Sandland sets visits

Beau Sandland isn't antsy by anyone's standards. He has no problem taking his recruitment down to the wire. Signing day for junior colleges is in mid December, and the sought-after junior college tight end is just fine waiting until then to make a decision.

For now, he'll continue to explore. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound prospect has more than 25 scholarship offers, making the discovery phase of his recruitment a lengthy one. He names no favorites and offers little insight into which school may land his services when he graduates from Pierce (Calif.) Community College in December.

Which programs will receive official visits from the four-star prospect, however, is another matter entirely. That picture is starting to clear up. He took his first official visit, a trip to Nebraska, in June, and the rest of his itinerary is falling into place.

"Officials are the one I took to Nebraska, Florida, Oklahoma and Ole Miss," he said. "I don't know where I'm going to use my fifth, really. It will become clearer and clearer the longer we go."

His official visit to Oklahoma will come at the end of August and his scheduled trip to Ole Miss is being coordinated with his junior college team's bye week. He says he intends to check out Florida's campus sometime after his season concludes.

It doesn't stop with officials, though. Sandland took an unofficial visit to Arizona State just last week and plans to take one to California sometime this month. The long travel hours are in the name of exploration. The four-star tight end is nothing if not thorough.

"The visits I've been on recently - Arizona State and Nebraska - I liked them a lot," he said. "I had a really good time at both. It was my second time to Tempe (Ariz.) because I went there for a camp my senior year in high school. It was cool to get a better look and be around the coaches. I really enjoyed both of them."

Sandland told ASUDevils.com earlier this week that he expects both Arizona State and Nebraska to be alive in his recruitment until the end.

A broader trimming of his list is something he'd also like to do, but Sandland says he won't start the process of doing that until September. And as for a decision? Well, that a problem he doesn't intend to address until Christmas tress start going up.

"I always panned to take until Dec. 15," he said. That's still the plan, but if something comes up on a visit or something, that might happen, but I'm not going to be committing soon."