That totally makes sense. I know you probably don't follow USC as closely as you do Oregon, but how did they get 31 commits last year? http://espn.go.com/college-sports/football/recruiting/school/_/id/30/class/2011 Even if they can get three from the previous year as early enrollees, that'd be 28. I thought the limit was 25? Maybe some of those were walk-ons? Or maybe ESPN is wrong? I'm just a bit confused as to how this works Ed O.
USC had some attrition with juniors leaving and transfers etc. iirc they loaded up last year while they were going through the appeals for scholarships lost. Which if/when they lost the appeal would make next year's class (this year's now) even smaller.
Hey Ed O does this story have anything about Oregon in it? http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/ncf...pn.go.com/blog/ncfrecruiting/east/post?id=878 Some guy posted it on DT but I don't have insider and he didn't say what it said.
He basically then kissed the butt the first four of those schools, including: I guess it's about as possible as a five-way tie can be Ed O.
That's great to hear. On a side note Justin Hopkins on DT says he thinks we have more than a good chance to land Arik Armstead unless USC clears up that stuff with his brother.
from what I've heard, Arik's older brother 6'5 295 DE/DT Armond Armstead is done with USC and looking to transfer over them not clearing him to play this season. The brothers would like to play together if possible and it's said to be between Cal and Oregon. Despite graduating 2 of their 3 DE's who received a lionshare of the snaps this season, the Ducks look to be (in ESPN's Ted Miller's words) "likely to win 10 games again in 2012 and will be the overwhelming favorite to win a fourth consecutive conference title". Add the Armsteads to shore up one of their few ? spots and MNCG possibilities loom... their DLine would go from tough to nasty. Or they could stay local & go to Cal and... STOMP
I remain a bit confused as to why Cal is so high on so many prospects' lists. Is it a good school, academically? Sure. Is it located in a good metro are? Yep. But does Cal win games at the same level that USC and Oregon and even Boise State does? Eff no! I don't get why prospects consider Cal a top-tier destination when the school has no history of success. Ed O.
Tedfords had some good years there and has produced many pro's. Successful pro's too. If your a Northern California kid and want to stay local so family can see you, and don't have the grades to get into Stanford, they usually want to go to Cal.
Those are the exact reasons why they do so well, along with being positioned in northern California. Most people know California has one of the toughest high school systems as far as football competition goes, and it's easy for them to pluck a lot of those blue chip PSA's outside of LA. Tedford is a great recruiter as well, even if his X's and O's are becoming outdated. It would be better for the Pac-12 as a whole if California could start winning more consistently(with us beating them of course).
Interesting, I have not heard anything about Cal being in the picture for Arik Armstead. On the last Q&A portion of DT they wrote this. That worries me if we're in a head to head with Cal as we seem to lose those battles more often than not.
In this article http://rutgers.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1301802 it says DJ Foster has eliminated us. I haven't read any other source that confirms this though. Also I've heard Freddia Tagaloa has committed to Cal.
tipped off by the word apparently, I read this DJ eliminating Oregon stuff as writer speculation to the actual news that he's decided to take an official visit to USC. STOMP
I realize a Cal education is far better than an Oregon one, but I am tired of losing kids to that school. In order to really start being a recruiting dynamo, Oregon needs to bolster their academic side of things
Tail wagging the dog, huh? The Oregon program just needs to do what is within its control: win lots of games and (secondarily) put players into the NFL. Ed O.
Coach Azz will be having an in-home visit with the Armstead's sometime this week. Most likely Thursday.
Since those players qualify at both schools, it makes me wonder about the quality of a Cal education, though. If it's that much superior to UO, either the players get smarter when they enroll there, or the reputation for academics is a bit overblown. I remember Doug Gottlieb saying on ESPN that his brother, who is a Cal coach, told him that between the football and basketball teams, there were maybe five players total who would have been accepted to Cal without being on either of those teams. The question I have is how do those guys get through school there, if it's so tough?
well, i would say that the majority of cals rep comes from its science/ math/engineering departments, and would bet that most of the athletes dont go near that part of campus
Still, it's not like they let in a bunch of dumb asses into the other colleges there. Is there a football/basketball-only major, where they aren't so overwhelmed by the intellect of those surrounding them?
I think for most players the short answer is class choices and tutors. Your average athlete at Oregon or Cal won't be in advanced calculus or physics. And even if they are only taking "Rock for Jocks" they probably have 2 or 3 tutors. I remember someone I knew from HS say that Derick Anderson had 6 tutors at OSU. Not sure if that was true or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. But, if a kid is specifically choosing Cal (or Stanford, Northwestern, etc) over Oregon I'm guessing that they'll actually put some effort into their classes. Just because only 5 out of 100 (rough guess on a basketball and football team) would have qualified on their own doesn't mean that only those 5 can handle the curriculum. My sister got into Cal because of soccer. She had a good GPA, took honors classes, but only an okay SAT. There is no way that she could have gotten into Berkeley on that alone. Because of soccer she got in and ended up graduating with honors.
