Wide Open

"I don't have a top five yet," Je'Ron Stokes said. "I'm taking things slow and focusing on school and track right now. I should have a top five or six by the summer." Stokes attended a couple of Penn State games last season (against Notre Dame and Ohio State) and loved it. "I like the game day experience there," he said. "It's electrifying. It's just a great setting. I also like the coaches..."

Je'Ron Stokes, the 6-foot-1, 178 pound four-star wide receiver from Northeast High School in Philadelphia, Penn., has around 20 scholarship offers but hasn't even begun to narrow down his list.

"I don't have a top five yet," Stokes said. "I'm taking things slow and focusing on school and track right now. I should have a top five or six by the summer."

Despite denying a favorite, Stokes likes Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers and Pittsburgh and has already been to all those campuses except Maryland.

Both the Panthers and Nittany Lions are about three and half hours from his house according to Stokes. "It's not gonna matter," he said. "I'm looking for the best opportunity regardless of the location."

Stokes attended a couple of Penn State games last season (against Notre Dame and Ohio State) and loved it. "I like the game day experience there," he said. "It's electrifying. It's just a great setting. I also like the coaches and I feel like if I decided to go there I'd have a chance to come in and make an impact. They are losing three receivers, so it's a good situation for me. I also really like their tradition and coach Joe Paterno is great."

In-state rival Pittsburgh was the first to offer Stokes last September.

The only other school that Stokes has visited is Rutgers. "I have a friend who goes there and we grew up together and played pee-wee football together, so we're good friends," he said. "I really felt comfortable there and liked getting to meet everyone. All the guys there seemed cool and it would be nice going in somewhere and knowing a few people already."

Stokes, ranked as the No. 5 wide receiver in the country by Scout.com, was born in Oakland, Calif., and lived there for the first five years of his life. "UCLA offered me and I'd love to go out there and check them out," he said. "I still have some family in Oakland, but I haven't been back there in a while.

"Southern California is real nice and I really love the weather," he admitted. "It's a great environment and a great place to live in. Plus, UCLA has a great program too and they always produce good players. I'll definitely try to visit them."

In fact, Stokes plans on having quite a busy summer as he plans to take several unofficial visits. "I'm gonna try and go to as many schools as I can," he said. "I'll probably take around four visits during the spring and maybe another four or five during the summer. I'm thinking of getting to Illinois, Tennessee, Texas Tech, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland, Iowa and Minnesota. Those are just a few that I'll be visiting."

"I'm really eager to see what West Virginia looks like next season," he said. "They've offered me and I want to see how the new coaches do and how they use their receivers.

"I also really like coach Bob Stoops," he said. "He's a great coach at Oklahoma and they always have great players come out of there. They said they think that I could play early for them because they need more wide-outs."

Stokes says that he never followed a specific school growing up. "I only followed players," he said. "Right now my favorite players are Percy Harvin and DeSean Jackson. I think I try to emulate those guys and my game is pretty similar to theirs.

"But my all-time favorite receivers are Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson."

Stokes also plans to run track in college. He competes in the 100m (10.8) and the 200m (22.6). "I really want to do both sports in college," he said. "I'm also looking for a school where I have a good interaction with the players. I want to make sure I feel comfortable around all of them. The campus life is also important. I've lived in Philly for a while, so I'm used to an urban environment, but I think I could probably go to a small town and be okay."

All of the schools mentioned above have offered Stokes as well as Tennessee, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Wisconsin, Utah, Vanderbilt, Northwestern and others. "These are all official offers," he said. "It's all in writing now."

Stokes missed three games with a hamstring injury during his junior season, but still finished with 28 catches for 617 yards and seven touchdowns. "I have a will to win," he said. "I have good speed and run good routes. I'm a student of the game and am always working on my game. I have great hands and can catch anything.

"You never stop working to get better and I'm always catching and trying to improve my hands. I want to be the best receiver in the country. I'm also doing a lot of speed training and working on my routes a lot."

Stokes can bench 265 pounds, squat 425 and has a 35-inch vertical jump. He says he can run a 4.45 forty.

He reports a 3.2 core GPA and a 1400 SAT, which he plans to retake.