ESPN West recruiting Blog

Posted by Greg Biggins

The recruitment of Malcolm Jones (Westlake Village, Calif./Oaks Christian) could be coming to an end shortly. Jones is down to Stanford and UCLA and just visited the Cardinal over the weekend.

"I just talked to him and he said he still likes UCLA," Oaks Christian coach Bill Redell said. "He liked Stanford and has some family pushing him there for the academics, but UCLA is where he wants to go.

"He told me a week ago he would have his decision made before October and today is the last day of September, so I know he should be getting close. If there's a family struggle going on, obviously it could take longer but as of today, he wants to go to UCLA."

Jones is one of the top backs in the West and a very talented linebacker prospect as well. In fact, some feel he may project better on the defensive side of the ball, although he wants to play running back in college.

Quick hitters

• Standout junior Greg Townsend (Beverly Hills, Calif./Beverly Hills) received an offer earlier in the week from Miami. The offer from the 'Canes is the first non-Pac-10 offer for the defensive end. USC was first out of the box followed by Cal, Arizona State and UCLA.

• Add running back Lache Seastrunk (Temple, Texas/Temple) to the official visit for Cal this weekend. Seastrunk is among the most heavily recruited players in the nation and rated the No. 5 RB in the nation. The recruitment of Seastrunk has been a difficult one to follow, but the Golden Bears have always been high on his list and the athlete has already visited the campus once before on junior day last spring.

• Don't expect an announcement any time soon, but Florida has a sizeable lead for defensive end Ronald Powell (Moreno Valley, Calif./Rancho Verde) at the moment. Powell has visited Gainesville three times already and will take one more official visit when his season is over. USC is heavily involved as well and is really the only other school with a chance to pull Powell from the Gators, but that does not look very likely at the moment.

• Offensive lineman Ben Loth (Encino, Calif./Crespi) has seen a nice bump in his recruitment and recently landed his second and third offers. UNLV was the first school to offer, while Fresno State and Iowa State both offered earlier in the week. The Celts could have three lineman sign in February, including center Hroniss Grasu and tackle Michael Mitchell.