The big story for Stanford recruiting this weekend was a bad one. Todd Huber
committing to Cal is a big loss on a number of levels. Interior offensive line
is a very important need in this class and there aren't many (any?) obvious
candidates. Huber also looked to be one of the more likely Stanford commits, so
this hurts. Moreover, he had reportedly been accepted by Stanford. It's
rare enough for Stanford to lose out on any admitted recruits (only Chase Beeler last year,
right?) and I believe that would make Stanford 0-2 in that regard in this cycle (Huber
and John Stokes). And losing a head-to-head recruiting battle with Cal may
be something of a watershed moment for Stanford recruiting since the Cardinal
have been beating
them regularly for recruits recently. All in all, it's a bad piece of news.
The regular season is winding down across the country and is over for one of
Stanford's prospects. Matthew Masifilo's team did not make the playoffs, so his high
school career is over. Between injuries and his team's inability to be
competitive without him, his senior year was a bit anticlimactic. With no more
games left for him, watch for him to go on official visits in the coming weeks
to the Oregon-Washington game, the Big Game, and Stanford's big visit weekend
the week after the Big Game (not sure if it's Big Visit or just a big visit
weekend in which a number of recruits are coming to campus). I'm not sure if
Stanford
fashions him as an interior offensive lineman or an interior defensive lineman,
but if it's the former, I think he becomes a hugely important target in light of
Huber's decision. In other visit news, Mitchell Schwartz took his first official
visit this weekend to the Cal-Washington game. Other than Masifilo, all of
Stanford's prospects had games this weekend except for L.D. Crow, who had a bye to nurse
the wounds of the two shell-shocking recent losses.
* Eddie Morgan's team fell to 3-4 with a 28-20 loss in an important game that
will make it tough for them to make the playoffs. They've now lost three in a
row. Morgan fumbled the opening kickoff, setting up a short touchdown by the
opposing team to start off the scoring. On the next play, Morgan took the
kickoff back 100 yards for a touchdown. His coach said, "That's Eddie Morgan to
a tee. He made a mistake and wanted to make up for it. He had some great
blocking up front, and Eddie was determined to make up for what he did. I was
proud of that because he fixed it." In McKinney's next possession, after the
opposing team took the lead once again, they tied the game up with a three-yard
touchdown run by Morgan to cap a 50-yard, nine-play drive (since the drive was only
50 yards, I presume Morgan took that kickoff back 50 yards, but I can't confirm
that hunch). In the second half of the game, there was yet another drive in
which McKinney had good field position due to a big kickoff return, so it's
probably a fair guess that Morgan starred as a kick returner despite the
devastating fumble that was arguably the difference in the game.
* George Halamandaris' Moorpark team continued to roll, winning this week's
game 42-13 against the team with the nation's longest losing streak. Darrell Scott rushed for 145 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries. Moorpark has
high hopes for their team this season and next season, so they're trying to
establish a consistent passing attack to give them some balance. As a result,
much of the action for Moorpark in this game came through the air against a
creampuff.
* Mission Viejo won for the second game in a row after the loss to De La Salle, winning this game 52-16. I presume David Green was 7-7 on extra points
and made a field goal.
* Matt Conrath's team won their regular season finale 49-19, finishing with
an 8-1 record. They now go in to the playoffs as one of the favorites. The
Chicago Sun-Times recently ran a good article on Conrath that Booties will
probably enjoy.
Here's the link.
* Chike Amajoyi's team won 46-7, their fifth win in a row after an 0-2 start. I'm sure he starred as always and I'll try to find details.
* Kellen Kiilsgaard's star continues to shine brightly. Auburn improved to
8-0 with 56-14 victory. K2 ran for a 61-yard touchdown on the first play from
scrimmage. His final stat line was eye-popping: four carries for 114 yards and
two
touchdowns, 4-of-4 passing for 123 yards and two more touchdowns, 8-of-8 on extra
points. He could be Stanford's next commitment. As I mentioned last week, I think
he'd be a tremendous help for Stanford regardless of what position he plays.
* After last week's loss to ruin the undefeated season, David Paulson's
Auburn-Riverside team blasted their opponent 46-7. Paulson starred with 156
yards rushing and three touchdowns as an option quarterback and two interceptions
on defense. The win sets up the regular season finale with Kiilsgaard's unbeaten
team.
* Oaks Christian continues to dominate, blowing out their league's other
undefeated team 55-7. Jimmy Clausen actually looked human for the first time
anybody can think of, picking up multiple delay of game penalties, drawing a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for saying something the official didn't
like, complaining at halftime (with only a 28-7 lead) that the playcalling
was too conservative and losing two fumbles. It didn't matter for Oaks
Christian, though, as Marc Tyler picked up 311 rushing yards (this total varies
from paper to paper this week and I'm not sure why, but it was a lot of yards
regardless) and four touchdowns on only 17 carries. By the way, Clausen's horrible
off-day by his standards still netted him one of the better stat lines you'll
find: 14-of-19 passing for 236 yards and two touchdowns. It's horrible pressure
to put on kids going into high-pressure, high-competition college environments,
but Clausen and Tyler will be busts if they don't star in college. No word on
how Sean Wiser did, although I know he didn't catch a touchdown pass, and Oaks
Christian had a couple of interceptions - he may have had one of them.
* Cameron Collins' team lost 34-27 to fall below .500. The pass
defense was
somewhat abused by a Beverly Hills quarterback who finished with 16-of-28
passing for 252 yards and two touchdowns. Collins has been anchoring his team's
defense but not playing on offense as he has recovered from his hand injury. I'm not
sure if he returned to offense in this week's game or not.
* It turns out that Johnathan Frink has missed the last three weeks with a
shoulder stinger. Before the injury, he had 57 tackles in five games. I believe
he returned this week to face the top-rated team, but if he did he wasn't enough
to help his team avoid a 15-13 loss, their first loss of the year. They're now
8-1. The run defense couldn't stop the opposing running attack, which racked up
200 yards on the day.
* Matt Bentler's team smoked their opponent 48-0 and improved to 6-2. Their
offensive line paved the way for a five-touchdown performance by the running
back, and the defense has gotten to the point that they almost never give up any
points. The defense had five sacks in this game. It sounds like Bentler must be
having a good year, though it's hard to get many details on the performance of
linemen.
* As I mentioned last week, Doug Baldwin's local newspaper takes a few days
to post stories, so I usually give week old updates for him. In last week's
14-10 win, Baldwin caught an 18-yard touchdown pass and was used as a defensive
back in addition to his normal duties as a receiver and return specialist. Their
team really broke out this week with a 44-0 win, and I'm sure I'll have details
on Baldwin's performance in next week's update.
* After recently showing signs of life with a three-game winning streak,
Derrick Hallman's team lost this weekend 30-7. Their coach blamed the loss on a
lack of effort by the players, saying they may have been looking ahead to the
next game and that the performance was an inexcusable showing by the team's
seniors. They had shut out their previous two opponents but were much less
effective this week.
* Bryan Anger's Camarillo team, struggling without Samson Szakacsy, finally
got their second win as they got something going on the ground. As always,
newspaper reports don't have much on Anger's punting. One report mentioned that
the opponent “bracketed” Anger as a receiver, so Camarillo focused on the
running game.
* Jason Peters' team stayed undefeated and clinched the district title with a
29-10 win. Peters and Co. held a running back who had 212 yards last week to 46
yards this week.
* Hoover improved to 7-1 with a 44-21 victory. Brandon Clear is back in action and caught a 48-yard reception on the first play from scrimmage but did not find the endzone on the evening.
* Matt Howe's team improved to 5-2 with a 28-20 win. They had to sweat out a
comeback after they started off with a 21-0 lead.
* Charlie Hatcher's team dropped a 15-14 double-overtime game. After winning
the second and third games of the year, Hatcher's team has lost their last six
games and has a woeful 2-7 record.
* Jamaine Olson's team stayed undefeated with a 42-0 win. Olson certainly
plays for a great team. He sounds really important to Stanford since he's a pure cornerback, but I do
wonder why he hasn't generated more recruiting interest playing in the Northwest
for one of America's best programs.
* Mitchell Schwartz' team lost 29-26, dropping to 4-3 on the season.
* Victor Ojukwu's team fell to 2-5 with a 24-0 blowout loss.
* Against my better judgment, I'm including a Harrison Smith update. His
recent comments make me think Stanford is DOA in his recruitment. Anyway, his
team stayed undefeated with a 28-7 victory. Smith rushed for 192 yards and a
touchdown on 18 carries, giving him 1091 rushing yards on the season.
* Chase Minnifield update: Minnifield's team squared off against another
undefeated Lexington team and suffered their first loss of the season, 25-13. It's the second year in a row this city rival ended Henry Clay's bid for an
undefeated season. Minnifield caught a nine-yard touchdown pass to start off the
scoring. He also got stopped on a big fourth down goalline run in the second
quarter as the opponent was starting to pull away. He was apparently stopped
other than the early touchdown catch.
I'm still looking for details on the Francis Parker (Tyler Mabry and Gino Gordon) and Aquinas (Chike Amajoyi) games and may post an addendum if I see
anything.
Are you fully subscribed to The Bootleg?
If not, then you are missing out on all the top Cardinal coverage we provide
daily on our website, as well as our full-length feature articles in our glossy
magazine. Sign up today for the biggest and best in Stanford sports coverage
with TheBootleg.com (sign-up)
and The Bootleg Magazine (sign-up)!