Dorial Green has “close to 25″ football scholarship offers

Hillcrest's Dorial Green

When I asked Hillcrest High School coach John Beckham how many scholarship offers Hornet junior wide receiver Dorial Green has stacked up, his response was fantastic.

“I’d say close to 25,” Beckham said.

And there are more every day for the Springfield native and Max Preps Male Athlete of the Year. The most recent offer for the 6-foot-6, 215-pound wide receiver? Auburn. The Tigers join a list that Beckham isn’t even sure of. According to Rivals.com, Green has offers from Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, LSU, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC. That doesn’t include others like Mississippi State and Texas A&M, Beckham said, and there are some that he can’t remember off hand.

And while the offers keep rolling in for the Hillcrest phenom, Beckham said the offers aren’t being generated from showcases and private workouts. Actually, Beckham said Green hasn’t been to one all summer.

“The schools are telling us they got tape from other people. I actually had (one school) apologize to me for getting in so late on him,” Beckham said. “I told him, ‘You know he’s a 2012 (graduate), right?’ He said, ‘Yeah, but with these elite kids, you have to get in on them early. Coach, I’m so sorry.’

“That’s what we’re dealing with right now.”

Of course, Green is worth the hype. As a sophomore, he was named after a remarkable three-sport triumph. As a football player, he caught 66 passes for 1,616 yards and 23 TDs, sending the Hornets to their third postseason in school history. In basketball, he was an all-state and all-Ozarks selection, helping the Hornets win the Class 5 championship, averaging 18.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. In track and field, he won the Class 4 100-meter dash (11.0 seconds) and the triple jump (47 feet, 2 1/2 inches), while finishing second in the long jump (23-2 1/4).

On September 1, Beckham said schools could again contact Green. That scholarship number might inflate to 50 or more. Stay tuned.