The Scouting Guru has been all over the San Gabriel Valley and beyond, and like always, he’s offered to share his thoughts, free of charge. Don’t hate, enjoy it for what it’s worth, which is one man’s opinion on the talent in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Guru Writes: “We are in the middle of June and it’s just around this time that the three national football recruiting websites, ESPN Scouts Inc., Rivals.com and Scout.com are finalizing their players rankings for the class of 2012. Since there is only one player from the East San Gabriel Valley that is ranked by all three websites, I decided to list all the players that are in the SGVN Network. So here they are …”

ESPN Scouts Inc.
Ellis McCarthy (DT, Monrovia HS), 4-Star
Aaron Porter (LB, La Habra HS), 4-Star
Kevon Seymour (DB, Muir HS), 4-Star
Taylor LaGace (WR, Arcadia HS), 3-Star
Tarien Owens (RB, Muir HS), 3-Star
Myles Carr (QB, Arcadia HS), 2-Star
Chris Solomon (S, West Covina HS) 2-Star

Scout.com
McCarthy (5-Star)
Porter (4-Star)
Seymour (4-Star)
LaGace (3-Star)
Solomon (3-Star)
Owens (3-Star)

Rivals.com
McCarthy (5-Star)
Porter (4-Star)
Seymour (4-Star)
LaGace (3-Star)
Owens (3-Star)
Solomon (3-Star)

Looks like the rankings are right on the money. Hoping to see Aaron Porter at UCLA this weekend or at USC next week. He is the only person that I have not seen in person at a game or a camp. (To continue, click thread).

As many of you know, I had a chance to work both the UCLA and USC camps the last two weeks. Here are my thoughts on some of the better area players that showed up on either one of the camps….

Chris Solomon (S, West Covina HS) — When he showed up for registration, I asked him what position what he wanted to do in the morning and he didn’t know. Since I was working with the running backs with Offensive Coordinator Kennedy Pola, I suggested that he work with the RB’s in the morning and he can go to defense in the afternoon. He was up for it. First off, I think this kid is a player. And I also think he projects to being on the defensive side of the ball. We put him through a ton of drills in the morning and since he plays in a wing-t offense, he was disadvantaged in doing spread offensive routes. He is strong, decently built, but he future lies on the defensive side of the ball.

Kurt Scoby (RB, Charter Oak HS) — First off, for a kid that is a sophomore – his body is built very well. You can tell that he has been living in the weight room. He spent the entire day with us, in all the strength drills (blocking against the Crother sled, blocking drills with the bags, etc.) he did very well. But I noticed that he is tight around the hips and needs to do a ton of change of direction drills. But, there is a lot there and he certainly will be a good one down the line. Now about that growth spurt??

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Since Fred and Aram did a great job in covering the 4-way that was held on Tuesday at Charter Oak, I will leave to them to tell you all the details from the event. All I will say is I am a hoodie guy – always have been, always will be. So get use to it, Aram!!!!!

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10 things that I think I Think

(Before we start, people have been asking me where I got this from, well you can blame Peter King of SI – who does a similar thing in MMQB column on si.com. I loved it o and I hope you are liking it too…)

1. I think it was great to see Jiron Fairman working both the OL/DL camp and the skills camp over the weekend at USC. Jiron, who is a former All-Area first team pick for South Hills in 2001 and started at WR for Pat Hill at Fresno State), is coaching at a D-2 school on the east coast and is out here looking at talent to bring back east. He is so smart, that he’ll get his chance to coach at the D-1 level fairly soon.

2. I think that West Covina HS blogger “Dan” had the most interesting post of the weekend after he watched Loyola participate at the Dana Hills Passing League Tournament,
“Loyola looks pretty darn good with some big athletic kids. Linebacker were big as were the receivers and the DB’s looked solid….I think Loyola will make some noise in the Serra league this year if they have a decent line. They certainly have the skill players. They will be a difficult game for West Covina.”

I make Loyola 14 point favorites….

3. I think that here are my thoughts on Aram’s top-10 RB’s in the SGVN list on his blog….

a) I love the top-4 RB’s that he has listed. These guys are really good!. As a matter of fact, the talent level really drops after Jamel Hart at 4. In my opinion, you can put those four guys, put their names into a bottle shake up and what came out as 1-2-3-4, and I would not disagree.

b) I’d put Victoria at 5 and Ramirez at 6 and then the RB from St. Paul Ortega. In talking to a lot of people, I get the feeling that if Ramirez plays this year, he’ll put into upper echelon of RB’s this year.

c) Mark on your calendar Charter Oak at South Hills in week 6. Scoby vs Hart, Gilcrest vs Canada, Hernandez vs. Santiago, (a much more motivated) Bogan vs. Farrar and it’s being played at the Rose Bowl of the East San Gabriel Valley — Covina District Field. Memo to South Hills Activities Director Jeff Goldberg – you can charge $20 bucks for admission that night, and you’ll still get a full house.

4. I think that here are my thoughts on Aram’s top-10 WR’s in the SGVN list on his blog….

a) When you are in the “war room” during combine season in the pro’s – scouts and coaches will disagree half the time. That is how it goes. And there are times when Aram and I will disagree. And this is one of them. I think that he has Bartolone from La Habra rated a little too high. I’ve loved Lagace since he showed up at camps last year and his tape is more than solid. I’d put him first. Now after him, Bartolone, Talianko and almost the same WR. After watching Gilcrest on Tuesday, I’ve got some major questions about him. So what does this step up for – you guessed it – Jamie Canada overtaking everyone and entering the conversation as the best WR’s in the SGVN.

b) One player to watch is San Dimas WR Devante Brown. He is sleeper that Aram failed to mention on his list. Remember folks, he’s not perfect – except when he is at the buffet bar. (I’m just kidding Aram!!!!)

5. I think that I got the teams that are participating in the Claremont Tournament Passing League Tournament on July 15 and July 16th. The SGVN area teams that are in the tournament are Charter Oak, Chino Hills, Claremont (host), Glendora, La Salle, Muir, St. Francis and Santa Fe.

6. I think that was a great story that was posted on-line this week on the job Brandon Roher has done at La Puente High School. It’s hard to being toiling your trade when you have a top-notch, high-profile school in your neighborhood. But, he’s grinding it out and the results show it. One of the quotes in the story really caught my eye, “From the beginning, we knew we had to start with the basics and that was lifting, getting bigger, faster, stronger,” Rohrer said. “We made a commitment as a coaching staff to making sure we were working hard in the weight room, so we could physically keep up with teams, especially in our league and our division.”

It always starts in the weight room!

7. I think that its time that we start looking at the schedule for 2011. This week, we’ll start with week 0.

a) Who starts the 2011 season?… South Hills (who else!!). And what a nice match-up. Thursday night at CDF vs. Colony. Colony has several legitimate D-1 prospects so this game becomes a high-priority game for college recruiters…

b) Glendora at Charter Oak: Compelling match-up for the guys covering the area. First game of the new regime at Glendora.

c) West Covina vs. Covina at CDF: Another $20 admission game. Don’t think that this game has not been circled on West Covina’ schedule. And for all the right reasons…

There are several other games, but these are the games that jumped out at me…

8. I think that congratuations are in order to Bishop Amat Running Back coach Rodney Sermons. Two weeks ago, he took himself off the free-agency market and is now a married man. Great news for a great guy.

9. I think that when I visited UCLA football offices last week that I ran into Brandon Sermons. My observation of him from a mental point of view, he looks like a super focused kid that wants to hit the field in 2011. He is a kid that I am rooting for in 2011…

10. I think that these are my non-football area thoughts for the week….

a) It’s great to hear that the NFL owners and the players union are back at the negoiatating table. Remember folks, they are trying to slice up a 9 BILLION DOLLAR pie. Let me repeat that again for you, 9 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

b) Great news for Fred Robledo and Steve Ramirez. KC Joyner (who writes for ESPN Insider and runs TheFootballScientist.com) has listed UCLA as one only five teams that had a losing record last year that will make a bowl game this year. The one thing that works in UCLA’s favor? Joyner: ” Underrated strength: Defensive line. The Bruins racked up only 25 sacks last year, but as
ESPN Pac-12 blogger Ted Miller noted in his UCLA spring wrap, their defensive line is deep enough for the team to consider using a 10-player rotation this season. Games against four teams that allowed a combined 149 sacks in 2010 (Washington State, Oregon State, San Jose State and Arizona State) should afford this group ample opportunity to greatly improve its sack total.”

c) Bad news for Fred Robledo and Steve Ramirez: ESPN Scouts Inc released their ESPN top 150 last week and USC has 4 verbal commits for the national 150 list. UCLA…0.

d) Camp season continues this weekend with the UCLA O-Line/D-Line camp this Saturday and their Skills camp on Sunday. And then next Wednesday and Thursday is USC’s premier camp, their Rising Stars Camp.

e) If you are looking for a great show to listen too, just go on the Internet (Sirius Radio) and listen to the “Paul Feinbaum Show.” I do it once a week and you will most definitely get your college football fix for the day. It is the best college football sports talk radio show in the country.

f) I had a chance to go to Capri Deli on Wednesday… if there is a better place to grab a sandwich, I haven’t found one.

g) I don’t know what is worse, listening to all this Lebron James talk on sports talk radio, or getting email with LeBron James jokes. It’s getting old folks!

See you at UCLA this weekend …. look below, it’s the Guru in action!