Having devoured In-N-Out burgers, strolled the Santa Monica seaside and loved a go to to Little Ethiopia, Keeanu Benton will get the attract.
“Who doesn’t need to go to Cali?” the Wisconsin nostril sort out mentioned Wednesday with fun.
Within the years to come back, UCLA and USC will take pleasure in some pure benefits of their pursuit of highschool prospects from Large Ten territory. The seashores. The climate. The (animal model) delicacies.
These pluses shall be magnified by the Bruins and Trojans taking part in a handful of video games every season within the Midwest and on the East Coast as soon as they be part of the Large Ten in 2024. Gamers who grew up on Illinois farmland can go to school in Southern California whereas taking part in inside a number of hours’ drive of their house a few times a season, permitting their households to see them play in individual.
“They’ll attempt to are available in and poach gamers out of our space, our neck of the woods,” Barry Alvarez, the previous longtime Wisconsin coach who now serves as a particular advisor for soccer for the Large Ten, mentioned of UCLA and USC throughout Large Ten media days at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The alternative applies as properly. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose roster consists of eight California natives — to not point out switch punter Luke Akers, who spent two seasons at UCLA after rising up in Tennessee — sees the chance for extra California dreamin’.
“Completely, it’s going to assist,” Fitzgerald mentioned, noting the supply of low-cost flights between Chicago and Los Angeles that might permit households from Southern California see their sons play convention highway video games with out taking out a second mortgage on their houses.
Whereas his subsequent recruiting class is essentially set, Illinois coach Bret Bielema mentioned he foresaw his recruiting venturing extra closely into California — the place star quarterbacks, extensive receivers and working backs sprout like citrus fruit — beginning with the category of 2024.
UCLA’s transfer to the Large Ten will flip longtime mates into rivals. Ohio State coach Ryan Day mentioned he was on the sixteenth gap of a New Hampshire golf course with Bruins counterpart Chip Kelly when Nebraska coach Scott Frost, a mutual buddy, known as to ship the information that UCLA and USC have been becoming a member of the Large Ten.
“We discovered about midway by way of that gap that we have been in the identical convention collectively,” Day mentioned, “and we had an ideal chortle about that.”
The chuckles may stop as soon as the coaches begin competing for a similar standout extensive receivers from Southern California and high offensive linemen from corn-fed states within the Midwest.
Fitzgerald in all probability is aware of the California panorama in addition to any of his Large Ten rivals, having been liable for areas spanning the San Fernando Valley as much as San Luis Obispo, over to Fresno and down by way of Bakersfield and Palmdale when he was a linebackers and particular groups coach at Idaho.
“I’ve received a reasonably good understanding of the Valley — the Tom Petty track [“Free Fallin’ ”] however,” Fitzgerald cracked.
Like in all the things else, location will matter when recruits are weighing their choices.
“If you’re selecting your second house,” mentioned Penn State security Ji’Ayir Brown, a New Jersey native, “me personally, I didn’t need to be too far-off from my first house, in order that performed a [big role] in my recruiting course of, however everyone’s totally different. Some individuals wish to go far-off from house, some individuals like to remain near house, so I’m guessing it is determined by what sort of children you’ve received.”
Contemplate Nittany Lion teammate P.J. Mustipher the final word homebody, then.
“No West Coast groups,” mentioned the defensive sort out who hails from Owings Mills, Md. “I wasn’t going out to the West Coast — I’m an East Coast boy, man. That’s too far for me. I ain’t leaving my mama. I assumed I needed to be far-off from my mother and pa and I’m solely 2½ [hours] and that’s type of too far some days, however nah, I ain’t [doing it]. Who needs to exit to the West Coast in case you’re from the East Coast?”
Benton, who as soon as thought he was going to grow to be a carpenter or electrician out of highschool as a result of he didn’t obtain any scholarship gives till the top of his junior 12 months, might need the very best recommendation for any suitor hoping to land prospects: Present early devotion.
“Wisconsin was the primary to provide me a try to that is the place I actually needed to go,” Benton mentioned, “so it wasn’t actually a query.”
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