Nembot continues to gain interest

Stephan Nembot broke his hand at the USC Rising Stars Camp this summer and as a testament to his toughness the 6-foot-8, 260-pound prospect wanted to keep going through drills because he didn't want the Trojans' coaches to think he was soft.

Nembot, from Van Nuys (Calif.) Montclair Prep, finally succumbed and ended his day but his recruitment continues to pick up with offers in from Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State and interest from many other top programs.

It's been a whirlwind year for Nembot, also a standout basketball player, who's not originally from America so is in the unique position of not really comprehending all the prestige that some programs have and others do not.

That makes his recruitment somewhat complicated because he has to do lots more research than some other top recruits who have grown up following certain teams.

"Since I'm not American I have to do my research on every school," Nembot said. "For me they're all the same even though some people would say choose this, choose that. I need to make sure school comes before football so I have to research about my major and other things before I make my choice.

"Last year at this time I had one scholarship for basketball. Right now I have basketball, I have football. You can't ask for more than that."

Nembot missed the recent B2G Elite Camp because his broken hand had not completely healed but he played with Dream Vision in the adidas Super 64 basketball tournament in Las Vegas this past week.

Football recruiting has slowed down a little bit in recent weeks and Nembot, a three-star prospect rated No. 44 at strong-side defensive end and No. 72 in the California state rankings by Rivals.com, is certainly taking his time figuring out which school would be best for him.

At this point, Nembot doesn't have a list of favorites. He's still trying to figure out which programs are going to offer - that might not happen until his senior season starts - so for now Nembot is focused on getting better and keeping in close touch with the coaching staffs recruiting him.

"Every time we have to call the coach to tell them what I'm doing right now and how I'm working hard and how I'm working on conditioning," Nembot said. "It's cool. At least I have a little break. It's not like every coach is on me now. I kind of have a break so I can run because I love to run and now I can run every day.

"Everybody is coming hard including the whole Pac-10. Everybody is coming hard. Right now it's not about myself, it's about my team and we all want to go to Division I schools. All of the seniors need to show something and have a Division I scholarship."