Royer hoping to narrow things down

While many top prospects have either committed or narrowed down their lists to a manageable level, four-star defensive end Dakota Royer said he is still in the early stages of the recruiting process.

The Manheim (Pa.) Manheim Central recruit who's among the Rivals 250 has taken a bunch of visits and done hours of research on the schools recruiting him but so many are involved that it's been difficult to get a grasp on which ones stand out the most.

"I don't know if it's going to be during the season or after the season but I'm not going to have it done before," Royer said. "There is so much to research, there is so much I need to find out before I choose and there are still schools I need to see.

"When it comes down to the final three or the final five, I might have to go back and visit each one again to make sure I made the right decision. Right now, I'm only at the beginning of the process."

Over the last few months, Royer has visited Virginia, Penn State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Illinois but a ton of other schools have offered which makes the process to narrow down his list so tough.

"I'll be cutting it down," Royer said. "Even though there are schools here or there that I haven't talked to but cutting it down because there are so many kids out there that would love the opportunity to be able to cut schools out or even play D1. It will be hard but I'll get through it and then I'll pick whatever the top ones are for me and go from there.

"The ones I visited, it's not a guarantee they're going to make the cut but it gives me a feel for these and there are some schools I didn't visit that are going to make the cut so I didn't go out west and I didn't go down south too far so there are schools that I'm interested in that I didn't get to visit yet and do want to visit and then will make my cut."

Other than the schools already mentioned, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, North Carolina, Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech and West Virginia are some of the other teams that have offered Royer, who had 86 tackles (32 for loss) with 13 sacks last season. He's also used on offense. In his sophomore season, Royer had 107 stops, 12 sacks and two fumble recoveries.

Some consider Penn State the team to beat but Royer said it's too early to name a leader. He added that being around the right people, ones who care about what's best for him, is what he'll be looking for the most in a school.

"I'll have a top school when I decide, that will be my top school," Royer said. "People always said Penn State was my top one but people might think that but people don't know where I'm at with it all and you can't really say that.

"They're all great atmospheres, college level, that big-time D1 ball is great. The school for me would be academics and pretty much wherever I feel like I'd fit in and help out the program."