Portis talks about first two visits

Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft quarterback Josh Portis is halfway through a fairly grueling stretch where he’s taking four official visits in consecutive weeks. Portis has visited Washington and Utah the last two weekends and will head back to the Northwest this weekend.

Portis, 6-3, 190 pounds has had a great start to this season and was especially impressive in a week two win over Los Angeles city champion Carson, a game we saw from the sidelines. Portis threw for three touchdowns and ran for another, a feat he duplicated this past weekend as Taft rolled over an overmatched Monroe squad.

So how have the visits been going so far?

“So far, they have both been great,” Portis said. “At Washington, I had a good time, that’s a great setting for college football. The crowd was really in to it and I saw a great game even though they came up a little short. The campus is very nice and I like the players and coaches on the team.

“Washington isn’t doing very well right now but I think they can turn things around. At least I hope they can, I’m praying they do because it’s a great program with a lot of tradition. Overall, I would probably give the visit about an eight.

“Utah, that place was crazy too. The crowd was going nuts and they have great fans there. They all had their faces painted with a big U on the side of their face. I really like Coach (Urban) Myer too. He’s a good guy, a players coach but very businesslike. He actually reminds me of Coach Starr here at Taft.

“When you watch Utah play, you can’t help but be impressed by that offense. They’re a high powered team that does a lot of three and four wide receiver sets and they’re explosive. Honestly, there were no negatives at all and I would have give the trip a perfect 10, I liked it that much.”

Portis will next visit Oregon this weekend and will then take a visit to LSU the following weekend.

“I’m feeling good right now but the trips are pretty tiring,” Portis said. “We play a game on Friday, then I have to take a 6:30 flight out of LAX on Saturday morning and have to leave our house around 3:30 or 4:00 to get there. So by the time I get home Sunday night, I’m beat but it’s still fun. I could make my decision after the LSU trip or take a 5th visit although I have no idea where that last visit would be right now.”