USC- Cal battle for Juco LB

More so than any other year, USC and Cal are battling it out for several of the top California players this season. Another player with the two schools as his co-leaders is San Francisco junior college (Calif.) linebacker Desmond Bishop.

It’s amazing how far Bishop has come in just a few years. We remember the athlete from the Nike Camp in 2001 where he was just 6-1, 195 pounds. Bishop, who played for Fairfield, clocked a 4.91 in the 40, 4.73 in the shuttle and did 16 reps on the bench. Now he’s 6-2, 245 pounds, runs in the 4.6 range and benches 400 pounds.

“Yeah, I’ve come a long way,” Bishop said. “I’ve really developed well at San Francisco and physically have matured a lot. No one was looking at me out of high school, even though I was a qualifier, but things have really picked up for me this last year.”

Bishop took an official visit to USC back in October when the Trojans beat Cal. He’ll visit the Bears officially this weekend (Nov. 19) in what is shaping up to be one of the biggest recruiting weekends we can ever remember Cal having.

“I had a great time at SC,” Bishop said. “I liked it a lot down there. The players and coaches were real cool and the game was incredible. A lot of people have told me that was the loudest they ever heard the Coliseum. SC has great tradition, they’re playing great right now and I love the way the defense plays, they just shut people down.

“Cal is right there with SC, those are my top two and I don’t have a leader between them. I’m looking forward to my visit this weekend to really be able to compare the two schools. Utah and Oklahoma are the other two schools I’m looking at but I haven’t set a trip date with either of them yet. I like all four and would like to visit all four and then make my decision in December right around Signing Day. I’ll be able to enroll in time for Spring practice and will have three years to play two. Everyone is recruiting me as an inside linebacker and all four have offered me a scholarship.”