With two weeks remaining until national signing day on Feb. 6, the big story locally continues to be the wooing of Griffin High defensive lineman Toby Jackson. The unanimous Class AAAA state Defensive Player of the Year continues to draw interest from several national powerhouses.

Not the least of which are the University of Georgia and Southern Cal. The University of Alabama and Miami have also been role players in the process.

The 6-foot-4 1/2, 260-pound defensive end went to Alabama two weekends ago and ruled them out, this despite trips to Griffin High by Alabama head coach Nick Saban last spring and after this past season.

Jackson, who gave UGA what several recruiting experts called a soft verbal commitment last year, said he will take a trip this weekend to the Southern Cal.

This comes after he took a recruiting trip to Miami in December.

“I’d been liking that school for a long time,” Jackson said of Miami.”I like them a lot, but don’t see myself fitting into their program as well as I do both the other schools (UGA and Southern Cal).”

Make no mistake, Jackson — who has 4.69 speed in the 40, benches 340 pounds, cleans 315, squats 520 and has a 31-inch veritcal — is being recruited to play defensive end.

Jackson — who ended his senior season amassing 72 tackles, 10 for a loss, seven sacks, three caused fumbles, one fumble recovery, one interception and one touchdown and was named the Griffin Daily News Player of the Year — continues to be considered a key in-state player for UGA to land if it is to win the recruiting wars according to recruiting experts. Toward that end Bulldogs head coach March Richt made a trip to Griffin High last spring and has another planned for next week.

The senior said he might wait until signing day to announce his decision, but it could come earlier once he meets with his family and discusses his options and comes to a consensus.

The only other player in the area who might sign on signing day is Lamar County defensive end Tyler Wise, who is drawing interest from the Coast Guard Academy. Elsewhere, in the Griffin area, the only other players who are drawing interest at this time are Spalding High’s Jared Hernandez (OL) and Griffin High’s Latravis Montgomery (WB/DB) and Rashad McMullins (DL). Griffin head coach Steve DeVoursney said Montgomery and McMullins will likely go the junior college route or to Georgia Military College though he added McMullins could possible end up at South Carolina State. Spalding head coach Tommy Gilstrap said Hernandaez will visit Georgia Military College today.

None of those players, however, are likely to sign on signing day according to their coaches, though Spalding High, Lamar County, Pike County and Griffin Christian all have players who might sign later or perhaps walk-on somewhere.