HAMPTON, Va. - With his travel schedule already starting to fill up since announcing last Sunday he was backing off his commitment to West Virginia, Phoebus High School's Tajh Boyd knows what he's looking for, but he doesn't know where to find it yet.

Boyd, a 6-foot, 210-pound prospect who is considered by many recruiting analysts to be one of the nation's 10 best quarterbacks, said he'll visit Tennessee this weekend for the Alabama game. After that, he'll take closer looks at Boston College, Penn State and possibly Oregon. He also plans to investigate Florida State a little more, considering Phoebus coach Bill Dee told him the Seminoles recently had inquired.

If West Virginia's popular spread offense isn't what Boyd is seeking, what does intrigue him? It sounds like Boyd has a hankering to show off his arm a little bit.

"I'm not closing the door really on anybody," said Boyd, who had three first-half touchdown passes Friday night in Phoebus' 63-0 win against Menchville. "I think the coaches (at West Virginia) are great people. I just didn't like the way the program was headed as far as the offense goes. I've only got four years, so I want to make the right decision.

"I'm looking for a more traditional offense. I want to be in a pro-style offense. I know everybody is running the spread right now, and that's OK. I don't mind that. I just really don't want to run the zone read."

The zone-read play can be run out of multiple offensive formations and incorporates an option-offense philosophy.

That has to mean bad things for a place like Virginia Tech, which has gone with a lot of zone read this season with sophomore quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

"To a certain extent, but Tyrod also does a lot of drop-back play-action, and that's kind of what I'm looking for," Boyd said. "I don't want to be in a (shotgun) the whole game. I want to be able to drop back, because I think that's where I'm at my best."

If Boyd knew West Virginia runs the spread, and he knew the Mountaineers weren't planning to change much on offense after the departure of coach Rich Rodriguez, why did Boyd choose a school in the first place with an offense that doesn't exactly suit him? Boyd said he was told otherwise about West Virginia's offense.

"They told me they were going to open up the offense, but they still run a bunch of short passes and screens," said Boyd, who was rumored to be visiting Virginia over the weekend, but opted to stay home instead. "I want to throw the ball down the field. I went ahead and told West Virginia I was (going to reopen my recruitment) because I didn't want to hold them up.

"My dad (Tim Boyd) has been handling a lot of things with my recruiting. A lot of people think my dad made this decision for me, but that's not true. I was just observing things and made this decision myself."

Though Virginia already has a commitment from quarterback Ross Metheny out of Sherando High in Stephens City, Va., the Cavaliers likely would jump at the chance to have a shot at getting Boyd.

"I'm definitely going to give them both a look," Boyd said about Virginia and VirginiaTech. "They both offered me kind of early, so I'm going to respect that and take them both into consideration."

One of the advantages Boyd may have in his recruitment is his friendship with Kevin Newsome, a 6-3, 215-pound recruit at Hargrave Military Academy who also is considered one of the nation's top 10 quarterbacks. Newsome, who fractured his non-throwing hand and will be out three-to-five weeks, also has been down the de-commitment road. He reopened his recruitment in August, reneging on a pledge to Michigan.

Newsome and Boyd talk often on the phone and compare recruiting notes, according to Boyd. That's a good thing considering they're being recruited by many of the same schools, including Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Penn State, Boston College and Michigan.

"We probably like the same school, but we don't want to pick the same school," Boyd said. "It wouldn't really matter if we went to the same school, but it might be kind of awkward."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.