Priest Willis talks about his wait for NCAA clearance


SAN BERNARDINO — Touted defensive back recruit Priest Willis joined the team early this week, but has yet to gain academic clearance from the NCAA. He has already been admitted to UCLA, and can practice for 21 days before a decision.

Willis took summer classes at home in Arizona to fulfill additional requirements, but said he isn’t sure why the process is taking so long. UCLA and his parents are taking the lead there.

“They’ll tell me some stuff, but I don’t know a lot,” he said. “They don’t want me to stress about it because I will stress about it. The craziest thing, I’ve been out of school for so long — almost two-and-a-half months — and I’m still not cleared to play football.”

Expected to vie for a starting spot, he played well in his debut practice and secured a tipped interception.

Eddie Vanderdoes discusses his successful appeal process


SAN BERNARDINO — Rarely thought of as an efficient organization, the NCAA’s quick decision surprised even Eddie Vanderdoes.

The five-star defensive end had hovered in limbo for weeks after reneging on his signed letter of intent with Notre Dame. After a written appeal failed, he finally had a chance to speak directly to the NCAA last Monday. He didn’t waste his chance, laying out his case for nearly 90 minutes.

The next day, the NCAA cleared him to play immediately. If they hadn’t done so, Vanderdoes would have had to sit this fall, as well as lose a year of eligibility.

Now he is available to replace starter Owamagbe Odighizuwa, a would-be senior who will redshirt the season recovering from hip surgery.

“I was real surprised,” Vanderdoes said. “They actually had called me an hour after, talked to me and told me they would have a full decision tomorrow. They basically had a decision but they kind of wanted to cover their bases the next day.”

An All-American at Placer High in Auburn, Calif. — roughly 35 miles from Sacramento — Vanderdoes gave the NCAA four main reasons for his appeal. One was his grandmother’s breast cancer, but he declined to discuss the others. Continue reading “Eddie Vanderdoes discusses his successful appeal process” »

Willis officially sends letter of intent

Defensive back Priest Willis officially joined UCLA’s 2013 recruiting class Saturday, calming anyone who worried about a last-minute defection. A star at Marcos De Niza High in Tempe, Ariz., Willis is the Bruins’ most highly rated recruit: Scout.com has him as a five-star prospect and the fourth-best cornerback in the country, while Rivals.com ranks him as a four-star safety and No. 56 overall in the country.

He had committed to UCLA in a press conference on Jan. 23, just hours after his friend Tahaan Goodman — a four-star safety out of Rancho Cucamonga — had done the same. However, Willis’ mother left town for a few days this week and had neglected to sign his National Letter of Intent; that left his paperwork out of the 23 faxes that the Bruins received Wednesday.

UCLA should now vault back into the top 10 of the Rivals.com rankings; the site had dropped the team to No. 11 because Willis didn’t send his letter in on National Signing Day.

Priest Willis commits to UCLA

UCLA could have its best recruiting class in at least a decade. Defensive back Priest Willis, ranked a five-star cornerback by Scout.com and a four-star safety by rivals, committed to the Bruins this evening — giving the team two elite additions to its secondary in one day.

With defensive linemen Kylie Fitts and Eddie Vanderdoes still on the horizon between now and Feb. 6, UCLA could easily have a top-five class. The Bruins reeled in Scout.com’s No. 5 class in 2009, but Rivals.com had that haul at No. 14. That ranking also hinged on five-star tight end Morrell Presley, a bust who was later arrested for burglary after leaving the team. None of the recruits this year have that sort of baggage.

Scout and Rivals haven’t both doled out top-five rankings to UCLA since at least 2002, the end of their recruiting class archives. The Bruins were ranked seventh and ninth that year, with the biggest haul being Marcedes Lewis.

Defensive back Priest Willis announcing tomorrow

Elite defensive back Priest Willis will announce his college decision Wednesday at 6 p.m. PT. The press conference will take place at Marcos De Niza High in Tempe, Ariz., with UCLA being the presumptive favorite over LSU. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound prospect is rated a four-star safety by Rivals.com and a five-star cornerback by Scout.com.

Willis was on campus with four-star safety Tahaan Goodman this past weekend, which bodes well for the Bruins’ chance at getting the Rancho Cucamonga prospect too. Goodman originally planned to visit LSU.

UPDATE: Goodman will also announce tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. In less than 24 hours, UCLA’s top-10 class could vault past USC’s on both Scout.com and Rivals.com for the first time since 2002, when the Bruins landed Marcedes Lewis. UCLA is currently No. 9 and 10 on Scout and Rivals, while the Trojans are No. 10 and 7, respectively.