Best of the best kickers to camp in California

This weekend is a busy one for college football prospects as some of the biggest, most talent-filled camps of the year are taking place around the country. Along with major prospect camps at Florida, Florida State, South Carolina, LSU and numerous others around the country, there is the Football University Top Gun camp featuring some of the top prospect nation-wide. However, the kickers won't be forgotten in the mix.

The most prominent kicking camp in the country, the Chris Sailer Kicking Top 12 Camp will be taking place at Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame from Friday through Sunday. At the event, the top kickers in the nation will be gathering to find out who is the best in the class of 2009.

The competition will be stiff.

Among the group that will be in attendance, five kickers have already received and accepted scholarship offers to kick on the next level. Houston (Texas) Clear Lake kicker Dustin Hopkins had numerous major scholarship offers from the likes of Kansas State, Missouri and Notre Dame but he selected the pressure-filled kicker's tradition at Florida State.

"Kickers at Florida State are remembered for being either famous or infamous," Hopkins said. "When the game is on the line, I want to be out there to drill it right down the pipe. I want to be a famous one."

Another high profile kicker that will be in attendance is Notre Dame's commit out of Dallas (Texas) Jesuit, Nick Tausch. Tausch joins Indiana commit Mitch Ewald, Virginia Tech commit Cody Journell and recent SMU commit Mike Loftus, a California native.

Several other campers have received offers to date and the Oregon Ducks have issued two of them, one to Jackson Rice out of Moraga, Calif. and one to Mike Bowlin out of Aliso Viejo, Calif.

There will also be representation from the 2010 class in Sherman Oaks. Cade Foster of Southlake (Texas) Carroll, Cody Parkey out of Jupier, Fla., Redondo Beach (Calif.) Redondo Union's Nick Diaz will all be in attendance.

During the weekend, the elite group will be spending three hours a day working out and showing off their skills followed by film sessions with Chris Sailer and his instructors. At the end of the three days, there should be some clear indicators of who has the most lethal leg in the country.