WWL Takes note of CRN's recruiting effort:
UCLA has endured an up and down season thus far in 2008, but it appears the program is heading in the right direction -- at least in the eyes of top 2009 prospects.
In his return to Westwood, former Bruins quarterback Rick Neuheisel is putting together a solid recruiting class and has created a positive buzz around the once-prominent program's future. In his first year of coaching at UCLA, he has conveyed to recruits that the turnaround will not happen overnight, but prospects still are buying into his long-term philosophy -- evident by the great week UCLA enjoyed on the recruiting trail.
Following its win over Pac-10 foe Stanford on Saturday, UCLA gained significant pledges from Under Armour All-American guard Stan Hasiak (Kapolei, Hawaii), well-rounded corner Brandon Sermons (Pomona, Calif./Diamond Ranch) and powerful fullback Jayson Allmond (Bloomington, Calif.). Both Hasiak and Allmond are top-15 positional prospects in ESPN.com's player rankings, and the athletic Sermons is no slouch with his No. 30 positional ranking.
The Bruins have a modest class in terms of numbers, but its quality is strikingly high; nine of the ten committed prospects have a Scouts Inc. grade of 77 or better. It still pales in comparison to the No. 14 class Neuheisel basically inherited and signed this past February, thanks in large part to retained assistant coach DeWayne Walker. Yet, we expect many more momentous weeks for the Bruins between now and signing day. It appears Neuheisel's message is strong and appealing to future prospects.
Hasiak is the No. 3-rated player in Hawaii this year, and he passed up offers from most of the top Pac-10 schools to play for the Blue and Gold. The 6-foot-6, 340-pound guard believes in the program's new direction; he wants to be part of the rebuilding process.
"The UCLA coaches have a different mind-set of how they want to run their program compared to other schools," said Hasiak, who committed after his official visit this past weekend. "They know what they want and know how they will get there."
Read rest of the article here.
Considering what we have gone through this season wrt to injuries, installing a brand new offensive scheme and integrating lots of young players, the recruiting effort of CRN and his staff have been nothing short of remarkable.
Good to see rest of the country picking up on what we have been observing all along: we are headed towards the right direction and its all starting to come together (even though we have a long way to go).
GO BRUINS