When
it comes to football recruiting, it pays to have friends
in high places. I don’t mean the “friends” that
lurk at tailgates and coaches’ dinners in the
southeast, but good old-fashioned business connections.
Take for instance the recruitment of former Seaside High
player, Anthony Garnett. Last season, Garnett put up
some big numbers as a sophomore quarterback at MPC -
2,330 yards passing with 19 touchdowns, and 347 yards
rushing with four touchdowns. His elusiveness and
explosiveness made him a highly recruited prospect
despite the Lobos’ 1-9 record last year. Cal Poly SLO
won out and got to sign Garnett particularly through the
friendship of MPC coach Mike Rasmussen, and Cal Poly
head coach Rich Ellerson. Rasmussen was an assistant at
Hawaii when Ellerson was a lineman and Graduate
Assistant there in the mid 1970s.
Garnett enrolled at Cal Poly in January and participated
in Spring Drills. Ellerson said that having Garnett
there made the spring practices extra good because the
returning quarterbacks on the roster stepped up their
game for competition for the starting signal caller.
An unfortunate injury will most likely make Garnett
redshirt this year, and then he would compete for the
starting job in 2004. Having Garnett out this season
hopefully won’t put a damper on that spring time
enthusiasm. The Mustangs, 3-8 last season, open the
season at UTEP on Sept. 6th and have games
against the 3 co-champions of the Big Sky, arguably the
best 1-AA conference. Such a tough schedule is built on
the hopes that an 8 or 9 win season will mean a 1-AA
playoff berth. As an independent, Cal Poly has to
compete with about 100 other 1-AA schools with
postseason aspirations for only 8 available at-large
spots.
Big Man on Campus
Washington State University begins its third week of
fall practice with Monterey High graduate Tai Tupai
listed on the depth chart as the starting defensive
tackle. Tupai, at just about 320 pounds (down from the
343 he was listed at last year), is still the heaviest
Cougar on defense. He played sparingly in 11 games last
season and had 11 total tackles with 3.5 for a loss. If
he decides to throw his weight around, Tupai could do
big things in his senior campaign for the defending
Pac-10 champs. Washington State looks to make amends for
its dismal defensive showing at the Rose Bowl last
January, and a good season could give the Cougars an
unprecedented third consecutive bowl appearance. A
curious note: the WSU website (wsucougars.ocsn.com) has
a poll up on who would you least likely want to
be hit by. Tupai is running 4th at 11.1% of the vote.
You would think a 320 pounder would get a little more of
a fear factor.
Embele Awipi is
a host on ESPN Radio 540 and KNRY 1240AM. He can be
reached at embo1240@yahoo.com
Originally published Monday, August 18, 2003
