It's Alive!

According to Mike Gross of Lancaster Online, Dakota Royer has created a monster--a recruiting beast that is alive and well.

With a lot of hard work and his own highlight DVD, Manheim Central's Dakota Royer has turned himself into one of the nation's top football recruits. He'll announce his college choice next month.

He's 6-3, 215 pounds of muscle, runs a 4.640 and has a 37-inch vertical leap, or a four-foot vertical leap straight out of a swimming pool (more on that later).

"I'm meant to be on the defensive side," Royer said.

He could be a linebacker or an end in college, or a combination of both, a hybrid who does some linebacker things and some pass-rushing end things. Think Penn State's Aaron Maybin.

Royer has well over 20 Division I-A college offers . . . Royer has already narrowed his college choices to one of five schools (Penn State, Pitt, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Oregon), and says he'll announce the winner next month.

Penn State — "I've been there a bunch of times. It's close to home. It's familiar."

Pitt — "It's pretty cool that the Steelers are right there. Their weight room is right across the hallway from [Pitt's]."

Notre Dame — "It's the best, nicest campus I've ever seen."

Michigan State — "It's almost like its own city. Everybody's got their motor scooters or bikes. It's really a nice place."

Oregon — "When you watch them play, it looks like it would be awesome to play there. Every player has a plasma-screen TV in his locker." Royer likes that Oregon amounts to a product-testing facility for Nike.

Plasma screens in the locker? Are you kidding me? Who sits and watches TV in front of a locker??? How can Penn State compete with that crap? And why didn't he mention the picturesque bus trip through Pittsburgh to get to the rent-a-stadium?

Here's the YouTube video of the swimming pool stunt.