an unofficial visit.

"I'm going to try to make it down to Stanford after school gets out," he said. "That's something I'm doing around June 23 or somewhere around there. As of right now, I might try to make it to Pullman to visit them, but so far that's all I'm thinking about."

"My camps all depends on the offers I get. The schools that have offered me don't necessarily need to see me. They've already seen me in camps and evaluated me. That's how I'll plan my camps. First, I'll go through all the schools I'm interested in that haven't offered and really decide what schools I'm truly interested in and then go to their camps."