Things finally picking up for AZ standout

It took longer than we expected but Chandler (Ariz.) linebacker Kurt Mangum finally received his first offer of the year. From the sounds of it, it won't be his last either as multiple schools are giving him a very close look.

Mangum, 6-0, 230 pounds was one of the standouts on the NIKE camp circuit last summer. He looked very good at both the Purdue and Stanford NIKE Camp but schools were waiting to evaluate him on the field since he only played defensive end as a junior.

The athlete has had a big senior season and shows up well on film. We thought his first offer would likely come sometime after week two or three but it finally did come Wednesday night.

"Colorado State called and offered him a scholarship," Mangum's father Kurt Sr. said. "He was very excited to get that first offer, it has been a long time coming but he's happy and we'll be setting up an official visit for him sometime in December.

"The next offer could come from Stanford. They have all but offered already and we talk to them about three times a week. The only holdup is Kurt still has to pass admissions over there. As you know, that's a pretty long process and there's a lot that goes in to that but they like Kurt a lot at linebacker and fullback and we're expected to hear back from them very shortly.

"Illinois is another school that is very active with him right now. They saw him at the NIKE Camp at Purdue and have been following him ever since. They told us they just want to see a little more film on him dropping back and covering people so we're going to get that out to them later this week. Duke is also saying they want him to visit and so is Washington.

"We just talked to Coach Willingham at Washington and they want to trip him out for sometime in December. I think all those schools are close to offering so we're excited about how things are going now. It took awhile to get the ball rolling but we're excited and look forward to taking these visits in the next month or so. Kurt wants to take all five so that's what we'll do."