• Ed Stockette, Hodari Christian on the rise

  • By Jared Shanker | September 23, 2011 3:41:20 PM PDT
McKEESPORT, Pa -- It is still early in the process for McKeesport juniors Ed Stockette and Hodari Christian, but both are Division I prospects who will see their stocks rise over the next year.Tigers coach Jim Ward raved about Stockette, his starting quarterback, who doesn't have any offers but is getting a lot of looks from BCS schools.Stockette says Northwestern, Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Stanford and USC have all contacted him and asked for his highlight tape. Penn State is the only school Stockette has visited so far, traveling to State College for the Alabama game."The atmosphere was just awesome," Stockette says. "The crowd, being on the field, the surface was just unreal."It was packed. Some of the recruits said it's like that every Saturday."Stockette might visit Rutgers on Saturday for the Scarlet Knights' game against Ohio. After spending the summer doing bag drills and working on his footwork, Stockette is seeing the hard work pay off on the field. "Footwork and having the confidence to drop back in the pocket, see the blitz, have the quick feet to get out of there and once you're out of the pocket to have a strong arm," Stockette said when asked about his biggest strength.Christian already has two Division I offers: Syracuse and Youngstown State. He will be seeing a lot more now that the junior linebacker is just getting back to 100 percent after a lower back injury.West Virginia, Stanford, Wisconsin and Indiana have all expressed interest in Christian. West Virginia is the only school he has visited, though, going to Morgantown for a camp."It was fun. I met a lot of new people," Christian says. "It was great, and I liked the campus."Christian says he wants to work on everything, but specifically getting to the ball carrier faster."Getting off blocks faster, shedding blocks, getting to the ball and reading the offense," he said is what he plans to work on the most.An A student, Christian doesn't know what he will major in but has narrowed it down to two."I either want to do biomedical engineering or sports medicine," Christian says.

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