Portis has come a long way

Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft quarterback Josh Portis has come a long way and has probably made greater strides in a shorter period of time than any signal caller we can remember. At this time a year ago, we thought Portis was more of an athlete than a quarterback but just one year later, he's one of the elite prospects in the entire West region.

We first saw Portis, 6-3, 185 pounds at a Nike combine event we hosted at USC last summer. He amazed onlookers with a 41 inch vertical jump but didn't blow anyone away during the one on one drills. Portis had several mechanical flaws in his delivery and we actually felt it would be only a matter of time before he was moved to another position.

Instead, Portis worked incredibly hard in the off season, refined his throwing motion and had a solid junior season throwing for 1,881 yards and 21 touchdowns with just four picks. He also rushed for 245 yards and three more scores. We saw Portis firsthand twice last weekend, at the Nike Camp at Stanford Saturday and at the EA SPORTS Elite 11 workout at Cal on Sunday.

The improvement he has made in just one year blew us away. Portis might have been the most consistent quarterback of the weekend and threw a nice, tight ball every time and was very accurate with every pass he was asked to make. The signal caller threw the deep balls with great touch and looked solid velocity wise throwing the slants and outs as well. With his combination of size, athleticism and arm strength, It's no wonder he has been receiving a new offer almost every other day.

"Arizona was the latest to offer me late last week," Portis said. "Right now I have offers from every Pac 10 school except the four California schools. Oregon also offered after the Nike Camp. In addition to those six, Marshall, Utah, Duke and San Jose State have offered. LSU is also talking to me and said they could be close to doing something which would be great because I'm very interested in them.

"I went USC's skills camp a few weeks back and would love to hear more from the Trojans. Right now, I would say I'm looking hard at everyone but favor Oregon State, Michigan, Oregon and Oklahoma. If LSU and USC offer, they'll be way up there too. I'm planning to take some unofficial visits over the summer and then will probably be ready to make my decision sometime during the season next year."