Eli Woodard is fast. He is not in a hurry.
But everybody wants to rush The Next Big Thing.
Everybody wants to know where Woodard is going to play college football.
Will it be national champion Alabama? Ohio State? Notre Dame? Rutgers?
Woodward enjoys all the attention. He also would like to finish his junior year in high school, and then maybe enjoy his senior year, too.
"I know I'm only going to go through this once, so I'm trying to enjoy it," said Woodard, a junior at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees. "The big thing for me is to enjoy the process. I'm blessed to be in this position and I appreciate that.
"But it can get a little hectic."
Since National Signing Day 2012 ended on Wednesday, much of the focus for college coaches, top high school prospects and the breathless army of people who work in the cottage industry that tracks the recruiting process have turned their attention to National Signing Day 2013.
That means this year's juniors suddenly become hotter properties than this year's seniors, who can seem like old news after they sign with their college of choice.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound cornerback is projected as one of the nation's top recruits in the class of 2013. He's already accepted an offer to play in the U.S. Army All-American Game in San Antonio in January.
Woodard has more than 20 verbal offers from some of the best programs in the nation, such as Alabama, Ohio State, Nebraska, and Notre Dame.
"It's getting crazy," Eastern coach Dan Spittal said of Woodard's recruitment. "I just got off the phone with Michigan and Southern Cal. Every day, it's another school like that. He could end up being our biggest recruit ever."
Eastern is the school that produced Adam Taliaferro, who was starting at cornerback as a true freshman at Penn State before suffering a spinal-cord injury, as well as Phil Trautwein, who started along the offensive line for a pair of national championship teams at Florida.
But Spittal said he's never seen the kind of interest that Woodard has generated.
"He really has no negatives," Spittal said of Woodard. "He's so fast, he can hit, and he's great in press coverage."
Spittal thinks Ohio State is Woodard's No. 1 choice. Woodard says he thinks Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Rutgers are his top three.
"I have the best relationship with those schools," Woodard said. "I've been to all three. I went to camp at all three schools last summer. I feel comfortable with all three."
