At the U.S. Army Combine in January, when we spoke with Robert Golden, the
four-star cornerback from Edison HS in Fresno, he said that Arizona was his
favorite school. The Wildcats offered him during his junior year and he
had maintained for months that they were his leader.
So despite the increase in offers for Golden (he had hit double-digits by
late April), he never wavered on his love for the Wildcats and this week, the
top corner in the West gave Arizona a commitment.
"I called and committed to Coach (Tim) Kish," Golden
told WildcatInsider.com right after making the call. "He was real excited and
everything. He knew I was coming but he was still excited. Be is a great guy and
a great coach and he is a part of why I am going to Arizona."
Golden has had an excellent offseason, earning
all-combine honors at the L.A. Scout.com Combine last weekend and previously
earning the same at the U.S. Army All-American Combine in San Antonio.
"I'm happy to get it over with and now I can just
play ball my senior year," said Golden.
Another player who had a strong showing at the Scout Combine was Craig
Noble, the defensive tackle from Taft HS in Woodland Hills. While he had
flown under the radar previously (and also had been known more for the offensive
line play), Noble showed that he's got more than enough talent to be a defensive
tackle in college.And while he may not have been a household name, Tyrone
Willingham and the Washington Huskies were plenty familiar with him and the week
of Noble's coming out party, he gave the Huskies his commitment.
"I actually committed to coach (Chris) Tormey on
Tuesday," Noble told Dawgman.com. "It
was really great because he was having a barbeque over at his house with some of
his players and when I told him I wanted to be a Husky he yelled out to everyone
'Hey, we've got another Husky'.
Last year, Taft had players sign with Washington State, USC and Oregon so Noble will make it the fourth Pac-10 school to benefit
from the perennially strong Toreador program.
Noble wasn't the only commitment the Huskies got last
week. They also picked up verbals from Vince Taylor, a safety from
Eastside Catholic in nearby Bellevue as well as mammoth offensive tackle Terence Thomas from Caldwell, Idaho.
While Noble made his commitment before the combine and Golden did it after,
Newhall (Calif.) Hart linebacker Patrick Larimore actually committed during
the combine. Just a few days after receiving an offer from hometown
favorite UCLA, Larimore had what he wanted and on Sunday during the Scout.com
Combine, committed to UCLA.
"It's the school I wanted to go to," said Larimore, who celebrated
his commitment to the Bruins by earning all-combine honors.
Larimore had a monster junior season, recording 138
tackles for the Indians and three times went for more than 16 tackles in
a game. He averaged 10.6 tackles a game, a school record.
The commitment from Larimore is the 13th for the Bruins in the class of 2008
and the second at linebacker, Uona Kaveinga from Leuzinger HS in Lawndale.
California also took part in the commitment parade last week, getting a
verbal from Bay Area native J.P. Hurrell, a 5-11, 195-pound linebacker from
Serra HS in San Mateo.
Hurrell had been offered by the Bears after receiving offers from BYU, Oregon
and Washington, but the draw of playing for a strong Pac-10 program near his
home made the difference for the Bears.
"Coach Tedford was really sincere and
straightforward," Hurrell told
TheBearInsider.com. "He said that even though I’m not the biggest guy
around, he knows I have a lot of heart and he saw that on the highlight film and
he wants me to be a part of the Bear family. I’m really excited about that."
Hurrell had 80 tackles and three sacks during his 2006
junior season.
The biggest news to come out of the combine was the clocking of Darrell Scott
in the forty.
Scott, the top-ranked running back in the country by Scout.com and the #1
player in the West, has offers from all over the country and so his place at the
top was never in question. But he felt like he had to prove a point with
his speed so he stepped up to the forty line and ran a 4.38. Then he
followed it up with an even better time of 4.32. Questions answered.
All that was left for Scott was to answer who his finalists would be and the
St. Bonaventure of Ventura product just so happened to tell us on Sunday who his
final 10 schools were.
"I decided to narrow it down to LSU, UCLA, USC, Florida, Florida State, Cal,
Colorado, Texas, Michigan and Miami," said Scott. "Recruiting has been
getting stressful for me and I wanted to start to narrow it ."