Stars Shine Bright At Los Angeles Combine
The biggest turnout ever for a Scout.com Combine showed up in Los Angeles on Sunday, and several of the elite prospects nationally made their mark while a handful of sleepers emerged at the Home Depot Center...
The Home Depot Center has hosted numerous events, the California High School Football Championships, the MLS All-Star Game, the Women's World Cup and the San Diego Chargers Football Camp amongst others, where the talent on site was bubbling over.
So Sunday could have been considered just another day at the office. But the Los Angeles Scout.com Combine wouldn't be looked at with a ho-hum attitude as the collection of elite prospects on hand coupled with the numerous other D-I prospects easily was the most talented group of prospects Scout.com has ever had assembled for a combine.
Several of Scout.com's Top 100 prospects nationally, and many more from the West 100 and Southwest 100 congregated amongst a group of 285 participants.
Because of the turnout, we named both an Offensive and Defensive MVP and an overall MVP.
Matt Kalil, the top offensive tackle in the country by Scout.com out of Servite in Anaheim, won the Offensive MVP while Damien Holmes, the defensive end from Colton just edged past Craig Noble from Taft in Woodland Hills and Kurt Mangum from Basha in Chandler for Defensive MVP.
Covaughn Deboskie, the elite running back prospect from Hamilton HS in Chandler earned Overall MVP honors, the second straight year an Arizona native has earned MVP honors at the Los Angeles Scout.com Combine (following Everson Griffin who won it a year ago, en route to ending the year as Scout.com's National Player of the Year and #1-ranked prospect in the class of 2007.
Here is a recap of the day.
Quarterbacks
The knock in the West this year is that there is no real super-talent at the position like there was a year ago with Jimmy Clausen, Aaron Corp or Chris Forcier. But the depth at the quarterback spot is far deeper than it was a year ago and this was evident on Sunday.
Familiar names from the class of 2008 like Nick Crissman from Edison, Dominique Blackman from Carson, Ryan Griffin from Chaminade, Scott Burgett from Centennial in Peoria, Kevin Prince from Crespi, Darius Banks from Culver City, Brennan Price from Air Academy in Colorado Springs and Ryan Katz from Santa Monica all had solid days passing the ball and showed why each of them are receiving interest from all over the West.
And some prospects who have spent the past few years handing the ball off to elite running backs also emerged. Matt Scott, who has teamed with Ryan Bass the past few years at Centennial HS in Corona had an excellent showing, throwing the ball well and with zip and he has a polished throwing motion. Scott also tested extremely well, running a 4.58 forty and jumping 34 inches. Adam Barry from Moorpark HS should have a big year passing with the Musketeers going to the spread this fall and he has a nice strong arm and good delivery. It's the second time we've seen Barry this spring and both times he's thrown the ball well.
Other standouts in the class of 2008 included Robert Fuller from Arroyo in San Bernardino (who set a CIF-SS record by passing for 604 yards in a game last fall), Travis Harvey from Morningside in Inglewood (who picked up his first offer a week ago), Richard Ragland from Venice, Graham Wilbert from Valencia and Blake Schembri from Chapparal in Scottsdale.
The class of 2009 in California should be loaded at the quarterback position and a few prospects in that class had good days. In fact, Tim Ganton, the Scout Combines quarterback coach said that Tate Forcier, the sophomore out of Scripps Ranch, was the top quarterback on Sunday. Last year, Forcier came as a freshman and earned rave reviews after fashioning one of the strongest arms there. He just happened to be overshadowed by his older brother Chris, who was the all-combine quarterback. This year, Forcier emerged from his brother's shadow, showing off a cannon arm and a fluid motion.
Josh Nunes from Upland, Richard Brehaut from Los Osos and Rashaad Reynolds from San Fernando all looked good from the 2009 class.
[More at http://story.scout.com ]
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