Ed Tinker, the 6-foot-1, 188-pound wide receiver, from Brashear High School in Pittsburgh (Pa.), finished his junior season with 36 receptions for 516 yards and three touchdowns.
"I can catch and run good routes," Tinker said. "I do everything really well and I have a great attitude too. I go hard on every play and am very competitive.
"I still want to improve my footwork and routes, and I'm also trying to work on my hands and catching."
He says he benches 225 pounds, squats 430 and has a 38-inch vertical jump. Tinker claims to run the forty in 4.4, but ran 4.56 at the Pittsburgh Scout.com combine.
Tinker said he favors West Virginia slightly over Michigan State, Iowa, Minnesota and Louisville. All five have offered, expect the Cardinals. He also has an offer from Pittsburgh, although he says he's not interested in the hometown favorite.
"They were the first school to offer me and are like five minutes away, but I want to get away," Tinker said. "I'm not really looking at them."
Instead, Tinker says he grew up watching West Virginia. "I always liked their offense," he said. "They pass the ball a lot and they recruit a lot of players from this area. They have great coaches and have been doing really well recently."
He plans on attending the Mountaineers camp on June 10. He'll also be attending summer camps at Minnesota, Michigan State and the Pittsburgh passing camp on June 22-23.
"Michigan State has great facilities and really good academics," Tinker said. "They have a great business school and I like their new coaches. They are really straight up and honest. They came to me hard and really seem to like me.
"I haven't been to Iowa yet, but I've been checking out their web site a lot," he said. "I'm doing a lot of research on them and they are renovating their stadium and facilities. I also like the coaches a lot. I talked with the head coach (Kirk Ferentz) and their offensive coordinator (Ken O'Keefe) and they are real cool. They said they really need wide receivers and that I'm one of their top recruits."
Tinker is also being recruited to play basketball and plans on doing both sports in college. He averaged 18 points, 10 rebounds and three assists per game as a forward. "I want to go to a school where I'll be able to play football and basketball," Tinker said. "I'd also like to have a chance to get on the field my freshman year.
"I'd like to decide either before the season starts or just after," he said. "I plan to visit these schools this summer, so hopefully I'll be able to make a decision before the summer ends."
He reports a 2.4 core GPA and a 740 SAT. He is taking the ACT in June.