St. Petersburg DE keeping options open

St. Petersburg (Fla.) Lakewood defensive end Julian Riley is one of the Tampa Bay area's top prospects and the 6-foot-4, 240 pound pass-rusher received three phone calls as of early Sunday evening. Riley, who has 12 total offers now, has a few schools he's keeping a close eye on.

"I received a call from UCF, from Iowa State, and one from Ohio State," Riley said.

Julian Riley and teammate Patrick Carter attended Florida's home opener against UAB last Saturday.

"You know how Taylor Jacobs set a record for the receiving yards? Well after the game when we were in the locker room he gave me the gloves that he was wearing in the game," Riley said. "I'm looking at them right now. They have No. 6 on them and everything."

Riley and Carter also attended South Florida's season opener last Thursday night against FAU.

"We're both going to the Florida-Miami game," Riley said. "We both have free passes to them and we're probably going to bring our girlfriends with us."

Julian Riley has 12 scholarship offers to date.

"The other day in the mail I received an offer from Purdue," Riley said. "I now have an official offer from them. In the last month I got one from UConn and Kansas State. I have about 12 now. My mom has them all in a safe locked up in her room."

Among the other schools to offer are Clemson, LSU, Boston College, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Tulane, Rutgers, and Iowa State. Julian thinks other schools may be on the verge of offering.

"I think Florida is going to offer," Riley said. "I'm pretty strong they're going to offer from talking with them yesterday. I'm pretty sure Ohio State is going to offer and I'm pretty sure Michigan State is going to offer. I talk to them all the time. They e-mail me like everyday. They seem very interested. They said they're probably going to offer by the third game in the season. I'm sending them tape in the next two weeks."

Riley says he doesn't have a set favorite school. In fact, many of the schools he's considering are about even.

"There's a lot of them I like," Riley said. "I could pick a good five for you real quick. A lot of them that I like are probably on the same level. I guess it's a little more narrowed down but I'm still taking my time trying to take it easy and focus on the season."

Riley didn't name a top five, instead he offered seven schools he's strongly considering.

"I can say Florida, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Purdue, LSU, and Boston College," Riley said.

He was hoping the assistant coach from Wisconsin would have called on Sunday but Riley figures he'll call on Labor Day.

"I was looking forward to (Wisconsin assistant) Coach Murphy calling today," Riley said. "I thought he was going to call. He sends me stuff all the time. I called the other day but I know he couldn't call me back. He sends me e-mails saying he's going to call."

Julian Riley said he'd most likely take his official visits after his season was through. He's also signed up again to take the ACT (September 28) and SAT (October 3) so he can hopefully get a qualifying test score before recruiting will really heat up later this fall.

Lakewood High School played East Lake in a kickoff classic last week.

"I only played one quarter and I got two and half sacks," Riley said. "We played East Lake, the No. 9 team in the region."

This week Lakewood goes up against Seminole.

"We lost to them last year," Riley explained. "We had 376 total yards of offense and they had 40 carries for 41 yards. We lost 7 to 9 because the first punt of the game we fumbled it and they recovered it at the half yard line. They took four times to score and scored on fourth down. We fumbled again in our own endzone and we got a safety. They're going to get it this time."