Recruiting Gems

I targeted Hamilton defensive tackle Mike Sylvestre a few weeks ago as one of the top players in Arizona who had yet to receive an offer. That changed this week when the 6-2 260 pound Sylvestre was offered by Montana State and Eastern Washington.

Hamilton teammate, wide receiver Alante Wright, also received an offer from Montana State and scheduled a visit to the 1AA program in January. Wright has been a hot commodity lately, receiving an offer from Colorado as well.

A couple of Arizona juniors were offered by a Pac 10 program this week. Offensive lineman Nick Rowland from Centennial and Hamilton DB Devon Carrington were both officially offered by Stanford. Both were faxed the official documents this week. This is Carrington’s first offer but Rowlands second as he has an offer from ASU.

Two of the state’s top prospects both will be visiting the same school this weekend. Tucson Palo Verde wide receiver Adam Hall and Desert Vista defensive end Devon Kennard will both be visiting Cal-Berkeley. Kennard also announced that he will visit USC in December.

Chaparral’s Taylor Lewan will be making his first official visit this weekend. The 6-7 270 pound offensive tackle will visit the University of Minnesota. Lewan’s father played football there.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and is the publisher of 24-7football.com.

It was hard for Desert Vista running back Marcus Washington to commit to Arizona State yesterday and not because he wasn’t sold on ASU. Washington grew up an ASU fan and the fact that it was close to home and he would have several former teammates playing with him was what drew Marcus to Coach Erickson’s program.

What was hard was reaching a member of the coaching staff. Marcus was unable to reach anyone to commit Wednesday night when he wanted to do it. So he had to wait until Thursday morning when he was able to get in touch with tight end’s coach Dan Cozzetto, who recruits Desert Vista for ASU.

Other big news in the Desert Vista program was sure-handed wide receiver Casey Bolena receiving his first offer. The Naval Academy officially offered Bolena after recruiting him hard for several months.

Another wide receiver, Alante Wright from Hamilton, received his first offer this week. Wright was offered by Colorado after the staff saw his senior footage. Alante was a virtual unknown headed into the 2008 season as he was forced to sit his junior year after transferring from Valley Christian. Since then, UNLV, Washington State and Eastern Washington have been in contact with the 6-3 180 pound Wright. He has scheduled a visit to EWU.

Eastern Washington hit up Hamilton hard this week. Besides Wright, the staff contacted defensive tackle Mike Sylvestre and offensive tackle Alex Cosenza. Mike and Alex were not offered by the 1AA program but are expected to make an official visit.

Brophy teammates Seyi Adebayo and Mike Tree both received offers from Ivy League programs. Seyi was offered by Columbia and Dartmouth while Tree was offered by Brown. These were Adebayo’s first offers while the Brown offer was Mike’s fifth thus far.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and the publisher of 24-7Football.com

Two new players made their verbal commitments this week. Both players were faced with a very similar offer and both chose to go down different roads through college football.

Shadow Mountain offensive lineman Doug Zismann held offers from Army, Navy, Air Force and UNLV. He committed to UNLV on Saturday while on an unofficial visit with his parents. Doug said at the time of his commitment, “First and foremost, they have the majors I am most interested in. Secondly, it’s close enough to home that I won’t get homesick. Lastly, my parents and I are comfortable with the coaching staff and academic support system. That comfort is what made up my mind on UNLV.”

Basha safety Jordan Fraser also had an offer to play for one of the service academies and made up his mind and committed to Navy a few days ago. “There were a lot of reasons I committed,” he says. “The education I will receive, the fact that it is 100% paid for, they have a great football program and the job opportunity after the military commitment is unreal.”

There is only one week left on the regular season but student-athletes have until February to make up their mind on a college. Here is a list of uncommitted players left in Arizona:

1- Corey Adams- DT Saguaro

2- Anthony Jones- LB Hamilton

3- Devon Kennard- DE Desert Vista

4- Jamal Miles- RB Peoria

5- Patrick Foley- RB Notre Dame

6- Bryce Lamb- RB Chandler

7- Jeremiah Cornist- RB La Joya

8- Adam Hall- WR/S Palo Verde

9- Marcus Washington- RB Desert Vista

10- CJ Westbrooks- WR Moon Valley

11- Danny Mullarkey- DE Desert Vista

12- Markus Wheaton- WR Chandler

13- Rodney Reagans- LB Chandler

14- Andy Wilder- S/WR- Notre Dame

15- Anthony Greco- LB Notre Dame

16- Brent Michaels- RB Lake Havasu

17- Garrett Riggio- DE Notre Dame

18- Ryan Reardon- LB Notre Dame

19- Taylor Lewan- OT Chaparral

20- Drew Swartz- TE/DE Gilbert

21- Mike Tree- DT Brophy

22- Jeremy Dang- WR Peoria

23- JJ Holliday- WR Santa Rita

24- Roland Pierce- CB North Canyon

25- Scotty Brown- RB Sabino

26- Matt Inman- QB Yuma Catholic

27- John Hughes- RB Centennial

28- Erik Brown- CB- Saguaro

29- Beau Burton- RB- Saguaro

30- Zach Minter- DT- Cactus

31- Caleve Deboskie- WR Chandler

32- Taylor Davis- QB Boulder Creek

33- Matt Wilson- OT Payson

Chandler’s Bryce Lamb is one of Arizona’s most heavily recruited athletes in football. He holds offers from schools such as Cal, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, the list goes on. He is also one of the nation’s most coveted triple jumpers. He jumped over 52 feet last summer and has coaches from both sports lined up for his services.

Which will he choose? In last speaking to Lamb, he was unsure himself. He has visited Cal and Colorado, who have offered him in football. He has visits set up with Texas Tech and LSU next month, who want him to run track only.

Several other local athletes excel in football as well as track but they seem set on staying on the gridiron. Hamilton’s Ryan Milus was one of the west coast’s fastest sprinters last year, clocking a 10.5 in the 100 meters and walking away with the 5A1 state title in that event. He had his choice of schools but ended his recruitment when he committed to Arizona last week.

Lamb helped set the all-time Arizona 4 x 100 record last year with teammate Markus Wheaton. But like Milus, Wheaton will play football in college. Only he has not made his choice yet. He has visited Cal, Colorado and Oregon and says USC, Oregon State and UCLA could also get visits from him.

In other news, Saguaro RB Beau Burton is finally receiving the recognition he deserves. He has been one of Arizona’s most productive backs but as of last week, Only UNLV had extended a scholarship offer. That changed when Colorado State offered recently.

Saguaro teammate Corey Adams narrowed his choices down to USC, ASU and Ohio State a long time ago. He took his visit to ASU last month and visited Ohio State last weekend. He ended up staying an extra day in Columbus but still has not made his verbal commitment. He will visit USC in December and plans on committing on national television while playing in the ESPN/Under Armour All America Game.

Another Scottsdale native was invited to play in the same game. Offensive tackle Taylor Lewan was invited last week. He is one of the nation’s hottest prospects and still has not narrowed down his list of choices.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and is the publisher of 24-7football.com.

Several Arizona players received their first offers this week bringing the total number of players with scholarship up to 51.

*Boulder Creek quarterback Taylor Davis received his first offer this week from the University of Idaho. He has had a great year leading BC to a 5-2 record. He has thrown for 1,355 yards and 17 touchdowns. The 6-4 Davis is also hearing from Nevada, New Mexico State and Boise State.

*Only two players from below the 4A ranks have offers. One was QB Matt Inman from Yuma Catholic. The second became giant Payson offensive tackle Matt Wilson when NAU offered him a scholarship this week. Wilson stands 6-6 and weighs 270 pounds. He is also hearing from UNLV and Adams State.

*Chandler wide receiver Caleve Deboskie was offered by Wyoming.

*Cactus defensive tackle Zach Minter was offered by Montana State. Recruiting him for the Bobcats is former Cactus QB Jonathan Beasley who recruits Arizona and coaches wide receivers at the 1AA program.

*Minter’s teammate offensive tackle Chris Putton committed to Arizona this week. “I had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks and I talked to my mom about it and just felt that the time was right,” he said at the time of his commitment.

*Saguaro TE Max Smith committed to Arizona State this week. Coach Erickson attended Smith’s game against Chaparral last Friday and walked away impressed enough to extend an offer by Sunday. It took Smith only a few hours to commit to the Devils Sunday evening.

*Two underclassmen received offers recently. Junior guard Nick Rowland was offered by ASU and freshman sensation Davonte’ Neal from Cesar Chavez was offered by ASU and Boston College. Neal’s offers are verbal as a college cannot extend an official offer until Sept. 1^st of a player’s junior year.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and is the publisher of 24-7football.com.

Every week I talk about players that are being highly recruited, well this week I wanted to focus on some players that have not been offered at this time but have the talent to play at the next level.

Here is my list of top prospects without an offer.

1. Mike Brown- RB Cactus- 5-10 180- Brown is my pick as the top back in the state, He has speed, power, can catch out of the backfield and will block. Rumors have it that Brown has some work to do academically before he can get into school. If this is the case and he takes care of it, he will have a stack of scholarship offers higher then Camelback Mountain.

2. Jeremy Sawyer- CB Peoria- 5-9 170- I went out and watched Sawyer against Cactus and was very impressed. I feel he is in the same category as Ebo Makinde from Paradise Valley and Ryan Milus from Hamilton. He is physical and can run and that is despite running with a noticeable limp as he is still recovering from a pulled hamstring.

3. Chris Heldore- WR Desert Ridge- 5-10 170- I think this kid is one of the best receivers in the state. He has good speed, runs solid routes and has great hands. He has been a very productive player but also a big play threat. Rumor is he may be in the same boat as Brown academically.

4. Danny Compton- K Paradise Valley- 5-9 180- I rarely come away from a game impressed with a kicker but I did after watching Compton kick against Lake Havasu. He has the range to hit from 60+ and his kickoffs sail through the endzone. Also a great punter.

5. Mike Sylvestre- DT Hamilton- 6-2 270- Big, strong, physical and athletic.

Here is my list of prospects who I feel have a chance to earn a D1 scholarship.

Seyi Adebayo- DE Brophy

Kaylin Ashley- RB Coronado

Tommy Brown- LB Skyline

Bryan Burke- DE Payson

Josh Carter- OL Marana Mt. View

Mike Chocholousek- LB Mt. Ridge

Ray Cottman- LB Ironwood Ridge

Taylor Davis- QB Boulder Creek

Caleve Deboksie- WR Chandler

Mike Descisciolo- WR Salpointe

Hayden Eager- QB Round Valley

Roderick Ford- WR Yuma Catholic

David Godley- WR Paradise Valley

Fred Herdman- OL Pinnacle

Jimmie Lewis- DE Centennial

Taylor Malenfant- CB Notre Dame

Christian Ramirez- RB Salpointe

Cole Rarrick- QB Saguaro

Vinnie Spano- QB Peoria

Spencer Stone- QB Chaparral

Fred Thornton- OL South Mountain

Alante Wright- WR Hamilton

AJ Williams- WR Basha

Kevin Yost- QB Mt. Ridge

Wow, I can’t believe we are already at the midpoint of the 2008 football season. It seems like it was just last week I was writing stories on the preseason top teams and players. With all teams in Arizona having five game under their belts, some six, I wanted to recap what has occurred recruiting wise in the first month and a half of the season and give my thoughts and predictions on what may come.

*There are currently 46 players in-state that hold division one offers and 13 have given their verbal commitments to sign their letters of intent in February.

*My top five players in the state are as follows: Devon Kennard (DE from Desert Vista), Corey Adams (DT from Saguaro), Craig Roh (DE from Chaparral), Adam Hall (WR from Palo Verde) and Taylor Lewan (OT from Chaparral). Of those top players only Roh has picked his college. He committed to Michigan last month. Kennard has narrowed it down to ASU, USC, UCLA, Cal and Texas. Adams said this summer that his top three were USC, ASU and Ohio State. Nebraska recently has come on strong and Adams visited Lincoln recently. Neither Hall nor Lewan have publicly narrowed their list of suitors.

*Kennard went down with a torn ACL but all of his top five of said they will honor his scholarship offer.

*Lewan quickly rose to elite status. He played very little offensive tackle before transferring to Chaparral. Coach Ragle and his staff moved him to the position and he has flourished. Once his highlight tape of him from his first two games got around, Lewan went from four offers to fourteen in the matter of a week. Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan, Miami, Cal, Oregon and many others now are fighting for his service, making him the hottest prospect in the state.

*Speaking of hot prospects, I really think Erik Brown from Saguaro is about to blow up. His highlight tape from this year is impressive. An unknown after moving from Texas, Brown’s hurdling of a defender on a punt return quickly circled the internet and the hype started. Colorado State became the first school to offer but I expect many more to follow suit.

*No player has been better this year than Centennial’s John Hughes. He almost single-handedly took down Hamilton a few weeks ago. There is no doubt that he can play but many schools are hesitant to offer a running back that stands 5’4”. Northern Arizona looked over the height issue and offered him a scholarship last week. Rumor is that UNLV may be close to offering.

*Yuma Catholic’s Matt Inman became the first in-state quarterback to land an offer when South Dakota State extended him an offer recently. Look for Boulder Creek’s Taylor Davis and Saguaro’s Cole Rarrick to possibly be the next to be offered. Both have great height at 6’4” and have having very good senior seasons.

Last year 75 players ended up getting division-one or 1AA scholarship offers so as the season rolls along; expect to see quite a few more players land offers.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and is the publisher of 24-7Football.com.

It is a busy time of year from potential college players. They have to find the time to balance, school, football, a social life and if they are a division-one recruit, official visits.

There are two types of visits a player can make, official and unofficial. The difference is simple; an official is paid for by the college, everything including airfare, food and hotel. An unofficial visit is paid for by the player and his family. A player is allowed to take up to five official visits, unofficials are unlimited.

On these visits the players get better feel for the coaching staff, players and the school in general. They are typically used by players to help them narrow their list of suitors down. They are used by coaches, not only to try and woo a recruit, but also to get a better feel for a kid’s character and to see how they fit it with the team. All of this is crammed in to a forty-eight hour trip, which is the maximum time allowed by the NCAA for an official visit.

Right now is one of the busiest times for college coaches to bring kids for their official visits and four players made trips last weekend.

Although committed to Stanford, Hamilton wide receiver Drew Terrell is still making the most of his five official visits. He and teammate Ryan Milus both visited Washington State this past weekend. Terrell says he is still firmly committed to Stanford but is taking visits because he has not yet been admitted into their school. He will also be visiting Northwestern in two weeks. Milus has multiple offers but has yet to set a date for his next visit.

Corey Adams from Saguaro is not only one of Arizona’s most sought after players, but one of the nation’s. Adams is a five-star prospect by Scout.com and ranked the #7 defensive tackle in the country. A few months ago he narrowed his choices down to USC, Ohio State and Arizona State. He shocked everyone by visiting Nebraska this weekend and like Lincoln so much that he says the Huskers have jumped into the running. It will be some time until Corey makes his college commitment as he has said he will be announcing his intentions at the ESPN/Under Armour All America Game.

Linebacker Reggie Umuolo from Centennial committed to UNLV this summer and took his visit to Las Vegas last weekend. The Runnin’ Rebels did nothing to change his mind as he is still firmly committed to them. He told me the visit was “a whole lot of fun”.

As of now, two prospects will be taking their visits this weekend. Teammates Bryce Lamb and Markus Wheaton from Chandler High will be visiting the University of Colorado. Check my website 24-7football.com this week for reports on how those visits went.

Jason Jewell is the Southwest Recruiting Analyst for Scout.com and the publisher of 24-7football.com

With out a doubt, the biggest news in Arizona high school football this week was the injury to Desert Vista defensive end Devon Kennard. Coach Hinds and his Desert Vista teammates lose not just a great player on both sides of the ball but lose an emotional leader and a great character kid.

While the loss is tragic, is it the end of the world for the Thunder? No, they will be fine. Even if they don’t win another game without Kennard, which is unlikely, my concern is more for Devon’s future. This is the reason I am writing this article; to talk about what happens to scholarship offers when athletes get hurt.

Luckily for Devon, he is the type of impact player that is so highly regarded that an ACL injury will not keep schools from recruiting him. That was confirmed by multiple schools this week, who all called Kennard to reassure him that they would honor their offers. Included in those schools were ones that he named his favorites just a month ago, Texas, USC, UCLA, Cal and ASU.

There is no doubt in my mind that Devon will come back better than ever. From getting to know him over the past two years, I have seen what kind of work he is willing to do to be the best. I am certain that he will train twice as hard, if that is possible, to prove all doubters wrong.

Injuries to top prospects has not been uncommon through recent years here in Arizona. Last year, Dion Jordan from Chandler suffered through his terrible burn accident, was in the hospital for a month and still had the who’s who of college football after him for his services. He has landed at Oregon, recovered nicely and is red-shirting this season.

Centennial’s Zach Schlink missed the majority of his senior year with a knee injury. He was still regarded as the best offensive lineman in Arizona in 2007 and ended up signing with ASU. In fact, Zach played in his first college game, less than one year later, last week when he went in against Georgia on an extra point attempt.

Paradise Valley fullback Matt Clapp and Chaparral defensive tackle Ekom Udofia both suffered broken legs that ended their senior campaigns. Both have gone on to starting roles at their respective colleges, Clapp at Oklahoma and Udofia at Stanford.

For players that are not as highly regarded amongst college football’s elite, they typically suffer a different fate. Most colleges will honor a scholarship offer despite an injury if for nothing more than a PR move. Word spreads fast amongst high school kids and if word gets out that a scholarship has been rescinded because of injury, it will be tough for that college to recruit the area. Kids and parents like to feel that if a student-athlete makes a commitment early to a program, that the same commitment is made back to them. With that being said, it is not unheard of for a school to pull an offer after a serious injury.

Lesser recruited prospects that get hurt as seniors usually will end up going the junior college route to prove they can still play the game. This is not a bad thing by any means.

Prospects that are injured as juniors must prove as seniors that they can over come the injury and still play at a high level. Pinnacle offensive and defensive lineman Fred Herdman is going through this right now. He tore his ACL during wrestling season as a junior. At 6-4 250, Herdman had plenty of schools stopping by Pinnacle during the spring evaluation period but none offered, wanting to see senior tape. By all reports, Herdman has made a healthy recovery and looks college bound.

Injuries are a part of football that cannot be avoided. Strength and conditioning can help prevent some of them but it is impossible to prevent all. Seeing players that have worked so hard and expect so much go down in a game is something that pains me to see and I can only imagine how parent feels when their son goes down on a Friday night. But let’s remember, that an injury is a terrible setback but is not the end of their playing career in most cases. The Devon Kennard’s of the world, players that work hard day in and day out, will not let this hold them back. Like Devon told me after the injury, “I won’t let it beat me. I will be back and even better.”

So far this year, thirteen players in Arizona have given their verbal commitments to various colleges accross the country. I have been fortunate enough to have broken the news on twelve of these commitments and today I broke probably my biggest one since Everson Griffen committing to USC, when Chaparral defensive end Craig Roh committed to Michigan.

Roh’s commitment to the Wolverines was a wild ride. He finished his junior year with no scholarship offers but things changed when Oklahoma offered in the spring. He ended up with 35 total offers and eventually narrowed that down to five. Those five being Michigan, USC, ASU, UCLA and Nebraska.

Roh told me Wednesday night, “I knew in my heart where I was going after taking my unofficial visit to Michigan…I just wanted to take the official visit to go out with the team to see if I fit in. I also wanted to see the game day envrionment.” 

Roh has committed to play in the ESPN/Under Armour All-America game in January and did a television announcement today at 3:30 pm.

Two other Arizona players have committed to play in All-America games. Desert Vista’s Devon Kennard will play in the US Army All-America game while Saguaro’s Corey Adams will join Roh in the ESPN/Under Armour game. Neither Kennard nor Adams have given their verbal pledge, although both have named finalists. Kennard will choose between Texas, USC, UCLA, Cal and ASU while Adams has named Ohio State, USC and ASU his top three.