Those were words of Pete Carroll when he was interviewed about Vidal Hazelton's transfer out of USC.
If you look at the talent that Pete Carroll has brought in you can find very few who have not made the transition well, Moody and Hazelton come to mind. There have been even less who committed and had second thoughts ultimately changing their minds about committing to USC. Joe Adams and Chris Polk come to mind.
So, should we be surprised that Morrell Presley who was considered one of the top TE prospects in the nation decided that he would de-commit from USC instead choosing ucla? I guess it depends on how worked up you want to get over an 18 year old kid changing their mind. We have lost out on Brian Price and Rahim Moore both to ucla and so far we've turned out pretty good.
The reason I bring this up is because I am surprised at what I am seeing on some of the message boards about this kid chaning his mind. The crew of at Bruins Nation are acting like the world just went off its axis with this kid committing I mean we have been served notice!...you can tell they haven't been there in a while. The comments on Dohn's Blog once again claim the monopoly is over!
Right...sure it is. This is their off-season version of the "Football Monopoly in L.A. is over"...
No one player is bigger than the whole program. The standard excuses will be depth and playing time and for good reason...Pressley was going to be the 4th TE behind (in no particular order) Ayles, McCoy and Ellison. Even Jordan Cameron will probably see some time at TE next season. There has also been some talk that he always wanted to go to ucla so its not like some of us were stunned by this. It would also not surprise me if this had something to do with Steve Sarkisian leaving, this sometimes happens when there is a coaching change though I am skeptical about that in this case.
Dan Weber has some interesting thoughts. (a little emphasis added..Hee hee)
True joy abounds in Westwood. The Monopoly is over in 2010, we hear now from the posters. The Bruins are back.
And indeed, Presley, in comments to the Daily News' Brian Dohn, does seem to have switched his commitment. He says he's always liked UCLA.
A more definitive take would seem to be that Presley can count to 3 and realized at USC next year, that's where he'd be behind starter Anthony McCoy and last year's top tight end in the nation, true freshman Blake Ayles.
Hard to blame him.
Wow! That ucla education is already paying off!
Biggins has a little more...
I heard from a handful of recruits who were at UCLA that same weekend mention Presley was leaning to the Bruins. There was even a rumor that the tight end committed to UCLA on his visit.
But Presley's father, Steven Hawkins, said Presley's commitment to USC looked pretty solid after a home visit from Trojans coach Pete Carroll, which came a week after Presley's visit to UCLA. His father added he's be surprised if he ended up elsewhere.
With an official visit upcoming to USC and the opportunity to hang out with future Trojans quarterback Matt Barkley, it looked like this race was over. Presley did visit Troy last weekend and by all accounts, had a very good visit.
But a few days later Presley decided to make the switch.
"I just felt more comfortable at UCLA," Presley told the L.A. Daily News. "I've liked UCLA for a long time and I just felt like UCLA was the better overall fit for me."
The commitment of Presley is huge for UCLA. The Bruins have lacked a serious big play threat on offense ever since Maurice Jones-Drew left for the NFL three years ago and their best tight end prospect since Marcedes Lewis, who won the Mackey Award in 2005 and owns holds the UCLA record for receiving yards and TDs by a tight end.
Seems to me that the kid was less than honest with himself when he committed to USC. That's fine I wish him the best.
It's a long time before we get to signing day and anything can happen. This is a nice get for them no question; Presley is a pretty good player and it would appear that he "played" SC here, but ucla still has a long way to go.
Of course Slick Rick is going to get his fair share of recruits and here's a newsflash! Yes, he will steal one or two here and there from us, but as we have seen with ND with all the great recruiting classes they supposedly have they still can get out of their own way.
Disappointing? - Yes. The end of the world? - Hardly
UPDATE:
Win some, lose some...USC picks up a verbal commit from Simione Vehikite from Hawaii.