All-State ATH is Pac 10 bound

Santa Ana (Calif.) Saddleback athlete Rishard Matthews had a monster senior season being named 1st team all-county as well as 1st team all-state by CalHiSports. Matthews committed to UTEP during the year but is now Pac 10 bound after his official visit this past weekend.

"I'm going to Oregon," Matthews said. "I tripped there this weekend and committed on the trip. UTEP was a great school but I just liked Oregon a little better. It's the Pac 10 and I wanted the opportunity to play against the best players in the country.

"Oregon is a West Coast school and closer to home and that played a role as well. I just loved the school and especially the facilities. The coaching staff is great, I got along well with the players on the team and I like Oregon's tradition, they go to a Bowl game just about every year."

Matthews, 6-1, 205 pounds is being recruited as an athlete and could play receiver or anywhere in the secondary. He put up huge numbers on both sides of the ball this past season totaling 47 catches for 1,058 yards and 16 touchdowns to go with 103 tackles and 12 picks on defense.

"I prefer receiver but I talked to coaches from both offense and defense on the visit," Matthews said. "I think right now, the plan is to bring me in as an athlete and see where the bigger need is but I talked more to the receiver coach and that is where I would love to end up."

There is no question about Matthews' talent but grade concerns held him back from being recruited even more heavily.

"I have to raise my SAT score still," Matthews said. "I've been working on my core classes a lot and I'm getting good there but I still want to keep improving so I won't need to score as high on the test. I have no doubt in my mind that I will be qualified though. I missed the registration for the SAT this month but I'm going to still see if I can take it. If not, I'll just keep taking it until I do pass it."