Three Long Beach (Calif.) Poly prospects have set their announcement dates
and each of them will make their decisions known on FSN Prime Ticket's HS
Spotlight Show in the next two weeks.
Safety Vaughn Telemaque and defensive tackle Jurrell Casey will announce on
Thursday, January 31st. Casey will choose between Oregon and USC, with the
latter the leader and Telemaque will pick from those two as well as Miami, where
he just visited. This weekend, Telemaque will trip to USC.
“I’m coming down to my final decision and after I take my trip to USC, I’m
sure I’ll be ready after that to announce,” said Telemaque. “Its down really to
Oregon, Miami and USC. I realized I needed to finalize it and make it a strong
top three. One of the things I looked at was I had to make sure I can play
early. But I want it to also be a good university. You can’t go to just any
school. There were other good schools, but those three are top notch.”
Safety Herman Davidson will wait an extra week, and he'll announce on Signing
Day. North Carolina, Miami and Cal lead Arizona State and UCLA for
Davidson.
USC's week started off right when they picked up a commitment from Malik
Jackson of Van Nuys (Calif.) Birmingham.
The three-star defensive end had been committed to Fresno State since the
middle of the fall, but after an outstanding senior season opened more eyes, the
Trojans got involved.
Jackson took an official visit to USC this past weekend and when it was over,
switched his commitment to the Trojans.
The good news didn't stop there, though, as Matt Barkley, the top prospect in
the West in the class of 2009, if not the nation, ended his recruiting process
13 months before Signing Day by committing to the Trojans.
"I called (USC) Coach Pete Carroll to give him my commitment to becoming a
Trojan,” said Barkley. “I am very excited about my decision, it is one that my
family and I have given serious consideration to and have prayed about a great
deal.
Barkley's verbal is the sixth for USC in the class of 2009.
Not all the news for Fresno State was bad though, as
they picked up a verbal from Logan Harrell, who also plays defensive end and
will have a good shot at playing early for the Bulldogs.
Harrell took an official visit to Washington State
over the weekend, but it didn't go as well as he had hoped and upon his arrival
back in California, he called Pat Hill to let him know he was committing to the
Bulldogs.
"I just felt like Fresno State was the best place for
me to go after visiting Washington State. So I called Coach (Pat) Hill and let
him know I was committing," said Harrell.
Bakersfield (Calif.) Highland receiver Anthony Johnson also gave the Bulldogs a verbal earlier this week.
Washington's recruiting class, which was solid
in-state, went outside the Evergreen State for its last three commits, getting a
pair from California and one from Arizona.
Playa del Rey (Calif.) St. Bernard cornerback Adam Long started the commitment streak by verballing to the Dawgs over the weekend.
A couple of days later, Oakland (Calif.) McClymonds
lineman Allen Carroll joined in by committing to the Huskies following his
in-home visit.
I've wanted to play for Coach (Tyrone) Willingham
since he was at Notre Dame or even before that. I knew before I even left
on my trip (to Washington)," he told
Dawgman.com. "Just knowing the man that Coach Willingham is. That's what
sealed the deal.
California had a good week themselves, landing a pair of Bay Area prospects
and keeping them close to home.
Charles Satchell-Germany of Milpitas went public with his silent verbal this
week.
"It felt like the right time and I didn't want to carry it on longer,"
Germany-Satchell said. "I felt I should let the other schools look at other guys
and not worry about me."
Then Oakland (Calif.) Castlemont safety Chris Little committed following his
official visit.
"I always followed Cal growing up," said Little. "I thought it would be cool
to play for them but I never really had the expectation that I could do it
because I knew Cal has such high standards and not a lot of people in my area
can make it there. But all my teachers, my counselors, my coaches -they all said
I could do it if I worked hard," said Little.
Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure running back Darrell Scott is focusing on two schools, a pair of Big 12 programs, in Texas and Colorado.
Those two campuses were the only ones that Scott visited officially and earlier this week, a trio of coaches from Texas came to his Southern California home for an in-home visit.
Head coach Mack Brown, recruiting coordinator Bobby Kennedy and new running backs coach Major Applewhite all appeared to make thier pitch to Scott. Scott was plenty familiar with Brown and Kennedy, having spent substantial time with them on his official visit, but this was his first interaction with Applewhite, himself a UT legend.
"Coach's Brown, Kennedy & Applewhite visited his home Tuesday evening," said St. Bonaventure recruiting coordinator Roger Sonsini. "It's my understanding that Coach Applewhite was received warmly by Darrel and his mother. They spent a few hours in the Scott’s home and all appears the Darrell enjoyed the visit from the Texas coaches."
Sonsini said despite the strong impression the Texas coaches made, Scott didn't commit.
"He did not give a verbal commitment," said Sonsini.
That, though, has been the plan all along, and it appears that Scott won't be deciding until February 6th.
"All indications are that he will announce on National Signing Day," said Sonsini.
Colorado is expected to be in Scott's home next week.
Washington State's big recruiting weekend netted them a slew of offers from
Southern California prospects and one native Oregonian.
Long Beach (Calif.) Poly receiver Kevin Norrell was the first to commit to
the Cougars, and he was followed by close friend Brian Baucham, a running back
out of Torrance (Calif.) West. Terrance Hayward, a cornerback from Culver
City also jumped into the fray as did Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco safety
Tyree Toomer.
Another safety, this one from Oregon, committed when Lake Oswego's Jay Matthews verballed following his trip to the Palouse.
"It stood out to me right away that the coaches were
great people and they were looking to change things and get back to winning. And
big things are happening in Pullman," said Matthews.
UCLA's recruiting class, which had a handful of soft verbals, saw that
number dwindle by three as a trio of longtime commits to the Bruins, the first
three commits in fact, all solidified their verbals to UCLA.
Corona (Calif.) Santiago cornerback Anthony Dye, who was the first prospect
to commit to the Bruins, made his decision just after taking his official visit
to Oregon State.
"We sat down as a family and went over everything and I loved the visit. But
between Oregon State and UCLA, I had to go with UCLA," said Dye
Venice (Calif.) receiver Jerry Johnson was UCLA's next commit after Dye, and
he took chose this week to seal his commitment to the Bruins.
"I decided to stick with UCLA and I’m back 100%,” said Johnson. “Norm Chow
being hired, that was a big part of it."
The same day that Johnson committed to the Bruins in March, Aaron Hester did
so, and the four-star cornerback from Compton (Calif.) Dominguez also followed
suit this week, after he visited Miami.
“After taking these visits, it all turns out that I’m going to be a Bruin,”
said Hester.