Marlon Pollard had given up on his "dream school," UCLA.
He committed to accepting a football scholarship from the Bruins before his junior year at San Bernardino Cajon High, but then Karl Dorrell was removed as coach and Pollard switched his choice to Notre Dame.
Only Dorrell's replacement, Rick Neuheisel, didn't give up.
And, just last month, Pollard reversed field again -- back to UCLA.
"Coach Neuheisel did a great job," Pollard said. "I felt like [UCLA] was the place to be."
Over the span of a month, the prized defensive back was among four recruits UCLA managed to flip its way. Billy Sanders, a tight end and defensive end from Idaho, changed from Miami; Taniela Maka, a linebacker from Long Beach Jordan, switched over from Arizona.
The coup de grace, though, was Carson tight end Morrell Presley, who initially committed to USC, then enrolled at UCLA. That seemed an indication that while the college football monopoly in Los Angeles is still far from over, there is a game afoot.
"Think about it, when was the last time UCLA ever pick-pocketed USC?" said Rick Kimbrel, western recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. "That hasn't happened in quite some time.
"Rick Neuheisel is like a bulldog. He doesn't care about USC's reputation. He's going head-to-head with them."
USC is set to gather another nationally ranked recruiting class today, but UCLA isn't picking through leftovers.
Pollard, Sanders and Presley, as well as Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos High quarterback Richard Brehaut, give the Bruins a recruiting class better than a program coming off a 4-8 season should rightfully expect.
Two prominent recruiting websites rate the Bruins' projected class among the nation's top 20. And it's a group that addresses immediate needs on the offensive line, with community college transfers Shawn Johnson (College of the Canyons), Ryan Taylor (Tyler, Texas) and Eddie Williams (Mt. San Antonio).
But it is the head-to-head battles the Bruins are winning against other schools that is a sign of change from the more passive recruiting days under Dorrell, Kimbrel said.
"Recruits have told me that once they committed to another school, UCLA stopped recruiting them," Kimbrel said of the former staff. "This staff is persistent."
Pollard is Exhibit A, but there are other examples.
