Hale gives a taste of what he can offer

The Penn State NIKE Camp this past Saturday in State College brought out some of the top players in the region, and certainly featured some of the Keystone State's best offerings. Among those was potentially the top college prospect in Pennsylvania for 2008, Pittsburgh Gateway linebacker Shayne Hale.

The 6-4, 225-pound Hale measured in, then sat out the drills portion of the camp, opting to just compete in the one-on-ones. Afterwards, he spoke with TheWolverine regarding the progress of his recruitment.

"I definitely am looking at all my teams strongly," said Hale. "All my teams are in it right now, and I haven't really narrowed anything down. I'm not trying to single any schools out and I'm still looking for some more offers. I'm up to 37.

"I'll start narrowing everything down before the season starts. Towards the end I will start to narrow it down any more so I can start picking a school."

Michigan was one of those first schools to extend Hale a scholarship offer. They have recruited prospects such as Justin King and Jon Ditto from Gateway High in recent years, so are quite familiar with head coach Terry Smith and his program. Recently, the Wolverines offered another Gateway prospect in wide receiver Cameron Saddler. That could also help out in getting Hale.

"We definitely would like to get to the same school. We are trying to work on that now," said Hale. "Hopefully a couple more good schools offer him so we can get there together. The only thing that is hurting him is that he is short, so we're trying to work it together and get him some big schools like mine so that way we can have some to choose from."

According to Hale, most of the schools recruiting him keep in touch the same amount. Michigan assistant Scot Loeffler is heading up his recruitment for the Wolverines.

"I get a text message from Michigan every once in awhile. I get mail from them everyday," Hale said. "I definitely am going to try and get back out and see Ann Arbor and a couple other campuses. I'll probably just make a couple of visits. I don't know about any camps at the colleges.

"When I went up [to Ann Arbor] for the practices, everything went smooth and I like a nice, smooth practice that runs well and gets done quick. They have nice coaches and a nice recruiting guy in our area. Everything is nice up there and I like the school."