Pearland CB racks up offers

The Pearland (Texas) Oilers have been one of Houston's top programs for the last 10 years – countless playoff appearances and Division I prospects has cemented that fact. Each year, the program does seem to have one blue-chip prospect on its resume and in the class of 2006, it's defensive back Justan Vaughn.

The 6-foot, 164-pound Vaughn is a gamebreaker at cover corner and he has the positive attitude to go with the game.

"I feel that my greatest forte is that I'm great at covering people in one-on-one situations," Vaughn said. "I can cover the big receiver in the crucial part of the game. If they want to go to him, I've got him covered like a blanket."

After a solid performance on the field as a junior and at the NIKE Training Camp in Palo Alto, Calif., Vaughn has seen his stock shoot through the roof. He now holds scholarship offers from Houston, Illinois, Northwestern, Utah and UTEP. He's recently camped at Oklahoma State and at LSU.

"I think I performed well at each camp," Vaughn said. "I got to really know coach (Doug) Mallory at LSU. He's a great person and really smart. He knows what he's doing. At Oklahoma State's camp down here, I got a chance to get to know coach (Joe) DeDorest.

"He's taking care of business in Houston. He's going to be getting all the great players to come up there to OSU, and he said they're very interested in me."

But neither OSU, nor LSU has offered to this point and others have. That's why teams like Northwestern and UTEP might have a slim edge at this point.

"I'm really interested in Northwestern and UTEP," Vaughn said. "Coach (Pat) Fitzgerald from Northwestern and coach (Tim) Hundley at UTEP are doing a great job. UTEP is an up-and-coming program. I think they've got some big things ahead for that program. And Northwestern is one of the best academic schools in the nation."

Vaughn, who does have a 3.5 grade-point average and a 1420 on the SAT, said he wants to major in pharmaceutical sales or business advertising. He's been spending this off-season working hard at getting even better than he was before.

"I'm working on my footwork," he said. "That's one of the things if I can get even better at, then that's going to make me a more effective player."