[LeeCoUKFan]

Firios weighs 'huge' scholarship offer from UK

Justin Rowland
Special to CatsIllustrated.com

Longwood (Fla.) Lyman linebacker Nico Firios picked up a huge offer this week: Kentucky. Has the offer from the Wildcats shaken up the entire process for him?

It's probably too early to answer that question but it's clear that the 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker has a lot of interest in UK.

"That was a huge one for me," Firios said shortly after receiving word of the offer. "It just came out of the blue honestly. I called them up and they ended up saying they want to offer me a scholarship. I wasn't expecting it at all. Especially being from the SEC, that's a pretty big one."

Rutgers and South Florida offered Firios before Kentucky and he will consider both of those schools as well.

He insisted he doesn't have any favorites yet.

"No, not yet," he said. "I'm just keeping my options open and really trying to focus on school and this spring first before I start to really focus on recruiting this summer.

"I'm not going to rush the recruiting process. I want my verbal commitment to be a solid one and to feel 100-percent comfortable in that decsiion. But I'm not waiting on a certain date or anything. Just when I feel like it's time."

While he doesn't have any favorites yet, Firios does have a good idea of what he's looking for in a school. His choice will come down to the best balance of every consideration for a student-athlete.

"How well I fit into the scheme of that defense, academics and if they offer what I want and if I feel like I'm needed at that school," Firios said.

The junior linebacker accounted for 96 total tackles (82 solo), 27 tackles for loss and seven sacks last year.

http://kentucky.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1478302