Four-star returns from UCLA
Four-star offensive lineman Michael Philipp (6-3, 320, 5.1) from San Bernardino (Calif.) Arroyo Valley is the No.1 rated offensive lineman in the Golden State and he played like it as he was named all-league for his senior season performance.
Philipp will garner more honors once they are all announced. He will take all five visits before he makes his college decision. He took his third visit to UCLA this past weekend.
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"UCLA went good," Philipp said. "I liked that it was a post season visit because I was able to spend a lot of time with the coaches."
"I spent a lot of time with Coach Rick Neuheisel, Coach Bob Palcic and Coach Wayne Moses," Philipp said. "I went to Coach Neuheisel's house to watch the UCLA basketball game."
Philipp went on his visit JUCO offensive lineman Ryan Taylor from Tyler Junior College, who ended up committing to UCLA this past weekend.
"Ryan was a cool," Philipp said. "We went out together with each other's host and some other guys and we got along good. My host was Kevin Prince."
"I definitely believe that with these coaches UCLA can do this rebuilding thing," Philipp said. "I really think they can do it after talking to the players and the coaches. I really UCLA is going to get it done after taking my visit."
Philipp has two more visits on his itinerary before he makes his decision. He has Stanford on Jan. 9th and Oregon State on Jan. 15th.
The past two week have been very hectic at the Philipp household as all five of the schools that represent his visits, plus Arizona have had in house visits. Now Philipp and his family are looking forward to things slowing down.
Philipp took two previous visits to Cal and Oregon.
"Both Cal and Oregon were good visits," Philipp said. "I liked them because I was able to spend more time with the players and see what their game atmosphere is like."
Philipp is a very mature young man who is a man of his word. He was invited to participate in the Hawai'i Prep Classic that pitted the Hawaiian and Polynesian stars against the stars from the mainland, but because he gave his word on a previous commitment, he declined his invitation.
"I didn't get to play in the Hawai'i/Mainland game, but I would have loved to play for the Hawai'i/Polynesian team," Philipp said. "I gave my word to UCLA that I would visit before I was invited to play in the game and I didn't want to break my word."
Philipp will lead for Texas on December 28th to play in the US Army All-American game that will be played in early January.
Philipp is being recruited to play tackle, but he is open to playing center or guard. He played center after the third game this season.
The talented offensive lineman made the Rivals.com Rivals100 for the class of 2009 landing as the nation's No. 38 prospect at any position. Rivals.com ranks Philipp as the nation's No. 2 run blocker and the country's No. 3 pass blocker.
Philipp is also rated by Rivals.com as the nation's No. 1 offensive guard for the class of 2009 and he was selected to the Rivals.com California Preseason Top 100 team ranked as the Golden State's No. 8 prospect at any position.