As the Darrell Scott recruiting watch heads into the final 11-day stretch, even the star running back’s coach can’t tell which way he is leaning.
“He’s tight-lipped,” St. Bonaventure High School (Ventura, Calif.) coach Todd Therrien said late last week. “I don’t detect a lean. We’re talking more about academics.”
Scott — the top-rated running back among high school seniors — appears torn between Colorado and Texas and has maintained all along he will not announce his choice until national signing day on Feb. 6. Texas coach Mack Brown visited this past week but Therrien said he didn’t get a reading because school was out of session.
KKFN 950 AM radio talk show host Irv Brown, whose son Greg is on the CU coaching staff, said on the air this past week he heard several staffers were going to an “undisclosed” location in California for an unnamed recruit, all but breathing Scott’s name.
While rumors surface of additional recruiting trips, Therrien said Scott is staying home this week to retake the college board exams. Therrien was sure UCLA rumors would start to surface when Scott was seen talking at school to UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker.
“Any of these coaches could be signing his checks when Darrell gets to the NFL, so he’s nice to every coach on campus,” Therrien said.
Sure enough, there was another round of rumor-filled torment for CU fans. If the Buffs don’t sign Scott, some CU faithful might prefer seeing him in a Texas uniform rather than playing for former Buffs coach Rick Neuheisel at UCLA.
Fairchild’s philosophy.
The NCAA compliance test is required of all new coaches who have been out of the college ranks. Nowhere on the test did Colorado State’s Steve Fairchild see any rule that required schools to recruit according to ‘s star grading system.
The and zero- through five-star grades were just taking off when Fairchild left CSU after the 2001 recruiting season.
“I’m not interested in stars. It’s how they play when you put the tape on. We all see it differently,” Fairchild said.
With the only new staff in the Mountain West Conference, CSU is trailing the league and most of the country in a tie for 113th on . CSU had its biggest recruiting weekend yet with nearly 20 recruits on campus Saturday.
Waiting for CSU to call.
One three-star player interested in CSU but waiting for an offer from the Rams is La Mesa (Calif.) Helix cornerback Jamar Taylor.
That’s the school that produced Alex Smith and Reggie Bush, No. 1 and No. 2 overall NFL draft picks in consecutive years. Taylor’s coach, Donnie Van Hook, said Washington State canceled a trip on Taylor and that he might send out more tapes.
Van Hook said in 33 years at the school, he has an idea who can play Division I-A and who can’t. He places Taylor among the former. The coach, who is retiring, said he was saddened another of his former players, ex-CSU offensive coordinator Dan Hammerschmidt, was not retained on the new staff.
Transfer hurdles.
CSU could have had a three-star junior college quarterback if not for an obscure NCAA rule preventing a JC transfer from a four-year school going to another four-year school in the same conference as his original home.
Mount San Antonio coach Tom Craft, a former San Diego State coach, said his son Kevin would have gone to CSU but would have lost a year of eligibility because CSU and San Diego State are in the Mountain West Conference. Kevin Craft redshirted at San Diego State, played as a redshirt freshman then transferred to the junior college to play for his father.
The elder Craft said June Jones, who originally offered from Hawaii, was looking to take him to SMU and there was late UCLA interest.
Looking ahead.
. reports Southern California already has locked up five of the top 100 juniors for signing day in 2009. Isn’t that like handicapping next year’s Super Bowl before this year’s kickoff?
