Two of the "Poly Three" are off the board with their recruitments, safety
Vaughn Telemaque and defensive tackle Jurrell Casey announcing their decisions
on FSN Prime Ticket on Thursday night.
"I'll be at the U (University of Miami)," said Telemaque. "It feels really
good for me. I'm just thankful for the opportunity at the next level. I didn't
want to say it was a longtime dream, but it was. I want to be a part of the U. I
felt like I'm going to be a significant part of their class."
Casey picked the hometown USC Trojans.
"I feel I made a real good choice. I get to stay close to home and get a
great education,” Casey said of his decision to attend USC. “If I need anything
my family is right here. I’ll be close to my family."
The final, undecided member of the trio, safety Herman Davidson, will
announce on Signing Day on the FSN HS Spotlight Show. North Carolina and
Miami are his two finalists.
In need of a theme for the last week out West?
How about decommitments.
In the last week alone, five Pac-10 schools received verbals from prospects
committed elsewhere.
UCLA got in started, swiping Oak Park (Calif.) safety Sean Westgate from
Arizona.
USC joined in on the party, poaching Torrance (Calif.) West athlete Brian Baucham from Washington State, the third year in a row the Trojans took a Cougar
verbal.
Instead of sulking though, the Cougars took their own initiative, getting
Kevin Frank, a cornerback from Elk Grove (Calif.) to change his mind from Boise State to the Cougars, and Cory Mackay to flip from Washington to their
archrival.
Finally, Dominic Galas, one of the best pure centers in the region, backed
off his longstanding verbal to Oregon State and committed to his lifelong
favorite, California, where his father played.
Hemet (Calif.) lineman Hamani Stevens told Scout.com last week, that he had narrowed his choices to three schools: Arizona State, BYU and Oregon.
A week later, and Stevens now down to two, Oregon and UCLA.
Stevens decommitted just days after verballing to the Bruins and had all but eliminated UCLA, but after having head coach Rick Neuheisel in for an in-home, along with offensive line coach Bob Palcic, the Bruins are right back in the running for Stevens.
"They're running neck-and-neck. I was going to announce on Friday, but now I'm waiting till next Wednesday. The coaches want me to come out on Saturday, go to the basketball game, and meet with them. So I'm going to do that with my family."
Stevens is the highest rated offensive lineman still on the board out West.
Two more SoCal prospects that are soft commits to
schools, will announce their final decisions on National Signing Day.
Milton Knox of Van Nuys (Calif.) Birmingham, will
visit Notre Dame officially this weekend. The soft verbal to UCLA, though,
won't make his final choice public until Wednesday night when he chooses between
the Bruins, Notre Dame and Florida.
Uona Kaveinga from Lawndale (Calif.) Leuzinger,
committed to BYU last month, but he'll not make a final call until Wednesday
either. Kaveinga, who was a commit to UCLA for 10 months, is still
considering the Bruins and he'll choose from UCLA and USC along with BYU.
The nation's top running back will also wait until Wednesday to announce his
choice, but he'll leave the friendly confines of the Golden State and head east
to the Big Apple.
Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure running back Darrell Scott will be in Times
Square at ESPN Zone in New York City, where he'll announce on ESPNU where he'll
be headed.
Two Big 12 schools are in the mix for Scott, Colorado and Texas.
"I think it’s down to Texas and Colorado, and when he announces it, it won’t
be a big surprise,” said St. Bonaventure recruiting coordinator Roger Sonsini.
“Those two schools are what he really likes. It’s kind of hard to choose between
Coach (Dan) Hawkins and Coach (Mack) Brown.”
Both the Texas and Colorado coaches visited Scott this week, making a
last-minute pitch to the West's top prospect.
Each year, a few players slip under the cracks, and coaching changes, delays in
their announcements, or a myriad of reasons have kept them out of the spotlight.
Oxnard (Calif.) Santa Clara TE/DE Randi Vines had a handful of offers, but for
whatever reason, those offers disappeared, so he's still available. The
versatile two-way threat is one of the top uncommitted prospects in California,
along with Ventura (Calif.) St. Bonaventure linebacker Loren Powers, Kent
(Wash.) Kentridge safety Brandon Turner, San Jose (Calif.) Piedmont Hills
defensive tackle Jacob Feagai and Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei receiver Robbie Boyer.
Each come from some of the stronger programs in their region, but all are still
anxiously awaiting that big offer prior to Signing Day.