Recruiting Notebook

by:GarryP12/12/17

There will be plenty of Trojan recruiting interest this weekend with several recruits taking part in the California state bowl finals, and also with a pair of official visitors on campus.

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The campus visitors are a pair of prospects in the trenches with OT Jackson Carman and DT Caleb Tremblay, both of whom are ranked among the tops in the nation at their respective positions.

Carman (6-6, 330) is the #1 ranked OT and will be an early signee. He will choose between USC, Ohio State and Clemson.

Tremblay (6-5, 275) is the #6 DT from the juco ranks and Washington is the primary challenger here. Caleb will also be signing next week.

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The first day of the early signing period is December 20th, and that will also be the announcement date for Penei Sewell, who is the #-ranked OG in the country. Penei has a trio on his short list of USC, Alabama and Oregon.

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The marquee game for the state finals that will take place at Sacramento State is the Open division game between Mater Dei and DeLaSalle, which will take place on Saturday at 8pm.

There is a lot of history between these two teams going back to 1998 when the Spartans came down to challenge Mater Dei in Southern California and won 28-21, and DLS came away with three straight victories, including 42-0 in 1999 in one of Matt Leinart’s first starts for the Monarchs.

Leinart came as close to anyone in 2000 to breaking the DLS streak. The Monarchs were down at halftime and Bruce Rollinson basically told Matt to go out in the second half and throw it all over the yard, it almost worked too but they fell short 31-28.

This year things feel different. Mater Dei is the team that is rolling right now with elite recruits all over the field, including a QB-WR duo in JT Daniels and Amon-Ra St. Brown that could be as good as any in the country. There are also a pair of highly-ranked linebackers in Solomon Tuliaupupu and Mase Funa, along with multi-talented Bru McCoy. Really, there aren’t any weaknesses anywhere you look on the Monarch roster.

DLS is still very good, mind you, with their only loss coming to Bishop Gorman (a team that Mater Dei beat) and they have a USC commit of their own in the middle of the DL with Tuli Letuligasenoa. This will be a great opportunity for Trojan fans to see Tuli in action as he wasn’t part of the spring/summer combine circuit. There is also an elite junior linebacker behind him in Henry To’oto’o as well as a top 2019 TE in Isaiah Foskey.

The game will be shown at 8pm Saturday night on Spectrum SportsNet LA (the Dodgers station)

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Other state games with USC prospects are:

Friday 4pm: Cajon vs Serra
Cajon features USC DE target Jeremiah Martin (6-5, 240), photo above, who is also looking at schools such as Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Washington.

Friday 8pm: Helix vs Folson
Helix corner Isaac Taylor Stuart (6-2, 190) has long had the Trojans on his list, and he’s got a unique combination of height and speed.

Saturday 4pm Narbonne vs Pittsburgh
Narbonne features USC linebacker commit Raymond Scott, who recently confirmed that he would be signing with the Trojans next week. Pittsburgh has 2019 DT Jacob Bandes, who is rumored to be an early lean across town.

All state championship games will be shown on Spectrum SportsNet LA (the Dodgers station)

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The USC coaches have been on the road lately visiting some of the top recruits on the wish list:

Jackson Carman

Tyreke Smith

Justin Dedich

Jeremy Banks

Mychale Salahuddin

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