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Recruiting Insider News and Notes 1/25: FREE VERSION
Tuesday was another day of nausea, headaches, vertigo, and other, more psychotic manifestations as recruitniks loaded up on all the recruiting news they could find in a vast array of places.
Of course, we would prefer you find it here -- but this time of year there's a lot to be had from many different sources.
Realdawg subscribers are used to getting these Insider News and Notes just about every night during the heat of recruiting season, but today I'm going to dedicate this installment to those hundreds of Twitter followers who ask me question after question out there in the Twitter cloud. Realdawggers will appreciate the info too, as always. But it won't kill anyone if we just open the doors this one time and let others take a peek inside at what's going on here.
So let's get to it.
Of course, the Jake Eldrenkamp news shook the web last night after Coach Sark woofed on Twitter. Although you had to have been blind not to see this one coming. While nothing is ever a gimme, and the Pirate made a valiant effort to draw Jake away from his home right across from Husky Stadium, the Huskies won out and secured the first offensive lineman verbal from a Bellevue player in several years.
And speaking of Mike Rector...Several weeks ago a Stanford source told me that he knew, for a fact, that a current and local Husky commit was going to "flip" and go to another school. Because we knew this source had a connection to Stanford, we began to assume they must be talking about Rector, who had received an offer from the Tree and then was accepted. After his visit to Washington Rector went into lock-down and hasn't been heard from since by any reporters who cover Washington. Now, the silence was finally broken when Rector let the media know he'd be announcing his "decision" at Bellarmine Prep on Monday, and he's choosing between Washington and (gulp) Stanford. Usually if a guy is committed to school and had already made that announcement many months ago, there isn't much to deliberate about -- so naturally Husky fans are in a sweat about what Rector plans to do.
But then we spoke again late last night with the same source from Stanford, who said "He's going to stay (at Washington). Don't worry."
And then there's Zach Banner. I got this email yesterday morning from Lakes head coach, Dave Miller:
Ruth,
FYI....Zach will be announcing his decision this Monday at 2:30 pm in the Lakes performing arts center.
thanks, Dave
Of course this news spread quickly over the net in no time, but in case you forgot about it, you can mark you calendar or set an alarm on your smartphone or tie a string around your finger to remember that this is when the big Zach Banner Decision: 2012 will go live (it could be a virtual who's who of Seattle media) right there at Lakes High School. A little later I spoke with Miller at length about the recruitment of his players this year, and he told us about Zach's decision to "shut things down" for now both with the media and coaches. He's not accepting any home visitors; not even Kiffin, Sark or Stoops. It's a lock-out. But Miller told us, "His family could see that it was beginning to wear him down". We did post an article about this after speaking with Miller.
And, even though it's been reported that Cedric Dozier is going to stick with his commitment to Cal, we were also told that he will still be having Mike Leach in his home one last time this week.
Speaking of Lakes, we feel that the Huskies could get their first commitment of 2013 from this guy.
The Brandon Beaver saga continues, with rumors that he's going to visit Cal this weekend. But will that be one more trip that doesn't happen? Or will Jeff Tedford do everything he can to get even with Sark for hiring Tosh, Kiesau, and bringing in half of Cal's commit list for visits? Beaver truly is a delightful little fella to keep an eye on, and lives to prove that teenagers have made up their own language just to confuse and bewilder adults and parents. But just because I am a recruiting analyst and I like to think that I am still a "cool" old person who can speak the language and understand these kids, this Twitter-ease is the most incomprehensible stuff I've seen since nutrition labels came out. The point is, all you fans and Twitter followers who are trying to figure it out? Stop trying. They don't want you to. It's their plan. It's by design.
But fear not, Jordan Payton can be counted on to come out and say exactly what we all can understand, and he did just that last night when, after having an in-home visit from Jeff Tedford, he posted a "love note" to the Cal coach. I really don't know how else to describe it. I won't quote it here because, obviously, Jordan didn't want it to stay on the net and quickly deleted the post shortly after making it. But it was basically a shout-out to Coach Tedford and true show of respect to the coach. Some would theorize that it meant Payton was going to go back to his original commitment of Cal, while others would say it was akin to a guy saying to a girl, "I'll always love you, even though I just dumped you." Whatever it meant, it was obviously something Jordan felt the need to say -- until it went viral and Husky fans began to hit the panic button. Jordan will announce on Monday on Fox Sports Prime Ticket. And if you don't get that channel, I'm sure it will be splattered all over the internet the minute he places a hat on his head.
I also continue to get asked about Alphonso Marsh. To the best of my knowledge and according to sources I trust, Marsh fell off the Husky radar several weeks ago. We've reported that before here on Realdawg but will repeat it again. Unless something has drastically changed, this is the last word I got about this PSA.
There's still no word out of Hawai'i about the status of Shane Brostek, but our good friend Chip Kelly was in Hawai'i last night to see him. I'd be shocked, however, if any Brostek wound up in Eugene.
There's another player who is committed to a school who is getting a last-minute visit by Husky coaches. I won't go into this any further, but to say that he had been high on the radar until he committed to another school many months ago.
Kenny Walker, as our article yesterday explained, is VERY interested in the Huskies and he could flip if this trip shows him what he needs to see.
Quickly:
There's still no word out of Hawai'i about whether or not Luke Kaumatule has been accepted at Stanford.
There's a rumor floating around that Jabari Ruffin will visit this weekend. I will get on the horn with Ruffin today to see what I can find out. Originally committed to USC, Ruffin is the friend and former teammate of Husky tailback, Jesse Callier. He's said all along he wanted to visit Washington.
We will find out today if Dominguez d-lineman, Dejon Allen is going to definitely visit.
I was just about to call Arik Armstead last night when Sark went out and woofed on Twitter. So I will get on that today -- I still feel, however, that Washington is not a very big player in this one.
Decision-watch:
Pio Vatuvei could announce any day, although he might also opt for the press-conference thing. He had messaged me last week asking for my number in the event that he chose Washington so that we could report it on this site.
Still no word from Pago Pago, American Samoa TE, Destiny Vaeao, but that could be because I seem to be the only person on the mainland to have his phone number. He was very serious about WSU but I won't rule out Washington until he says he has. Word on the street is that his family would very much like to see him go to Washington.
That's about it for now -- there's no doubt that today will probably be another day of high tensions and drama -- you have to admit, this is fun!
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