USF has tough competition for 6-foot-8 tackle

It's been clear since the end of last season that right tackle would be a crucial position for USF, and despite a strong spring from former walk-on Jake Sims and promising freshman Mark Popek coming in, the Bulls are continuing their efforts to upgrade the position. USF could make a late addition to its incoming recruiting class, and one prospect the Bulls are targeting is Zach Hanson, a 6-foot-8, 315-pound tackle from Sacramento City Community College in California.

USF's interest in Hanson was first reported by Josh Newberg at USFnation.com, and I was finally able to get Hanson on the phone Thursday night. Hanson's an interesting case, in that USF and other schools had already offered him a scholarship to join them in January 2009, but he recently learned that he could get his associate of arts degree this summer, allowing him to play major-college ball this fall.

The good news for USF? The Bulls are the only school that's locked down a visit from Hanson, who expects to fly to Tampa early next week. He told me Cal and UCLA are also schools he's considering -- he's from Linden, Calif., about 45 minutes south of Sacramento. The bad news? Three schools have jumped into the mix this week -- Florida, Tennessee and Ohio State -- and while none of the three have offered, they've asked for his game tapes, so the Bulls have some elite-level competition for him.

Hanson played guard last season, but only because the left tackle was his brother Matt, who will play at Midwestern State in Texas this fall. Hanson wants to play left tackle, but said one of the reasons he's interested in USF is "the coaches at South Florida said I'd have a chance of stepping in and playing right away." Playing in Raymond James Stadium is "a huge thing" for him, and it's worth noting that a recruit in California knew about the Bulls before they knew about him. He watched the Bulls on ESPN a few times last season as USF rose to No. 2 in the national rankings, illustrating the power of those national TV appearances.

Hanson originally signed with Nevada-Reno out of high school, but didn't like the atmosphere at summer workouts and never enrolled there. He only played one season at Sac City, so he'll have three years of eligibility wherever he signs, and he said he'll even have a redshirt season available. USF has a connection in that receivers coach Mike Canales has worked with Sac City coach Mike Clemons, who declined to comment on Hanson when reached this week. Sounds like he's frustrated to be losing a starting lineman right before the season starts. Anyway, Hanson said he'll take at least two visits before making a decision, but USF is solidly in the mix by landing the first visit ...

Comments

[702JV]

Great update G.A.

[Chalko]

hmmm, USF pursuing another ju co player who was too stupid to play D-1 out of high school, go figure....

[G.A.]

Chalko, if you read the story, you'll see he signed with a four-year school out of high school, but didn't like it.

[64-12]

Too stupid? Did you know people that attend community college first are statistically more likely to graduate from a "4-year" institution than a kid that goes straight out of high school? Go figure...

[Reality]

People that attend Community College are also more likely to fervently smoke weed and never graduate from the Junior College. That said, I will say that just like getting someone with talent on the basketball team, JUST DO IT! We need an OT BADLY!!!!!! That is the only thing holding this team back from being VERY GOOD next year.

[jarred]

This will be huge if we land him against UF and Ohio State. Like Greg said that tv exposure is great for us. On a side note I just flipped on espn to find out that a spelling bee is still considered a sport, nothing against those kids at all, they are amazing I just dont see what it has to do with espn.

[KC]

I would like to see the one school that does not recruit JUCO players...and then they can comment.

Every school in the state and every major program adds players via JUCO or prep school for that matter. And lets remember prep school only prepares them for one thing...to get admitted to a major college.

I don't know what school you root for that doesn't recruit these kids, but they either suck or have recruited that route and thus you should shut your pie hole.

[64-12]

Hey Reality,

Did you even go to college? Where did you get that "nugget" of insight? You might want to wipe twice after digging that one out.

Smoking weed and graduating from college are by no means mutually exclusive activities.

[ucf rocks]

GOL would never take this kid. we dont rectuit JUCO's. We have higher academical standards.

[Sanjay]

Of course you have higher "academical" standards.

[ucfrocks]

Im glad you agree SanJay

[Reality]

64-12, please go light another bowl, brother!

We already had the biggest discussion on GPA's in any sports blogs history, and we don't need to "blow" this drug discussion out of proportion.

Puff, Puff, I Pass.

[Bob]

ucf rocks: You’re obviously a moron. Sanjay was trying to infer to you that "Academical”, is not a word and the term you should have used was "Academic". Man I know a few alum of UCF, they would strangle themselves if they read your comments. By the way UCF does in fact recruit JUCO athletes. You should know your facts before you g on a tirade.

[Bobby Bowden]

Dadgummit....I say....dadgummit. Zach, son, you need to come and play for the dadgum Seminoles. We'll make dadgum sure you pass all your classes.

DADGUMMIT!!

[Carson Daly]

Zach Hanson?? The youngest of the brothers from the '90's supergroup Hanson??

Oh...that's just great...who are going to recruit next, the two kids from Kriss Kross?

Or how about we make an offer to Aaron Carter since he's a local kid. I mean come on...the kid beat Shaq in a one-on-one tilt!

[G.A.]

All I can say is that someone tried to rhyme, but they can't rhyme like this.

[Don Corleone]

The next time ucfrocks is right will be the first time. UCF has 5 JUCO/Prep school players currently on their spring roster according to their website including likely starting QB Mike Greco form Pearl River CC. USF currently has 2 according to gousfbulls.com. Academical??? I guess that is a GOL term used to describe earning fictional degrees and non-existent varsity letters.

[702JV]

But who has the LA Bass and the Oakland Booty

[G.A.]

I'll go ahead and tell you guys that we can track IP addresses on all posts, and the posts from "ucfrocks" are from the same computer as a regular USF poster here. There's nothing to block you guys from posting with multiple identities, but it does appear this is someone pretending to be a UCF fan.

[702JV]

You super slueth G.A. Nice job, book em Dano LOL. Lets start a new poll on who it can be....

[GP]

"Thats good police work there Lou"

I say the Times springs for a login system and one IP address gets one account.

[Sanjay]

Did I just read GA drop a KrissKross rhyme? Pretty fly for a white guy.

[Ken]

I have wondered, Greg, how much posting there is under multiple names from one person (IP address). I doubt that's the only case. And I don't appreciate it. We don't have to give our real names, but if we're to have real conversation here about USF sports, I think it would help if each poster would stick to one name.

[bubba the love sponge]

ari is to ucfroccks as manson is to ned

[G.A.]

We have the system we have right now. I don't like overpolicing the comments, but I don't want people regularly posting as people they're not. Just take any post from "ucf rocks" with a certain grain of salt and know it's likely intended to (a) make UCF fans look bad and (b) draw a response from USF fans along those lines ...

[flsportsfan83]

who would do that?

[Ari Hinkelberger]

Ari, Rueben and Herman are all one guy... Its me, Hank Hankey. I live in New Tampa.

[Rob]

Man thats pretty bad, all of your personalities are annoying!

[Ryan Leaf]

Yeah...I agree with Ken.

"KNOCK IT OFF, ALRIGHT?!?!?!"

(seriously though, Ken...you make my whining look minor league, dude.)

[Dave W]

The ucfrocks ploy was never funny or witty; to me, it is obvious that he was always some sad USF "fan" with too much time on his hands.

All I'll say about the little pot debate above is that to be as pessimistic as reality is (I like his perspective, but I think we can pull out 3-6 wins in the BEAST next year), there is no way he's a pot smoker. But anyone who thinks UCF can touch us, well, I don't know if pot is strong enough to create such a delusion.

In my absence from posting, I did wonder if we would ever see a nugget about Solomon getting some minutes against the Celtics after Marvin Williams tried to do the McHale on Rondo. And that Bill Simmons made fun of Solomon (it was that article where he talked about how the original KG [Gransberry is the remix!] could never take over games, even with guys named Zaza and Solomon defending him). Just throwing that out there.

[VOR]

OK Greg, Before football season starts you MUST flush out CEE.

[ucfrocks]

:-(