NCAA Recruiting Scoop

Kenny Demens, a 6-foot-1, 224 pound four star outside linebacker from Detroit, Michigan (Country Day High) has verbally committed to play for the Michigan Wolverines next season. Day runs the 40 in 4.6, benches 375, and squats 400 pounds. Further, he’s explosive (33 inch vertical) and that explosiveness becomes abundantly obvious to the competition wherever he goes.

In other words, Demens can hit. Along with this, he managed 90 tackles, including 15 for a loss last season in high school. This, of course, is why he’s considered the 14th best 2008 prospect in the nation at his position.

In the end, this outside linebacker with a 3.6 high school GPA chose the Wolverines over Illinois, Iowa, Louisville, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Good thing for Big Blue that he did as Demens is going to be better than the recruitnicks think.

A.J. Harmon is a 6-foot-4, 308 pound offensive guard from Louisville, Georgia that runs the 40 in 5.87. Thus, he’s not that fast. However, he is big, moves quickly off the ball, and has a penchant for pancake blocks. Which, of course, is why he falls in at number 53 on the 2008 Rivals 100.

Harmon has already verbally committed to play for the Clemson Tigers in 2008. He chose them over Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Alabama, and Auburn. Lucky for the Tigers that he did.

Henry Asuega, a 6 foot, 254 pound bruising strongside defensive end from Corona, California (Corona High) has verbally committed to play for Idaho next season. Asuega runs the 40 in 4.8 seconds, benches 345 pounds, and squats 500. Thus, the strength measurables are astounding. That said, his recruiting status took a hit after tearing his ACL for his senior season.

Still, Asuega managed to garner interest from the likes of Colorado, Nebraska, Washington, Hawaii, and Texas El Paso. It will be a great story seeing how he comes back from injury. If everything comes together just right there will no doubt be some happy people out in the great state of Idaho.

Steven Filer is a 6-foot-3, 220 pound inside linebacker from Chicago, Illinois (Mt. Carmel High). Last season, he accumulated 87 tackles and eight sacks. That plus some nice speed for the position (4.65 in the 40) is why he falls in at number 52 on the 2008 Rivals 100.

Not a lot has gone right for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this season. However, if Charlie Weis and the gang continue to hold onto the top recruiting spot for 2008, they just could get better in a hurry. That’s right, my friends. The aggressive and hard- hitting Filer turned down Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan to join up with the Irish.

Rahim Moore is a 6 foot, 185 pound safety from Los Angeles, California (Dorsey High) that runs the 40 in 4.45. So yeah, he’s pretty quick. The good thing is that he’s also kind of tough.

To the tune of 189 tackles over the last two seasons in high school. Thus, when you add in the 15 interceptions he’s achieved over the past two seasons it’s no wonder that Rivals has him falling in at number 51 on the Rivals 100 of 2008.

Lucky for the UCLA Bruins, Moore has already chosen to attend their university next season (but one has to wonder if Dorrell will be around long enough to enjoy his services after that Utah debacle). Regardless, Moore turned down Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio State to stay on the west coast.

But it’s early and Moore’s commitment is considered soft. A few more losses and he just may turn tail for the Gators or Bulldogs. We’ll see.

Brendan Beal is a 6-foot-4, 235 pound inside linebacker from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Liberty High) that runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds, benches 385 pounds, and squats 475. In other words, he’s fast and real strong. On top of it all, he possesses a 33 inch vertical leap.

Not exactly a big, lazy inside linebacker, now is he?

Beal has been unbelievably productive as a high schooler with 121 tackles and six sacks as a sophomore and 151 tackles and 11 sacks as a junior. And it’s that kind of production that has him coming in at number 50 on the 2008 Rivals 100.

Thus far, Beal hasn’t verbally committed to anyone. On his short list are schools like Florida, LSU, Boston College, USC, Miami of Florida, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Rutgers.

That was then: Back in 2005, Georgie Selvie was a relatively unheralded offensive guard prospect from Pensacola, Florida (Pine Forest High). Standing at 6-foot-4 and weighing 230 pounds, well, he sure wasn’t big enough for Division I-A college football at that position.

Thus, the two star prospect didn’t garner a lot of interest. Two teams that were interested? The South Florida Bulls and West Virginia Mountaineers.

This is now: On Saturday, September 22, 2007, the South Florida Bulls beat the North Carolina Tar Heels by a score of 37-10. Selvie, a sophomore defensive end, managed three sacks in the game. Impressive, huh?

Now consider the fact that he was leading the nation in tackles for a loss (9.5) and sacks (5.5) coming into the game. Now with 8.5 sacks on the season, this former high school guard is making huge waves and has been a major contributor to South Florida’s stellar start.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that watched him play last season.

Last year (2006) Selvie went crazy against the seventh ranked West Virginia Mountaineers when he accrued eight tackles, including 3.5 for a loss, forced a fumble and scored a touchdown on a 9-yard fumble recovery on the way to helping his team cement a huge upset victory. He finished 2006 with 84 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks and was named a Football Writers Association of America/Scripps Freshman All-American.

What will he do for an encore against the Mountaineers next week? Who knows? But we’re all certainly looking forward to finding out, and that’s a far cry from where this uber talented player started as a recruit.

Hey, that Mack Brown sure can recruit. Of course, if he didn’t then things wouldn’t bode well in that yearly Oklahoma- Texas battle, would they?

D.J. Monroe is a 5-foot-9, 165 pound cornerback from Angleton, Texas (Angleton High) that runs the 40 in 4.4 seconds. So he’s fast and rather small. However, he doesn’t play small as his 1,229 yards rushing on offense and 76 tackles and six interceptions on defense as a junior in high school would seem to indicate.

Thus, it’s no surprise that he falls in at number 49 on the 2008 Rivals 100. Further, Rivals considers him the third best high school cornerback prospect in the entire nation.

Monroe has already verbally committed to play for the Texas Longhorns next season. He chose them over a list of excellent schools including the Florida Gators, Iowa Hawkeyes, Kansas State Wildcats, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and Purdue Boilermakers.

Rich Bell, a 6-foot-2, 277 pound defensive tackle from Salisbury, Connecticut (Salisbury School) has verbally committed to play for the Ohio Bobcats and Frank Solich next season. Bell runs the 40 in 4.86 seconds, the shuttle in 4.31 seconds, and possesses a vertical leap of 27 inches. But none of that really matters.

Here’s what does. He has been officially observed doing 32 repetitions with 185 pounds on the bench press, and 24 reps with 225. Now that’s strong. Further, he made 83 tackles last season, 15 of which were for a loss (according to Scout). Oh yeah, and there were the four sacks and three recovered fumbles he accrued as well.

This Rivals two star athlete chose Ohio over Toledo, Western Michigan, Kansas, Akron, Kent State, and Miami of Ohio. Have a feeling that Frank Solich and the Ohio faithful (no, we’re not talking about Ohio State faithful) are going to be happy he did.

Saban wasn’t brought to Tuscaloosa in order to win one game in one season. Rather, he was hired to bring Alabama back to prominence. In order for that to occur, he must recruit well. That means better than his Iron Bowl counterparts.

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Rodriguez Wilks, a 6-foot-1, 195 pound wide receiver from Smyrna, Tennessee (Smyrna High) has verbally committed to play for the University of Tennessee next season.

Wilks is a three star prospect that runs the 40 in 4.56 and possesses a vertical of 27 inches. Thus, the measurables aren’t perfect. However, the production is very good as he’s combined for over 1,700 receiving yards the past two seasons in high school.

In the end, Wilks chose the Volunteers over Alabama, Florida, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Ole Miss, and South Carolina.

Darren McFadden was a big time college prospect back in 2005. Now he’s a big time NFL prospect.

That was then: Back in 2005, Darren McFadden was a five star athlete coming out of Oak Grove High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. He had it all including 4.38 speed, a bench press of 325 pounds, a vertical leap of 32 inches, and the high school numbers to boot.

How does 2,027 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns his junior year and 1,965 rushing yards and 27 touchdowns his senior year sound?

Thus, he was considered the second best athlete and 23rd best overall prospect in the 2005 class.

This is now: Darren McFadden showed off both his unbelievable speed and power once again on September 15th against the Alabama Crimson Tide in Nick Saban’s inaugural season as head coach. Unfortunately for McFadden, Saban and the boys won this one 41-38.

Still, that didn’t take away from his astounding performance. How does 33 rushes for 195 yards and two touchdowns sound?

In the end, despite the loss, last season’s runner up for the Heisman probably cemented himself as the favorite for the award in 2007 with this performance. It’s certainly hard to argue that there’s a player out there better than him.

Talk about a big time pickup for the Florida Gators. That’s right, Jersey City, New Jersey’s, Will Hill has decided to go to Gator Country next season.

Hill is a 6-foot-3, 203 pound player that can do it all. In other words, he’s fast (runs the 40 in 4.4), smart (possesses a 3.0 GPA), can run the ball (he rushed for 682 yards and 13 touchdowns last season), and can throw (he passed for 758 yards and 11 touchdowns last season). Heck, the guy can even return kicks (he accounted for two touchdowns returning kicks for St. Peter’s Prep last season).

All of this is why Rivals has him ranked seventh among all 2008 recruits.

In the end, Hill chose Florida over Florida State, Maryland, Miami of Florida, Michigan, Penn State, Rutgers, USC, and Virginia.

Betcha Rutgers’ Greg Schiano is kicking himself right now.

Jameel Owens is a 6-foot-3, 210 pound wide receiver from Muskogee, Oklahoma that runs the 40 in 4.41 and benches 285 pounds. Not to mention that 35 inch vertical of his.

Thus, it’s no surprise that people are high on this guy. High to the tune of him being ranked number 48 in the nation amongst 2008 prospects.

Owens hasn’t committed to play for anyone yet next season. Arkansas, Florida, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, and Texas Tech are on his short list.

William Green is a 6-foot-4, 215 pound weakside defensive end from Hoover, Alabama (Spain Park) that runs the 40 in 4.68 and squats 410 pounds. Not bad. Now add in his 54 total tackles including 18 for a loss from a season ago and it’s no wonder that Green is considered the 47th best 2008 prospect in the land according to Rivals.

Thus far, Green hasn’t committed to play for anyone. Word is that he’s going to wait this one out some. However, the list of prospective schools is long: Auburn, Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia Tech, LSU, Miami of Florida, and Tennessee.

Looking forward to seeing who he chooses.