Riley closing in on decision

Last week, we talked about Beaverton (Ore.) quarterback Kevin Riley and how his stock was beginning to take off. That hold true ever more now as Riley picked up a huge offer from one of the nation's top passing programs.

Riley, 6-1, 195 pounds camped at Cal this past weekend in what amounted to almost a competition of sorts between the top three quarterbacks on the Bears board. Along with Riley, Washington's Jake Locker and Utah's James Lark were also in attendance but it was Riley who stole the show.

"Cal just offered me last night," Riley said. "Coach Tedford told me to call him during the week so called him last night. He told me they liked me a lot and were going to offer. Then he kind of stopped himself and said, 'forget that, we're offering you right now, you have an official scholarship offer from us.' I was speechless.

"Coach Teford is regarded as a quarterback genius and the only other quarterback they have offered was Locker. If you're a quarterback, I don't think there's a better school to get an offer from than Cal because of Tedford and the offense they run. I told him I was very excited about the offer but wanted to think about a little bit before making a decision.

"Right now, I'm still planning to camp at Boise State this weekend. I like the coaches there a lot and they have been really good to me so I want to still check them out but at the same time, I think there's a chance I could jump on the Cal offer pretty soon here. Michigan State is another school I like and the coaches there want me to camp with them at the end of the month. They said there's a good chance they would offer me but I'm not sure I'll get that far in my recruitment without making a decision first. I'm just going to play it by ear and think things over for the next couple of days and see what happens."

As we mentioned last week, Riley is the top signal caller in the state and a viable candidate for the EA SPORTS Elite 11. He'll attend the final Elite 11 workout in Las Vegas where he'll be competing with such nationally known quarterbacks as Matt Stafford, Jevan Snead, Jeremy Ricker and Zack Frazier among others.