Charlie Weis came to town Monday to escape the cold Indiana winter but primarily to make one last run at landing one of the top high school football players in the nation.
The Notre Dame coach stopped by Lake Balboa Birmingham High to finalize a recruiting visit from running back Milton Knox, the City Section player of the year who long ago committed to UCLA.
"I think they're going to go after him as hard as they can," Birmingham Coach Ed Croson said of Notre Dame's bid for his Parade magazine All-American running back.
And this weekend, Knox is headed to South Bend, Ind., which shows once again that in the dizzy world of college football recruiting, a commitment isn't necessarily a commitment until a signature materializes on a national letter of intent.
Those letters can't be signed until Wednesday, so coaches across the country are busy this week shoring up their own "commits" while trying to poach top recruits from rivals schools.
In the last week, linebacker Sean Westgate of Oak Park switched from Arizona to UCLA and running back Brian Baucham of West Torrance went from Washington State to USC. Recently, running back Ryan Bass of Corona Centennial jumped from Arizona to rival Arizona State.
"It's definitely been a crazy year," said Sherman Oaks Notre Dame quarterback Dayne Crist, who is expected to sign with Notre Dame.
Not so many years ago, coaches rarely went after players who had announced a commitment, even though it was non-binding. But that has changed. Players have become more sophisticated and savvy in gaining information about schools through the Internet. Coaching changes add to the uncertainty, empowering players to have second thoughts and encouraging competitors to intervene.
Knox committed to UCLA before Karl Dorrell was fired as Bruins coach.
At one point, close to 10 UCLA recruits were said to be "soft commits," according to various recruiting websites, though one prominent site, scout.com, now puts only four potential Bruins in that category.
Los Angeles Dorsey safety Rahim Moore, who took visits to Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina after committing to UCLA, said, "They were the first to offer me, and I can't walk away from that."
Rick Neuheisel, UCLA's new coach, has been busy trying to keep his more than 20 committed recruits on board while also seeking others. He was at Ventura St. Bonaventure on Tuesday, trying to make a late bid for running back Darrell Scott, considered the nation's top prospect at the position. Scott has said Colorado and Texas are his leading candidates.
