Cali RB is Big 10 bound

Lompoc (Calif.) Cabrillo athlete Lydell Sargeant took an official visit to Oregon this past weekend and decided he had seen enough to make his college choice. Only problem for the Ducks was the talented running back decided to leave the West Coast and committed earlier today to Penn State.

“That’s just where my heart was at,” Sargeant said. “I loved Oregon, it’s a great school but I lived in Pennsylvania for nine years and grew up a Penn State fan. I love Coach (Joe) Paterno and Coach Bradley who was recruiting me and I’m real good friends with Justin King who just committed there yesterday.

“When I added everything up together, Penn State just had too many pluses for me to turn down. I’m coming in as an athlete and will return punts and kicks. They said I’ll probably start off as a slot receiver but could move to running back as I get a little bigger and stronger. I really don’t care where I play. I’ve played both ways my whole life so wherever they put me is fine with me.”

Sargeant said a lot of schools brought up the status of Coach Paterno to try and negative recruit against Penn State but it had no affect.

“Coach Paterno just signed a four year extension,” Sargeant said. “He told me he’s not leaving until he’s ready, it will be his decision. If he does decide to leave, he said they’ll hire from within, that’s just the Penn State way of doing things and most feel Coach Bradley will be the likely guy. Since Coach Bradley was my recruiting coach, that would be great for me since I know him so well and I’m very comfortable with him. Either way, I’m just excited to be a Nittany Lion right now.”

Sargeant, 5-10, 175 pounds has had a great senior season and we would now rate him as the No. 2 RB in the state behind only Nebraska bound Marlon Lucky. He rushed for just over 1,600 yards and scored 26 touchdowns.