[LeeCoUKFan]

Cats, Cards among players for athlete Harrell

Justin Rowland
CatsIllustrated.com Football Recruiting Analyst

T.J. Harrell has been one of the most talented prospects on Kentucky's recruiting board for quite some time. The Wildcats appear to have some staying power on his list.

Harrell is done with college visits for the summer with practice at Tampa (Fla.) Catholic beginning on Monday. His focus will be entirely on his season and helping his team reach its goals.

With a busy summer almost behind him the 6-foot-1, 210-pound athlete has a lot to think about and a lot of information to sift through. While the picture is not entirely clear Harrell told Cats Illustrated this week that he's starting to get a better idea of where everything stands.

"It changes every other week, I'm not going to lie to you," Harrell said with a laugh. "Right now it's between Florida State, Louisville and Kentucky. Ole Miss is coming into the picture and so did Texas Tech and West Virginia. They're still in the picture. I haven't even seen those last couple of schools so I still want to do that. But I really do like Louisville, Florida State and Kentucky."

Harrell said he will take all five of his official visits after his football season so his recruitment is likely to stretch out close to Signing Day. He said it's likely he will take officials to Kentucky, Louisville, Florida State, West Virginia and either Texas Tech or Ole Miss. Harrell added that he's more likely to visit Ole Miss than Texas Tech.

While six schools are in play three clearly have the edge at the present date.

"Florida State is tied with Louisville right now," Harrell said. "One reason is they stay on me. Their coaches stay in contact with me. At the same time I've seen that school probably more than any other school on my list. They're definitely staying up there. A guy on my team is committed and he's always saying, 'Fear the spear.'

"Louisville, there's a guy up there, we call him Rich Boy. Richard Benjamin. That's somebody I grew up with. Some people say they grew up with somebody when they really just know that person. No, no, no. We grew up together and all that. We played little league together. That's a big impact. He's about to take a starting position there and they've told me I can do the same thing. It's not just that. Coach (Charlie) Strong is a hell of a coach. The whole rest of their coaching staff is good too."

Kentucky has always been in play but recently Harrell announced on Twitter that the Wildcats had made a big move on his list.

"It was really a talk with one of my coaches," Harrell said. "Not just that. I talked with coach (Chad) Scott a couple of times. But my coach pulled me aside. He's going to be another guy that's going to be a major factor in the school I choose. He's said Kentucky's on the rise. I've heard a lot of different stuff about Kentucky. It's really gotten me to consider them quite strongly. Also I've been talking to coaches and other people."

Florida State has offered Harrell as a running back but has told him that they could move him to the defensive side of the ball if that doesn't work out. Louisville is the exact opposite, telling Harrell he would start at defensive back with the potential to move to offense if circumstances change. Kentucky has been open to recruiting Harrell as an athlete.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1531688