Ross recruitment takes another turn

Just a week ago, we talked to the father of Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) defensive back Devin Ross, C.J. Ross. There had been talk that USC was picking up their recruitment of Ross and could be offering but C.J. said Devin was down to two, Oregon and Arizona, and the Trojans were out. It looks like things might have changed since then.

Ross, 5-10, 185 pounds will be announcing his college choice this coming Thursday on the L.A Times High School show on Fox Sports. It looked like a two horse race just a week ago as Ross' father told us the Trojans were a little too late to jump in to the picture.

"USC still wants Devin to visit but Devin said he wanted to stay with the two schools that have been on him since the summer," Ross said a week ago. "USC is a great school and Devin was flattered about their recent attention but he just felt a sense of loyalty to Oregon and Arizona since they have done such a good job of recruiting him this whole time."

Since the story, USC and head coach Pete Carroll called Ross on Friday and offered a scholarship. Where are things at now?

"I'm going to take a visit to USC next weekend (Jan. 27)," Ross said. "It was great to get the offer and I was excited to hear from them. That doesn't just push them in to the lead though. I'm still a little turned off that it took them until just a couple of weeks before Signing Day to offer me but Coach Carroll explained his reasons and it makes sense.

"They wanted me to come to their Junior Day and summer camps last year but I wasn't able to make it to either. They came to my school to watch a practice but I had track that day so they didn't see me. Then they came to a game this past season but we played Kaiser who basically ran the ball 40 times and never threw it so they didn't have a lot to go on."

Ross' announcement date of Thursday, and his planned visit to USC the following day obviously raises some questions. Namely, if he's going to visit a school on Friday, doesn't that basically give away where he'll be announcing the day before?

"No, not necessarily," Ross said. "I had planned to announce this Thursday for awhile now so that was already set before USC offered. I'm going to think long and hard about USC but if I decide to commit to Oregon or Arizona, that visit to USC won't be a for sure visit. I would say there is a 50-50 chance I would take the visit. If I committed elsewhere, I could still take the visit just to be sure of my decision or I could decide not to take the visit at all.

"Right now, I'm still undecided about my college choice and will take these next couple of days to figure out what I should do. I really don't have a leader among the group right now, I really don't."

Ross' last day of the 1st semester at Rancho was last Friday and he was actually already in Arizona when we talked with him.

"Yeah, I just got up here," Ross said. "I'm still not sure what high school I'll be at but I'm going to run track and keep my grades up wherever that is. My family is here so it was important for me to stay close to them. I'm going to fly back to Los Angeles for the T.V show on Thursday and then take that visit before coming back up here to Phoenix."