Austin stands out in season opener

We were in attendance at Long Beach Poly's (Calif.) season opener last Friday against a talented Corona (Calif.) Centennial squad. The Jackrabbits have a number of big time skill athletes including wide out Terrence Austin who did not disappoint.

Austin, 5-10, 165 pounds showed why he's considered a member of the Rivals100 and is the ninth-best wide receiver in this year's class, finishing with four catches for 125 yards and a score. Austin and his teammate and best friend Travon Patterson form arguably the nation's best pair of wide outs and the two were very impressive on Friday.

"We feel you have to double cover at least one of us but if you do, the other one will kill you," Austin said. "You can't double us both and even if you could, our running backs would go off. We just have so many weapons on our team. I was pretty happy with how I played, it took awhile to get in sync with our young quarterbacks but it will come."

Austin and Patterson are similar in size although Austin is a little bigger and the better route runner right now. He also may have the better hands whereas Patterson is a faster and runs better after the catch. Both are game breakers at the high school level and Austin said two schools stand out for him right now.

"UCLA and Notre Dame are my top two right now and I also like USC and Miami," Austin said. "USC is such a good team and I enjoy watching them play and I like watching Miami too. Cal is another school I'm talking with and Oregon is there as well and a bunch of us from Poly are all visiting Oregon the same weekend. Me, Travon (Patterson), Jurray (Casey) and Vincent (Joseph) are all visiting (Jan 6).

"I also have my visit to Notre Dame for (Oct 14) when they play USC. I've really been impressed with Notre Dame this year. I knew they would be better but I didn't know it would happen this fast. UCLA is turning things around too and they have been fun to watch. I have a good relationship with everyone there and the fact that it's close to home is a bonus too."

Austin and his Poly teammates will take on a very tough Bellevue (Wash.) team this weekend in a match-up featuring the No. 8 and No. 8 teams in the nation in the Student Sports Fab 50 poll.

Terrence Austin VideoClick "We know they're going and we're not taking them lightly," Austin said. "They knocked off Concord (Calif.) De la Salle last year and ended that steak and we definitely have a lot of respect for them. I think it's going to be a great game but I think we have the athletes here to step up and play a great game."Here to view this Link.