Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Tales from the road: El Cerrito
By Mason Kelley
Editor's note: HuskyNation's Mason Kelley is in Northern California this week, visiting top prospects and potential Washington targets. Click here for all of his updates.
EL CERRITO, Calif. -- A little after 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a man walked past El Cerrito High School with a pair of dogs -- one was a Husky.
I took that as a good sign for the second day of my brief Northern California adventure.
The two juniors -- Calhoun is on the ESPN Watch List -- have both drawn interest from the Huskies. Calhoun, a linebacker, already has an offer from Washington, while Pickett fits the mold of the bigger cornerbacks the program is looking for.
He doesn’t have an offer, but he is already drawing interest from plenty of prominent programs -- he landed an offer from Utah as a sophomore and later added Cal and Arizona State.
The teammates make up two members of what they called the “Fab Five,” which also includes junior Jalen Harvey, a receiver and defensive back who looks the part of a Pac-12 recruit, and twins Keilan and Keith Benjamin, who play quarterback and receiver, respectively.
Harvey is another recruit being looked at by Washington, in addition to drawing interest from Oregon, Arizona State and Notre Dame.
I talked to a total of seven prospects -- running back Austin Harper and linebacker David Haynes also woke up early and showed up at the school -- during my stop, and each one planned to stick around for a 10 a.m. weightlifting session.
The Gauchos are in the middle of winter break, but they have already started training for the 2013 season.
Now it's off to Concorad (Calif.) De La Salle to meet with USC linebacker commit Michael Hutchings and defensive end Austin Hooper, one of Washington’s top remaining targets.
