2012 QB already hearing from teams
Some Pac-10 programs have already shown early interest in 2012 quarterback Bart Houston and it's easy to understand why after seeing the Concord (Calif.) De La Salle quarterback Saturday at the Rivals.com Five-Star Academy at Cal.
Houston measured in at 6-foot-3 ½ and 186 pounds, clearly one of the top rising juniors at the event and arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the state of California for next season. He said UCLA and Arizona have already sent questionnaires and Oregon has invited him to summer camp.
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"What I've heard from other people (the questionnaires) are not that much of a big deal but it's pretty cool," Houston said. "I'm a young kid and it's like wow, they're interested in me.
"They want me to go there maybe. UCLA is a good school. Arizona is a good school. Oregon is a good school. That's really cool for a 17-year-old kid."
Houston did not start the first four games of his sophomore season but still finished with 1,257 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and two interceptions. He completed about 63 percent of his passes.
For camps this summer, Houston already plans to go to UCLA, Stanford and Cal and he'll participate in an Elite 11 event in May in Palo Alto. There could presumably be more camp stops but Houston's schedule isn't finalized yet.
That's because he seems more concerned with De La Salle's upcoming season than recruiting at this point, certainly not seriously pondering the talk of others that he could be one of the state's best quarterbacks.
"I really don't think about being the best quarterback or anything," Houston said. "I just think about how are the De La Salle Spartans going to win our next game? I've been counting down and it's up to like 180 days and I'm practicing almost every day throwing with my receivers.
"It's pretty easy for me to stay focused. I go to school at like 5:30 in the morning, get there at 6:30, get there and go lifting, go to all my classes and come back, do off-season workouts and then go out on the field throwing and go home. That's my schedule for the day."
It's also easy to keep focused by watching 2011 defensive end Dylan Wynn and linebacker Blake Renaud go through the sometimes hectic recruiting process.
Wynn has offers from Oregon State, Washington State and Cal Poly. Renaud recently picked up a Minnesota offer, his first. Houston is definitely watching how they approach things.
"It's kind of fun to see how Renaud gets Minnesota and Dylan gets a lot of things," Houston said. "I'm just sitting back watching what they do and what they've done to get that and I'm learning from them."