Greg King still has plenty to see before he makes his college decision.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound linebacker from Memphis Melrose High School said he’s trying to narrow his list of schools to decide where he will visit this fall.

King said he’s mostly considering Tennessee, Alabama, LSU and Miami.

The News Sentinel’s ninth-best prospect in the state said he most recently spoke to Alabama head defensive coach Kevin Steele.

“We’ve been talking about what it would take as a true freshman coming in and playing,” King said. “It depends on me if I want to come in and start. It depends on if I work hard.”

King said practice has kept him from paying much attention to recruiting.

King said he last spoke to UT running backs coach Stan Drayton, who’s in charge of recruiting King, about three weeks ago.

King said he’s appreciated Drayton’s honesty during their conversations.

“Other coaches tell me stuff I want to hear,” King said. “He would tell me stuff I want to hear but also stuff that will help me. Coming to Tennessee could help me as a teammate and as a person.”

Two linebackers have already said they’re coming to UT.

D.T. Shackelford from Austin High in Decatur, Ala., and Nigel Mitchell-Thornton of Stephenson High in Stone Mountain, Ga., both committed to the Vols last week.

They’re the only two linebackers who have publicly committed to the Vols.

King said Drayton told him UT, which holds 17 commitments, would like to sign four or five linebackers in the 2009 signing class.

King, who’s never visited the Vols’ campus, said UT is the first school he wants to make sure to see.

“They have people from throughout the state going to school at Tennessee,” he said. “I want to see what they have to show first before I see everyone else around the country.”

Miami is another school King wants to see.

He won’t be the first Melrose athlete to do so.

Sophomore running back Graig Cooper was a senior at Melrose when King was a freshman, and linebacker Antonio Harper signed with the Hurricanes in February.

Harper will attend Milford Prep in New Berlin, N.Y., this fall with the hopes of attending Miami next year.

King said he’s spoken to both players about Miami, but they haven’t pressured him to choose the Hurricanes.

“They don’t want me to come down there just to come down there,” King said. “I’ll go down there to see how I like it. I’ll see how I’d be able fit in there.”

King said it would be easier to fit in with his former teammates already at Miami.

“I don’t want to be feeling kind of lost and alone,” King said. “They’re from where I’m from and won’t let anything happen to me.”

King said he hasn’t set any dates for his official visits this fall.

Along with the four schools he’s strongly considering, King said he’s also looking at Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Penn State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.