Etienne Sabino, the 6-foot-3, 230-pound linebacker from Krop High School in Miami (Fla.), finished his junior season with 131 tackles and eight sacks.
Sabino, a Scout.com four-star prospect, benches 370 pounds and has a 32-inch vertical jump. "I feel like I have a will to get to the ball," Sabino said. "I just try that much harder. I'm really aggressive and have great speed to the ball.
"I want to work on my footwork and my leverage," he said. "Of course, you can never be fast enough and I want to work on my speed too (4.6 forty)."
Ranked No. 40 nationally by Scout.com, Sabino denies a leader, but favors Miami, Florida, North Carolina, Notre Dame and USC. "But I'm still really open, I don't even really have a top five yet," he said. "I'm gonna try to have a top five by the beginning of my season. I want to take some visits this summer and narrow it down."
All of his favorites have offered as well as Ohio State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Mississippi, Duke, Auburn, West Virginia and Tennessee, among others. "I want a good academic school and someplace that has a good mix of everything."
"I've always liked Miami," Sabino said. "I love their aggressiveness on defense. They are always sending defensive players to the league. They had a bad year last year, but I'm sure they'll be back next season. Coach Randy Shannon is definitely gonna change things around and he's got some good recruits coming in, so I expect them to do well."
Sabino attended the spring games at both Miami and North Carolina. "I had a fun time at North Carolina," he said. "They had a good turn out and it was great to see the fans really support them. I think that coach Butch Davis is gonna turn things around and help them be more than a basketball school."
He doesn't plan on going to any camps this summer, but hopes to visit a few schools unofficially.
One school he'd like to visit is Notre Dame. "Notre Dame is great," he said. "I met coach Charlie Weis when he was at my school and he's a nice guy. They are changing their defense to a 3-4 and they think that I would be a perfect fit for them.
Another school that Sabino would like to see in person is USC. "I also like USC a lot," Sabino said. "Coach Pete Carroll is a class act and it's just an NFL factory over there. I like that it's in Los Angeles and it's somewhere different. I'm not worried about the distance or anything."
He reports a 3.0 core GPA and has an 1180 SAT. "I'm graduating early and I'm going to be taking summer school (English IV and Spanish II)," Sabino said. "I really want to get ahead and be more prepared. I want to play spring ball and I think it'll benefit me because I'll get to know their style and play book early.