Decision time nears for south Florida football recruits

Each year, more and more top-notch football players are making verbal commitments early in the football recruiting process, some before their senior season even kicks off. But in talent-rich south Florida, there's still quite a few who have yet to decide which college program will earn their signatures on National Signing Day, which is only four weeks away.

Three who have yet to make a verbal commitment are Dwyer (Palm Beach Gardens) teammates — tight end Nick O'Leary, quarterback Jacoby Brissett and defensive end Curt Maggitt.

O'Leary, a grandson of golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, is widely considered the top-rated tight end prospect in the nation, and he also is a good punter and special teams player. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound O'Leary seems to be leaning toward Florida State, but he recently said that Alabama, LSU and Miami still are very much in the mix for his signature on Feb. 2. Alabama's Nick Saban, FSU's Jimbo Fisher and LSU's Les Miles each have made in-home visits with O'Leary and his parents. O'Leary and Brissett are in San Antonio this week and will play in the nationally televised U.S. Army All-American Bowl on Saturday.

Video of Nick O'Leary

Brissett's stock has risen considerably following a stellar senior season in which he passed for almost 2,500 yards and 32 touchdowns despite being pulled in the third quarter in all but two of Dwyer's 13 games this season. He threw only one interception and was named the Offensive Player of the Year by both the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post, as well as the Palm Beach County Player of the Year at the annual Lou Groza Award banquet last month. Brissett has made official visits to Alabama, LSU and Wisconsin.

Video of Jacoby Brissett

Al Golden, the new head coach at Miami, has shown more interest in Brissett than former Hurricanes coach Randy Shannon since replacing Shannon, so it's likely that Brissett will take one of his remaining two official visits to UM this month. The Hurricanes lost their only verbal commit at quarterback when Northwestern (Miami) senior Teddy Bridgewater switched his commitment to Louisville two weeks ago following the firing of Shannon. "It all happened so fast," said Bridgewater, who also is in San Antonio this week for the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. "One minute I was committed to Miami, and a day later I was open again."

It also helped that Bridgewater already had developed a relationship with Louisville coach Charlie Strong when Strong was at Florida. Wide receiver Eli Rogers, Bridgewater's teammate at Northwestern, also has made a verbal commitment to the Cardinals.