Joyner, Lattimore could stay near home

By JC Shurburtt
Scouts Inc.

Two of the nation’s most talented teams, St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and Byrnes (Duncan, S.C.), will square off in a nationally televised contest Friday (ESPNU, 8 p.m. ET). Here’s a look at the recruiting outlook for nine of the top prospects on these teams:

St. Thomas Aquinas

Lamarcus Joyner, CB: Florida State, Ohio State and Florida are Joyner’s top three — and the three schools with a shot at him. The Seminoles are the heavy favorite and have been the team to beat for some time. Unless there is a serious collapse in Tallahassee, expect him to end up there. The Buckeyes would be right behind the Noles, however. And you can never count out the Gators.

Cody Riggs, CB: Riggs is expected to end up at either Florida or Georgia. The Gators have the inside track on the ESPNU 150 prospect, but the Bulldogs have done an excellent job, as well.

Keion Payne, CB: Look out for Miami in the race for Payne’s services. The Hurricanes always sign their share of prospects out of Broward. If they land Payne, he’s just another talented player to add to Randy Shannon’s program.

Brandon Linder, OL: Miami also is the team to beat for Linder, who is sort of under-the-radar given his talented skill-position teammates. The Hurricanes have had the inside track for some time.

Giovanni Bernard, RB: If I had to guess the school that has the best shot at landing Bernard, it would have to be Florida State, just looking at the running back recruiting boards of all the schools. But the reality is, Bernard could end up anywhere. His brother played at Oregon State.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ committed players: Kicker Michael Palardy (Tennessee)

Byrnes

Marcus Lattimore, RB: South Carolina has a great shot here, but Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and Penn State also are in the mix. Lattimore has had great things to say about every school he has shown interest in.

Nick Jones, WR: The in-state Gamecocks and Michigan have made offers to the speedy Jones. Penn State, Auburn and North Carolina all have shown interest. Chances are Jones will stay in-state when all is said and done.

Torian Richardson, WR: Richardson holds scholarship offers from Mississippi State, Syracuse, Tulane, East Carolina, Kansas State, Rutgers and Louisville. Right now, the Bulldogs, who signed Rico Sanders out of Byrnes last year, and the Scarlet Knights, who have quarterback Chas Dodd committed, seem to make the most sense.

Jazz King, WR: King claims offers from Ole Miss, Kansas and Central Florida. Of the three, the Rebels make the most sense in terms of his fitting into their scheme and using his speed to make plays in that system.

Byrnes’ committed players: ESPNU 150 prospects DE Corey Miller and DT Brandon Willis (both Tennessee).

Leaderboard

When you think of Ohio State football recruiting, you think of the Buckeyes cleaning up on the in-state talent. After all, Ohio is a top five talent-producing state nationally and OSU is the destination of choice for most of the elite prospects in the state. That being said, the national expansion of Buckeyes recruiting has never been more evident. Among the top 50 prospects in the country, Ohio State is in the running for four of them: linebacker Jordan Hicks (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West), offensive lineman Seantrel Henderson (Saint Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall), cornerback Lamarcus Joyner and cornerback Joshua Shaw (Palmdale, Calif./Palmdale). Of the four, only Hicks is from Ohio.

Hot Sell: LSU

This past week, LSU was able to land commitments from two of the nation’s top junior prospects. Furthering the significance of these developments, those prospects are ready to help LSU build the top recruiting class in the country for the next cycle. Needless to say, the Bayou Bengals should be very excited about getting pledges from Class of 2011 ESPNU 150 Watch List members Jeremy Hill and La’El Collins, who made early commitments. Hill is a running back and Collins an offensive tackle for Redemptorist High in Baton Rouge.

Hill talked about getting the chance to play for running backs coach Larry Porter, one of the top recruiters and assistant coaches in the country.

“[Porter] is an amazing coach,” he said. “He really inspires me to be great. I love everything about him, and he just made my decision so much more easy and left me with no second guesses.”

Coast-to-coast notes

More Jones visit talk

Under Armour All-American wide receiver Tai-ler Jones (Gainesville, Ga./Gainesville), a Stanford commit, now has a couple of unofficial visits in mind in addition to his scheduled official visit to Notre Dame on the weekend of Oct. 17 for the USC game.

Jones plans to take an unofficial visit on Oct. 24 to Alabama, where his teammate Blake Sims is currently committed (the Crimson Tide will play host to Tennessee). He also plans an unofficial visit to Auburn but has yet to set that up. Oregon is another possibility for an official, and he will visit Palo Alto officially, as well, but no dates are set for either West Coast trip.

Trojans at the top

Class of 2011 ESPNU150 Watch List defensive tackle Antwaun Woods (Woodland Hills, Calif./Taft) is one of the top prospects at his position in the country for the next recruiting cycle and says that Southern California is looking the best early. The Trojans were one of the first schools to offer. Washington, which is coached by former USC assistant Steve Sarkisian, also is a factor, but Woods cites the fact that the Huskies remind him of SC as a major reason for his interest. He also recently visited UCLA.

Where will White end up?

There is a general feeling that Oklahoma remains way out in front in the race for Under Armour All-American receiver Darius White (Fort Worth, Texas/Dunbar). ESPN’s Gerry Hamilton plans to visit Dunbar High on Wednesday day to check up on White and the school’s other prospects, so be sure to check back for the latest. Most would be surprised if White goes on the record with the Sooners out in front, but the general feeling is he’s going to OU.

Dantzler looking at all options

By now, most recruiting observers know that Class of 2011 ESPNU 150 Watch List tackle Watts Dantzler (Dalton, Ga./Dalton) has a Georgia legacy. His father Danny played for Vince Dooley at UGA from 1971-73, and the Bulldogs made one of the first scholarship offers to the 6-foot-7, 280-pounder.

“That was cool when I got that offer,” he said. “I went into [UGA head coach] Mark Richt’s office and he offered me. That was cool.”

There is no doubt that the Bulldogs will be in the mix until the end for Dantzler and that they are one of his top choices. In fact, if you were placing a bet on where he’d end up, there are pretty good odds that it will be in Athens.

That being said, Dantzler says he’s not close to making a decision and actually raved about a recent visit to another SEC program, Auburn.

“I really loved it down at Auburn,” he said. “That is the best recruiting experience I have had so far. They really treated me well down there.”

Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Clemson and others have offered Dantzler. He visited Knoxville and Nashville and enjoyed those trips as well.

When all is said and done, Dantzler has an idea of what he is looking for in a program.

“The offensive line coach is No. 1,” he said. “The head coach matters, too. I also will be looking at the facilities, and I believe I definitely want to play in the SEC. I understand that this is not just a four-year decision, it’s a 40-year decision, so the school has to have good academics.”

He added that he does not plan to make an early decision and will continue to visit schools for games this fall.

Tigers looking good

As of now, Auburn is the clear leader for ESPNU150 offensive lineman Ed Christian (Valdosta, Ga./Lowndes). Christian told multiple outlets that the Tigers are on top following his weekend visit there for the home team’s 54-30 victory over Ball State. Christian backed out of a long-standing pledge to Florida State following the visit, and though the Seminoles are still in the mix (they’ve dominated recruiting in the Valdosta area recently), the Tigers should be considered the team to beat.

Short stuff

Former Florida cornerback commit Victor Hampton (Darlington, S.C./Darlington) now is interested in Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina. He played his first game at his new school on Friday night (he transferred in from Independence High in Charlotte) and was honored by a local news station for multiple big plays, including a 50-plus-yard kick return for a touchdown.• Florida State defensive line commit Tavaris Barnes (Jacksonville, Fla./First Coast) says he will visit Clemson, South Carolina and North Carolina officially, but remains committed to the Seminoles. • Massive junior college offensive lineman James Carmon of Gulf Coast Community College in Mississippi will visit Penn State on Nov. 7 when the Nittany Lions play host to Ohio State. The 6-foot-7, 360-pound Carmon is originally from Baltimore, which is within the recruiting footprint of Penn State.

JC Shurburtt covers recruiting for ESPN.com. He can be reached at jcsespn@aol.com.