Where does Derrick Harvey stand

An argument can be made that Derrick Harvey may be the top defensive end in the nation, and with 25 offers you won't find many people that will disagree with you. With the season approaching, where does the stud lineman stand?

"I'm still working on things like deciding where I want to take visits, when I'd like to make my decision -- that kind of stuff," said Harvey. "And our season is starting Friday (Sept. 5), so that's something else that's on my mind. To be honest, so many great schools have offered it's tough to narrow things down at the moment.

"There are probably 10 schools that are standing out the most now. Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, Kansas State, Southern Cal, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, UCLA and Florida are all places I'm going to take a hard look at when it comes time to make a decision."

In a recent pre-season scrimmage, Harvey recorded seven tackles and, while he didn't have any sacks, he found himself behind the line of scrimmage the entire game. He was a terror on the defensive line, disrupting running plays and punishing quarterbacks in what he called his "best game ever."

"A lot of guys will be taking official visits pretty early, but I don't think that will be the case with me," said the five-star rush end. "I'm going to focus on my senior season, then I'll probably take the visits after that. There's a good chance I'll take all five officials so I might not have a decision for a while.

"There really is no timeframe for when I'm planning on announcing my choice. Everyone is wanting to talk to me, and my coach and I are going to try to organize things so it doesn't take up all my time. I like the attention, but if we weren't going to plan times to talk and meet with these coaches it would get to be too much."

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound defensive end from Greenbelt (Md.) Eleanor Roosevelt runs the 40-yard dash in 4.7 seconds and has a 33-inch vertical leap. He is ranked as the No. 2 weakside defensive end in the nation by Rivals.com, and is the No. 14 overall player in the nation.

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