Recruiting: What Do We Know?

For football, it's definitely the middle of recruiting season, and I'm starting to get some news of "verbal commits" from local papers around the nation. From this list, there are exactly four recruits that have reported that they have verbally committed over the past few weeks, and I thought I'd make as complete a report as I could on each.

C Vinny Pellegrini (Boca Raton HS, FL). A huge lineman (6'3 290 lbs), Pellegrini played in the prestigious Outback Senior All-Star game in Florida as one of the best linemen in the state (to give some perspective on this, he played alongside recruits who have committed to FBS schools Wake Forest and Florida Atlantic).

TE Kyle Holmes (Camden Catholic HS, NJ). 6'2 and 220 lbs as a senior (pictured), he attended Rutgers' spring game in 2006 and has had interest from the big boys around the area. On Rivals he's listed as an "athletic player" which could give the Mountain Hawks an intriguing target at TE in the years to come.

P/K Alex Smith (Lake Brantley, FL). Lehigh may have lucked out with Smith's leg injury his senior year, perhaps dropping him off the radar of FBS schools. Before them he was one of the state's best kickers, booting 45 yard FGs for Lake Brantley. The rumors are he's 100% healed from his injury, and with rising senior P/K Jason Leo graduating next year, getting a powerful leg to replace him will be very, very welcome in 2009 and beyond. [UPDATE: In an article about the growing trend of high school athletes engaging in the services of personal trainers, Smith appears. "He said he used to kick the ball about 40 yards, but now his punts are in the 45- to 50-yard range."]

DB/QB John Littlejohn (Colonial HS, FL). Although he played a bit of quarterback, it's likely he's being recruited to play defensive back with a monster senior year for Colonial. As a defensive back, he racked up an eye-popping 49 solo tackles, 3 interceptions, and 3 pass breakups. I always love to get speed, and he sounds like a nice speedster for the secondary.

[UPDATED LIST]
LB Bryce Arruda (Haddonfield HS, NJ). A first-team Colonial Conference all-star at linebacker, this 6'1, 220 lb LB is yet another monster at LB that the coaching staff has nabbed for the defense. Who says "that school in State College" is Linebacker U., anyway?

LB Alex Petroff (Chardon HS, OH). Another 6'2, 225 lb linebacker, this time from Ohio. He made the Northeast Lakes All-District second team. Again, there are no shortage of linebackers coming into Bethlehem...

WR/RS DeVaughn Gordon (North Plainfiled, NJ). Turning down a full scholarship from Maine to come to Bethlehem, he was also on Temple's radar before coming here. He was first team all-Somerset county where he led his team in interceptions with 4. Speed kills... (Don't confuse him with the runningback of the same name out of West Virginia.)

ATH Colin Netwon (Lake Brantley, FL). Our third Lake Brantley product (we already have rising sophomore DB Casey Eldemire from there) and our second solid verbal from there in this recruiting class, it's evident that the Lehigh coaching staff is mining the vein of talent in Florida extremely well this year. The 6'0, 172 lb Newton was a RB/DB and return guy in high school who was a second team all-Central Florida and also had a playoff-clinching interception in his last regular-season game in high school. Appears to be a big playmaker in high school. The remaining question is: offense or defense?

ATH Isadore Carrie (Ben Franklin HS, LA). A three-sport star at Ben Franklin (football, basketball, and track), Carrie is 5'11 190 lbs and averaged 6.86 yards per carry as a running back and notched 42 tackles as a middle linebacker. This article mentions that Carrie helped carry Ben Franklin to their first-ever playoff appearance last season.

More will be posted here if I get any more information, so come back often.