February 2009 Archives

Brandon Sermons woke up Wednesday morning knowing he would sign a national letter of intent, he just didn't know with whom.

The Diamond Ranch High School senior, ranked the 33rd best cornerback in the country by rivals.com, verbally committed to UCLA way back on Oct 21. But in the three weeks before signing day was wavering enough to visit hard-charging Oregon State and Washington.

These weren't just courtesy trips.

"Three days ago he was leaning Washington," Diamond Ranch football coach Roddy Layton said Wednesday afternoon. "Two days ago he was leaning UCLA. Yesterday he didn't know."

Sermons and Layton had a four-hour dinner Tuesday night, during which Sermons was leaning in so many different directions it's a good thing he was sitting down.

Here is a list of all the football recruits from the Inland Valley who signed national letters of intent on Wednesday...

Josh Andrews, OL, Colony - Oregon State
Richard Brehaut, QB, Los Osos - UCLA
Quayshawn Buckley, DL, Colony - Washington State
Arby Fields, RB, Los Osos - Northwestern
Davion Fleming, RB, Upland - Northwestern
Obum Gwacham, WR, Ayala - Oregon State
Osahon Irabor, CB, Upland - Arizona State
Alex Jefferies, WR, Eisenhower - Fresno State
Taj Johnson, DB, Upland - SUNY Stony Brook (I-AA)
Jared Koster, LB, Norco - UCLA
Kyle Lengyel, LB, Diamond Ranch - Air Force
Colin Lockett, DB, Diamond Bar - San Diego State
Vincent Minor, RB, Etiwanda - New Mexico
Immanuel Mitchell, CB, Roosevelt - Colorado State
Ibe Nduka, DE, Etiwanda - Fresno State
Josh Nunes, QB, Upland - Stanford
David Quiroga, DB, Ayala - New Mexico State
Kyle Salm, OL, San Dimas - Idaho
Brandon Sermons, DB, Diamond Ranch - UCLA
Irshad Stolden, WR, Rancho Cucamonga - UNLV
Titus Teague, CB, Pomona - Louisville
Bryan Townsend, OL, Rancho Cucamonga - Air Force
Graham Vickers, OL, Diamond Ranch - Navy
Xavier Molina-Williams, DL, Diamond Ranch - Colgate (I-AA)

There is no gray area in Northwestern assistant head football coach Jerry Brown's estimation. A football recruit either has the statistics or isn't worth the trip.

The Wildcats coach responsible for recruiting Southern California deemed two local running backs worthy thanks to numbers like 4.0 and 3.9. Only, he's not talking yards per carry.

Arby Fields compiled a 4.0 grade-point average at Los Osos High School and Davion Fleming a 3.9 at Upland, but before Brown could put any stock in the 1800-plus all-purpose yards each gained as a senior, he had to determine if they met Northwestern's strict academic standards.