South Florida DE with first offer

Clarence Murphy is an excited defensive lineman. Murphy, 6-2 and 230 pounds, is from Hollywood (Fla.) Hills High School and today he received his fist scholarship offer.

"Maryland offered me tonight and that's the first one," Murphy said. "It feels so great. Someone finally is very interested in me.

"Maryland seems like a nice academic school and a good football program. I would love to go up there. They kind of gave me the heads up. I stayed in touch with them and they finally offered. Like I said, I am very excited about this. I can definitely see myself playing at Maryland but it's too early to tell. I want to see what happens."

Murphy has become one of the hotter defensive prospects from South Florida. Now that we are in the middle of the May Evaluation Period and more schools have come through, there should be more offers down the line for Murphy.

Tennessee, Texas Tech, Oregon, Oklahoma State, and Purdue are all recruiting me hard. Some of these schools came by practice already. I have seen a few schools like Pitt, UCF, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Florida, Wisconsin, and Boston College I would go to any of these college. I just want to make sure they have great academics, good football and I get some playing time."

At Murphy's size he could end up playing either defensive end or tackle. He's open to any position.

"I have a big frame and long arms so I now I can grow into a tackle. I actually play both positions for my team and I make a lot of plays. I am smart, hold contain, and am pretty quick, fast and strong off of edge.

Last season as a junior Murphy recorded 60 tackles, six sacks, one deflected pass, and one fumble recovery.