From a distance, Winter Haven (Fla.) running back Adam Lane could pass for a doppelganger of top-ranked prospect Mike Blakely (now at Auburn) from the Class of 2011. Both have short, squatty builds that more closely resemble that of a bowling ball than a five-star running back prospect. Neither may "stand out" above the crowd, but Lane possesses a tremendous combination of speed, strength and vision in a 5-foot-8, 195-pound frame. Those elite tools already have a number of major BCS programs in pursuit of the talented Class of 2013 prospect, who won't begin his junior year of high school until August.
RB Adam Lane
"I currently have six offers," Lane reports. "Florida, USF, Rutgers, FSU, South Carolina and Georgia."
An impressive list, to be sure, for Lane, a tightly-wound ball of muscle who can already bench press 420 pounds, and squat in excess of 550. That list only figures to get longer in the coming months as he starts to make his way around the summer camp circuit during June and July.
"Going forward, I plan to attend Friday Night Lights (at Florida), and camps at UCF, South Carolina, Georgia and USF," he noted.
Lane capped off an impressive spring with a 12-carry, 305-yard performance (with four touchdowns) last Friday as Winter Haven upended small-school powerhouse Belen Jesuit (Miami), 35-28 in a spring jamboree.
"That was pretty fun," the gregarious Lane said of his performance. "I was excited about that one."
Don't think colleges haven't taken note of that performance, either. A boatload of schools were through the halls of Winter Haven this spring in order to have a shot at eye-balling the impressive rising junior talent.
"My coaches were telling me that 30 schools came by this spring, in total, even thought they can't talk to me," Lane recalled.
LSU, Florida State, Wisconsin, USF and Florida were just a small sampling of those to check in on Lane most recently.
The Gators figure to be in a pretty good position with Lane, early on. Florida has been hard after Lane since an impressive showing at Friday Night Lights last summer. He recently had a chance to visit with the Florida coaches following a trip to Tallahassee last month for the Nike Football Training Camp at Florida State -- and he didn't give the staff much advance warning for the stop, either.
"It was pretty good," Lane said of the trip. "We were on our way home, and we were driving by [UF], and I said 'we should stop by.' It was good to come see them unexpected, so they didn't have a chance to prepare."
On the trip, Lane got to tour the campus and check out some of the classes he would be taking if he were to go to Florida. He also already has a major picked out for college.
"I want to study engineering," he said.
For now, however, the focus is still on Winter Haven High School, where the Blue Devils finished 10-2 a year ago, and are hoping for more in 2011. Lane rushed for just over 1,000 yards as a sophomore. But both he, and his team, have their goals set on bigger things for this fall. If his performance in the spring game was any indication, some of the lofty goals being set by Lane and his running mates for the coming season might just come to fruition.
"I want to run for 2,500 yards," Lane exclaimed. "My offensive line and I -- we have a good feel for each other. They are really coming together up front, and I'm ecstatic to see what we can do this year."
Lane, who has been timed in as fast as 4.37 seconds in the 40 yard dash this spring, is one of four rising junior running backs from the state of Florida who have already been extended early offered from UF. Along with the others -- Tarean Folston (Cocoa), Derrick Henry (Yulee) and Kelvin Taylor (West Palm Beach/Glades Day) -- all four prospects project as potential national top-100 prospects for the Class of 2013.
