Bay Area sleeper is one to watch

There is a sleeper in the San Francisco area of California who is beginning to get the attention he deserves. Lucas Bradley from Fremont (Calif.) Irvington is someone to watch.

Bradley stands 6-foot-3, weighs 205 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.73 seconds. He benches 250 pounds, benched 185 pounds 17 times and does full squat reps at 185 pounds.

“Lucas is the best player I’ve coached since I’ve been at Irvington,” head coach Bob Spain said. “He is among the top three players I’ve ever coached,” Spain said.

Overpowering on the edge, Bradley dumped the quarterback for 16 sacks as a junior. He also had 85 tackles; four fumble recoveries (one was returned for a TD) and two fumbles caused. Bradley also played tight end as junior and caught 12 passes for 228 yards for an average 19-yards per catch and one touchdown. Bradley was an all-league selection as a linebacker. Not a bad honor for school with without a reputation for having any football players.

Bradley is very athletic and extremely hard to block one-on-one. He has an awesome first-step and can out-quick opponents. He’s exceedingly motivated and is throw back type of football player. Bradley broke his hand with three games left on the schedule. The doctor put a cast on Bradley’s paw and he played out the season. Of course he couldn’t catch the ball for the rest of the season, but he sure helped the team as a blocker. Bradley’s injury affected his pass rushing efficiency, but he was still awesome against the run.

Bradley is getting good recruiting action from Oregon, Oregon State and Washington. These three schools do a heck of a job recruiting California. They seem to be able to find players that slip through the cracks and make them into fine college players. Bradley could be one of those. He is also seeing recruiting attention from UNLV, Fresno State and San Jose State…