WWL: "UCLA is one of the hottest recruiting teams in the country"

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Well this was a matter of time. Look who is featured on ESPN's college football recruiting section today. WWL takes note of one of the hottest recruiting programs in the world of college football:

UCLA is one of the highest-profile collegiate athletic programs in the country. It's as well-known of an institution as there is when it comes to collegiate sports and is located in one of the largest cities in America, which happens to be the greatest talent-producing metropolitan area in California that produces more football prospects than any other.

There is a beautiful campus, home games played in one of the most historic stadiums in America (the Rose Bowl) and some winning tradition. When you blend those built-in factors with one of the top recruiting coaches in America in Rick Neuheisel, chances are the talent is going to start flowing in for the Bruins -- and it has. That makes for a bright future in Westwood.

With a five-star athlete, two elite running back prospects and the recent commitment of an ESPNU 150 linebacker prospect, there is no question that UCLA is one of the hottest recruiting teams in the country for this recruiting cycle. This comes on the heels of the Bruins signing the nation's No. 14 and No. 17 classes during Neuheisel's first two cycles.

Those classes currently are the backbone of the Bruins' program. "We've signed 47 players since we've been here," UCLA director of on-campus recruiting Angus McClure said. "Of those, 13 are currently freshman that are redshirting. That leaves 34 players. Of those, 33 are seeing playing time either on offense, defense or special teams. We had 18 freshman and sophomores start the last two games. That makes us one of the youngest teams in the country." While there is certainly talent on campus, a look at this year's class is even more reason for optimism. Earlier this week, the Bruins reached across the country to snag four-star ESPNU 150 linebacker prospect Aramide Olaniyan (Woodberry Forest, Va./Woodberry Forest). Olaniyan joined five-star athlete Tony Jefferson (Chula Vista, Calif./East Lake), and four-star ESPNU 150 running backs Jordan James (Corona, Calif./Corona) and Malcolm Jones (Westlake Village, Calif./Oaks Christian).

Again for a quick flashback let's recall the hint of concern trolling (OMG what's wrong here?!! Neuheisel has no commitments!!!!) from this past with blog posts going up with title such as  "waiting for commitments."  We LOL at the time thinking how premature that post was going to look in the coming weeks. Now it looks even sillier.

Anyway, as mentioned number of times already CRN and his staff are not done. The most important objective for them is to take care of business this Saturday. If they can get a win against an ASU team that will give an all out effort to fight for their bowl bid, the "Plus 2" factor will make UCLA's ongoing recruiting efforts even hotter.

GO BRUINS.

via seattletimes.nwsource.com

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One of the nation's top recruits and one who most have called the key to UCLA's 2010 recruiting class has committed to the Bruins. According to Jon Gold, Josh Smith, a 6'10'', 270 lbs. center from Kentwood High School in Covington, Washington has decided to become a Ben Ball Warrior. The highly coveted center had narrowed his choices down to UCLA and the hometown school, Washington, but the Bruins have long been viewed as the favorite.

According to Rivals.com, Smith is the nation's 19th best recruit and third best center in the class of 2010. He has the potential to be a dominant figure in the low post and along with the plethora of big men in this year's freshmen class, the Bruins appear to be stacked up front for the foreseeable future. Here is Rivals' Jerry Meyer's scouting report on the future Bruin.

Blessed with superb hands and a soft shooting touch, Smith gobbles up rebounds and scores efficiently around the basket. Quick off the floor for his size, Smith is also a tremendous shot blocker and positional defender. He is also a dangerous passer with his overall strong feel for the game. Shaping up to be the dominant low post player in his class.

This is a major get for CBH and with Tyler Lamb already in the fold, a monster recruiting class is in the works. Welcome to Westwood Josh!

Elsewhere in recruiting, Harrison Barnes, the five star small forward from Iowa will announce his college decision on Friday, although he is a longshot for the Bruins. If that name sounds familiar, Barnes is the recruit who N posted about, talking about the amazing blog entry Barnes wrote about his official visit to UCLA.

Another note: Thursday is the first day of the early signing period so the UCLA recruits can put their signature on a National Letter of Intent and make their commitment official.

UPDATE I: David Wharton of the LA Times also has Smith's commitment so it looks like a done deal.

Washington state prospect Josh Smith, one of the top-rated big men in the nation, has committed to UCLA.

A 6-9, 270-pound center from Kentwood High, Smith came to the decision about an hour ago, his father said, choosing the Bruins over Washington.

He made his official visit to Westwood just a few weeks ago but had held off on a decision until after visiting with the Huskies staff.

Continue after the jump for some quotes from Smith.

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The tweet from LAT's Eric Sondheimer says:

Big news for UCLA. Running back Malcolm Jones of Oaks Christian has picked the Bruins as his college choice

From Eric's colleague here is a blog post from Chris Foster in the LAT:

Westlake Village Oaks Christian’s Malcolm Jones has committed to UCLA. Jones, a 6-foot, 215-pound running back, is ranked fifth at his position by Rivals.com [...]

Jones, though, has size and speed to make him an effective runner. He was sought after by nearly every Pacific 10 Conference school, plus Oklahoma and Notre Dame. He had narrowed his choices to Stanford and UCLA.

It was Jon Gold who broke the story first on DN's Inside UCLA.

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WWL broke the news about UCLA's 2010 commit Kendal Williams opening up his recruitment:

According to sources close to the situation, Kendall Williams, a 6-3 senior out of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., decided to explore other options after being a UCLA recruit for over two years.

Williams indicated that he felt UCLA wasn't a good fit anymore for various reasons which he declined to discuss.

As Dohn noted on this blog this wasn't much of a surprise for anyone who follows Ben Ball recruiting very closely:

It comes as little surprise as Williams didn't develop as much as UCLA hoped he would. It means the Bruins are in the hunt for a point guard for the 2010 class.
I saw Williams play during UCLA's camp last month, and his level of play came into question, Also, his on-court antics were wearing thin with folks at the camp.

More on Kendall after jump.

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In yesterday's comment section bruinbornandraised  was wondering what recruits Coach Howland is after for 2010. If my quick morning calculation is accurate (please correct me if I am wrong in the comment threads) at this snap shot of time (assuming everyone will be coming back for 2011-12 season) Coach Howland has 3 scholies to offer this upcoming season. Two of the spots have already been snatched up by the following recruits:

• Tyler Lamb, a four star 6-4/190 SG from Santa Ana's Mater Dei High School
• Kendall Williams, a three star 6-2/160 SG from Rancho Cucomanga's Los Olsos High School

Although Coach Howland might have only 1 more scholarship to give out that number could change if someone blows up this coming season and decide to head for the NBA (wouldn't be a shocker). Howland and his staff I am sure have number of prospects on their radar for this coming season including 6-5 pg  Ben Vozzola (Las Vegas Centennial) who attended the Ben Ball camp in Howlandwood this past week. However, the biggest catch is a kid named Josh Smith, another great center from the Pacific Northwest. Here is a little into to Seattle's (Kenwood High School) Mr. Smith:

Josh Smith Highlights - PrepTicket.com - From "Sports Stars of Tomorrow with Pat Summerall" (via PrepTicket)

Weird to hear Pat Summerall doing these videos (I kept waiting for Madden to weigh in with his telestrator). Anyway, it looks like the UCLA/Smith chatter is really heating up per the Washington Seattle Times:

[L]ots of rumors out there that Kentwood's Josh Smith is getting close to making an announcement and that when he does, he's likely to be UCLA-bound. I've heard the same, though I'm usually hesitant to pass along off-the-record recruiting rumors, doing so here because so many of you seem to already be discussing it I thought I'd acknowledge it. But one person told me UCLA is simply where Smith has always wanted to go, something that can be hard to counter. So don't be surprised if an announcement of that sort comes soon.

The hysterical reactions to that blurb in the Washington Times blog post are pretty amusing (and kind of embarrasing for the well informed fans from Wahsington Huskies fan base. They look pathetically ignorant and ill informed in their unhinged rants against Howland. Anyway, who cares. Those comments are typical of idiotic rants and flamefests we usually see on "blog" hosted on traditional newspaper sites. So, I wont consider those folks as real representatives of Huskies fanbase. Getting back to Mr. Smith, he recently gave an interview to HighSchoolHoop.com which had some interesting nuggests. Here was Smith's response when he asked about what he was "looking for in a school" (emphasis added throughout):

JS: At the end of the day style of play will be a factor. I don’t want to go to a school where it’s just run-and-gun. I have no problem doing that, but I want to go to a school that has a balance of that and a halfcourt set.

It gets better. He also had to say the following when asked his thoughts on a college coach's ability to get kids ready for the NBA:

JS: It will weigh a lot on that. When people ask me about UCLA it’s because they’re famous for putting big men in the league. So people say that if I go there for one or two years I could be the next No. 1 or lottery pick. Wherever I go I just want to work hard and get better. If the NBA opportunity comes, I’ll take it. My ultimate goal is to be successful at whatever I do. But that’s why I like UCLA a lot. Ben Howland knows what he’s doing. They’re always at the top of the Pac-10, always in the Elite 8 and Sweet 16 and the big guys that he produces are usually lottery picks.

I am not going to get my hopes up (and I will certainly not invest emotionally in a player until I see a total commitment from him in being Bruin even if he is just here for a year or two). However, the comments above are pretty good signs. Don't you think?

GO BRUINS.

Little more than couple weeks ago Brian Dohn put up a post on his "Inside UCLA" blog with the title "waiting for commitments" showing how UCLA had 0 commitments from this year's recruiting class. Although Brian didn't come out and concern troll out right in his post, the way he laid it out the hint of concern trolling (OMG what's wrong here?!! Neuheisel has no commitments!!!!) was fairly clear (predictably it set of a panicked discussion on message boards). We noted it in the background and laughed out loud a bit thinking how silly that post was going to look in the coming weeks. Well it is certainly looking kind of dumb today after Neuheisel and co. pulled off a solid day of recruiting this week.

First of all it looks like Rick Neuheisel and Norm Chow have hauled in another big time high school quarterback. (HT to BruinFanBaby) from the Bay Area. Just hours after getting an offer from UCLA, Brett Nottingham from Monte Vista High School, called CRN to let him know that he was ready to be Bruin. From the Contra Costa Times:

"I talked about it with my parents for a couple hours and talked to some of my uncles and my grandmother before deciding," Nottingham said. "I called Coach Neuheisel to tell him, and he was really excited. He told me he sees a lot of success down the road."

Nottingham was at UCLA for a two-day camp where he threw in front of the UCLA coaches and participated in a white-board session with Neuheisel and offensive coordinator Norm Chow. In a phone conversation after the workout, Neuheisel offered the scholarship to the Mustangs' prized quarterback.

"I was always leaning toward UCLA," he said. "We've had a lot of family go there, and it's such a well-rounded university. When they came around (with the offer) there was no way I could say no."

His oldest sister, Megan, just graduated from UCLA, and his other sister, Ali, will be a senior there in the fall.

As a junior, Nottingham threw for 3,164 yards and 39 touchdowns while leading the East Bay's top-ranked offense.

Nottingham, who carries a 4.0 GPA and plans to major in economics, also seriously considered Colorado and Stanford.

Brett's Dad also went to UCLA Medical School. Brett becomes the first big time Bay Area QB (aplogies to the Law Firm for not considering him as a blue chip QB) to become a Bruin since Drew Olson (whose Dad also BTW went to UCLA for graduate (law) school). I like this pickuop for couple of reasons. First let's look at some of the highlights:

Brett Nottingham Football 2010 (via mvqb4life10)

At 6-4, 210 he certainly looks the part. Furthermore, I think Brett sounds like the perfect recruit who Coach Chow will be able to groom for few years before he is ready to take the reigns from the current rotation of Prince, Brehaut (and maybe Crissman). Brett will have the luxury to come in and red shirt right away and get at least 2-3 years to familiarize himself with Chow's offense. I think by the time he will be competing for the starting job he will be a redshirt sophomore. In terms of building out depth at QB, it couldn't be working out any better for UCLA IMHO. Anyway, a huge welcome to Brett from Bruins Nation.

But wait ... there is more. Brett was not the only recruit to commit to Neuheisel yesterday. He picked up yet another committment - defensive lineman Wesley Flowers - from Fresno's Edison High School to followup the committment of Tevin McDonald. From Tracy Pierson at Bruin Report Online (article not under subscription firewall):

Wesley Flowers, the 6-4, 255-pound defensive lineman from Fresno (Calif.) Edison, verbally committed to UCLA this morning.

Flowers finished his junior season with 50 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, six sacks and two fumbles caused. He says he can bench 305-pounds and squats 350.

He has a good, wide frame, and it's believed he'll grow into a defensive tackle.

Before the UCLA scholarship offer, he had offers from Washington and Fresno State.

And guess who is excited about it: former Trojan/Niner great Edison High's head coach Tim McDonald:

The coach at Edison, Tim McDonald, who is also the father of Tevin, said: "Wesley committed to UCLA today. I am excited about my two Bruins. I had a good conversation with with Coach (Rick) Neuheisel today. They are both firm commits."

Works for us. Go over to BRO and read the whole story which also has a great interview Scout.com did with Flowers during a recent camp in LA. With Flowers and Nottingham's commitments UCLA now has 4 recruits from the class of 2010 and you can bet that the coaches are just getting warmed up.

GO BRUINS.

Some quick football related news and notes from the football front. Looks like Rick Neuheisel has picked up his second commitment in this recruiting season:

Fresno (Calif.) Edison defensive back Tevin McDonald verbally committed to UCLA on Thursday, just days after receiving a scholarship offer from the Bruins as a result of a very good performance at UCLA's One-Day Camp.

Go here to read up the scouting report on Tevin. Here is the thing. McDonald has Trojan bloodlines. His Dad Tim McDonald was an All American at U$C*.

The McDonald family from Fresno is going to have an interesting time during the UCLA-USC football game in 2010 now that cornerback Tevin McDonald from Fresno Edison has committed to the Bruins. His older brother, T.J., will be a freshman defensive back at USC this fall. And his father is former Trojan Tim McDonald.

"It is crazy that I am the only Bruin in the family and I was the last boy, but that's how it has to be and I'm ready to take that challenge in," Tevin McDonald tolds Rivals.com.

He was a great defensive back for the Niners that played a huge part in the 1995 Super Bowl championship season. Perhaps it's appropriate. The two Trojans I have ever rooted for - Lott and McDonald - they both will have sons going to UCLA (although Tevin's older brother TJ signed with U$C* this February.

Edison is turning out to be a pretty good pipeline for UCLA. Currently we have Courtney Viney on the team who is an Edison alum. Also the school sent players like Ricky Manning and Brandon Breazell to the program. Not bad. So once again welcome to Westwood Tevin.

Meanwhile, while we are excited about Tevin join the Bruin family, other players who have made decisions to transfer out this off season are finding places to land. Raymond Carter is headed over to Colorado State and Dominque Johnson is headed over to Cal Poly SLO. Per Dominque he transferred primarily for family reasons:

Former UCLA receiver Dominique Johnson, who is from Moreno Valley, said family issues were the driving force behind his transfer to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His family will re-locate to the SLO area.
If there wasn't such issues?
"I think there was a strong possibility I would have stayed,'' Johnson said.

Best of luck to both of them. Lastly, speaking of transfer note the Brandon Warner saga continues to remain bizarre. He is apparently now heading to New Mexico State and said the following to Dohn:

"I am going to head to New Mexico State,'' Warner said. "Right now, me and UCLA were having problems. I am on my way to call (Bruins coach Rick) Neuheisel today."
As a side note, Warner said he is fully qualified, meaning he would be eligible to play at UCLA.

(Editor's note: Sources told me that Warner was told if he received his A.A. degree and was NCAA qualified, UCLA's admissions said they would admit him to school.)

I am sorry but there just way too many gaps in Brandon's story. I just don't think we can really go by with his statements suddenly turning on UCLA after all these weeks of saying how committed he was to joining the program. Given what we have seen from Neuheisel to date, it would be laugable for anyone to claim that he wasn't attentive to any concerns he might have presented before. One thing we have seen from Neuhisel that is pretty clear from last two years: he pays attention to all details when it comes to recruiting. I find it amusing that it took him months to get this transcript situation all figured out for UCLA, yet it took him just days to get all signed up with New Mexico State.

Something is really missing from this story and I am not going to go with the version we are hearing from Warner. Whatever. Time to move. Wish him luck in New Mexico. For us, we have a football program that needs to be focused on rebuilding brick by brick, and less drama there is around it, the better.

GO BRUINS.

Looks like we didn't have to wait too long to get some news out the football camp UCLA was hosting in Westwood yesterday. Bruins picked up a huge commitment yesterday. From the Daily News:

A week after losing its lone commitment of the 2010 class, UCLA started over when Bellevue (Wash.) High defensive tackle Julious Moore gave a non-binding oral commitment to football coach Rick Neuheisel on Saturday.

Moore's commitment is big since it begins to fill a position of severe need for the Bruins.

The 6-foot-1, 255-pound Moore committed after partaking in UCLA's one-day camp on campus. He also has scholarship offers from Washington and Washington State.

Welcome to Westwood Julious.

Here is Moore's bio at Scout.com.  Bob Condotta over at the Seattle Times' Husky Football Blog had this interesting take in response to Moore's committment:

Looks like Bellevue High DT Julious Moore is headed to UCLA, with several sources reporting he has committed to the Bruins today, including Scout.com, which reported he made the commitment today while attending a one-day camp there. If so, that's two key in-state recruits this week who have committed elsewhere. It also marks the first time Rick Neuheisel has come into the Seattle area and taken a recruit away from UW since he was named coach at UCLA. Moore attended at least one UW spring practice, but rumblings of late had been that he was increasingly enamored of UCLA. We have some calls out on the Moore situation and if we get anything additional on it I'll pass it along later.

In addition to Moore's commitment, UCLA coaches were considering extending few other offers after yesterday's camp. I am sure we will be hearing more news in the coming days (or weeks).

As mentioned before, given the kind of head coach we have in charge I am not worried about how this recruiting season will shape up. The way Neuheisel and his staff have closed in their two recruiting seasons at UCLA, speaks for itself.

GO BRUINS.