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Six more offers for Jared Odrick

Lebanon, Pa. defensive tackle Jared Odrick had an impressive showing at the Elite College Combine and that has paid dividends for the 6-foot-6, 290-pounder. What did the lineman think of his performance at the combine and which new schools have added to his offer list?
"It was good I thought I performed well and I was better off the line," he said. "I was a little bit slower than I was at Nike; I ran a 4.41 shuttle and a 5.03-second 40-yard dash. I was pretty happy with it still though. I went up against some pretty decent linemen and I thought Phillip Taylor and I stood out and coaches told me the same.
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"I don't know who I went up against, but I probably got about three or four reps and I did good in three of them and exceptional in one. The one time I took an inside step and then slammed over the 6-foot-4 offensive tackle pretty quick, I wasn't even touched. I blew by him outside."
What did Odrick feel he showed scouts there?
"I think I showed them that weighing 300 pounds doesn't mean I'm slow," he said. "I put up one of the fastest shuttles despite being 300 and I weighed almost 100 pounds more than some defensive ends there."
In the past week since the combine, Odrick has picked up six offers. The lineman received new offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Duke, Illinois, Connecticut and Wisconsin.
"I appreciate all of them. They are all great offers and no one stands out," he said. "I'm going to be looking at almost every one of them and see what they have on paper. I'm providing equal opportunity to all of them and then once I do, I'll have a better idea what I want to do."
He went on to talk about a couple of the offers from Michigan and Wisconsin.
"The defensive line coach came in and I like him, I had a good conversation with him. It's a great school and I like Michigan. I want to see what they have to offer and talk to coach Carr," he said. "I talked to one of the players Wisconsin signed this year and it's a great place. Coach Alvarez is good and you can't pass up looking at him."
Despite having 30 scholarship offers, there's still one offer that Odrick is waiting for to complete his list.
"I'm looking for a scholarship from USC," he said. "I mean they are the number one program in the country, no doubt about it. They are a hot team and getting a scholarship from them marks my skill across the nation because only the best players get scholarships from them. I like them as a school though too."
Odrick is planning to begin narrowing his field of choices this summer as he visits a lot of schools.
Odrick has started to receive mail from Florida State and Texas and he is also receiving a lot of visits and calls since the evaluation period has started.
"Michigan State, USC, LSU visited," he said. "I've also talked to Miami, Florida and Minnesota. I talked to Joe Paterno just the other day."
Have any of the calls stuck out to him?
"It's always fun talking to Coach Paterno," he said. "I'm just enjoying talking to everybody especially since everyone is saying defensive end now."
Odrick is looking at attending the Akron All-American combine on May 28th.
As for a decision, it'll be a while for the quick lineman.
"My decision will probably come during or after, probably after, the season," he said. "I'm thinking I'll take all five official visits and then pick my team, so that I can think everything out and look at everybody."
In his final year at Lebanon, the stud lineman definitely wants to improve himself and help improve on the 2-8 season they had last year.
"I'm just looking to become bigger, stronger and better prepared for college football. I'm not looking to redshirt, I want to play as a freshman. I want to make sure I get my physical game down this year so that all I have to do is get mentally prepared," he said. "As a team, I want a winning season. I want to dominate personally and break the double and triple teams and make plays consistently. I'm looking to have over 10 sacks this year and just focus on the position I'll be playing in college."
Besides training, Odrick is finishing up track and is looking to compete in the league, district and state.
"The season's going pretty good," he said. "This is my first year doing the shot putt and I broke the school record and qualified for the districts. I'm hoping to make state."
Odrick recorded 72 tackles, nine for loss, five sacks and two deflected passes as he was first team all-conference, all-county and second team AAA all-state as a junior.
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