Tampa Fullback Has Two Offers

Tampa-Jefferson is loaded this year with Division I-A talent and one of the players with early scholarship offers is fullback Josh Balloon. Balloon, along with tailback Rashaun Grant, form one of the best backfields in the state this year.

Numerous schools have stopped by Jefferson High School this month, too many for Balloon to recite. He does have two scholarship offers at this early juncture.

"I have offers from Northwestern and USF," Balloon said. "Those are the only offers so far."

Balloon (6-0, 205, 4.45) does have two clear favorite schools in mind--Virginia Tech and Miami-- although they have not offered yet. His top five?

"After (VT and UM) I'd probably say Florida State, Texas, and Tennessee," Balloon said.

Balloon has a 3.5 grade point average, so education is going to be important to him.

"First of all I'm going to look towards my education," Balloon said. "I'm going to go based upon my major first, which is veterinary medicine. Then after that I'll look at the football team and other stuff like that."

Balloon is primarily a fullback but one school has an interest in him on the other side of the ball. Josh also plays linebacker on defense.

"So far they've all been recruiting me to play running back," Balloon said. "But my coach was telling me Oregon or Oregon State said they'd like to see me play outside linebacker."

Balloon and Rashaun Grant plan to attend several football camps together this summer.

"We're going to try and go to as many football camps as we can," Balloon said. "We've said we were going to go to Auburn and Northwestern. There is also a skills camp in Lakeland, and that's all I know so far. I know they're going to have a lot of combines around here and we're going to attend them too."

Jefferson has a spring game on Thursday, May 23rd against nearby Blake High School.