Wednesday’s Ground Zero Commitment Ceremony Yields 10 D-I Verbal Commitments

Written by Ryan Wright

Wednesday night at Athletic Republic, the Ground Zero Announcement Ceremony was the scene for eight Class of 2016 and two Class of 2017 recruits giving their verbal commitments to Division-I programs.

All 10 of the high school prep stars announcing their colleges’ of choice hailed from the state of California but colleges outside the Golden State took advantage of the moment. Cal, Arizona, and USC all benefitted from the event but the biggest winner in terms of recruiting numbers was Washington State and San Jose State.

The Cougars landed three recruits wide receiver Grant Porter, cornerback Skyler Thomas, and Class of 2017 cornerback Tayari Venable.

Porter, 6’1”, 180 pounds, is an elite receiver. Health issues have perhaps slowed some of the brewing interest from teams like Arizona State, Cal, Oregon State, USC, and UCLA. The Upland High School star picked WSU over Boise State, Colorado State, Utah, San Jose State, Kansas, and San Diego State.

Thomas, 5’11”, 174 pounds, picked WSU over offers from Nevada, UNLV, Wyoming, Northern Arizona, Idaho, Montana State, and Hawaii. The Citrus Hill star from Perris, California also lines up at running back but projects more as a safety at the next level.

Recruiting for Rancho Cucamonga High School’s Venable just seems to be starting. The Class of 2017 rising star had one other offer on the table from Eastern Washington before committing to the Cougars.

Venable, 6’0”, 180 pounds, and teammate Thomas Graham Jr., who committed to USC on the same night, is sure to make a deadly one-two punch for opposing California high school quarterbacks over the next two years.

Graham, 5’11”, 170 pounds, was one of the more widely recruited players in attendance Wednesday night. Before stepping on the field for his junior season he already had offers from UCLA, Arizona State, Cal, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, Washington State, Boise State, San Jose State, and Illinois before lining up with the Trojans.

Graham’s 2014 teammate at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Corona, Cameron Smith, hitched his wagon with San Jose State. Smith, 6’1”, 175 pounds is a two-way player lining up at wide receiver and corner but has been recruited as a DB by the Spartans.

San Jose State continued to rack up recruits Wednesday night, much like Washington State did, coming away with three commitments. JaQuan Blackwell, a teammate of Skyler Thomas at Citrus Hill, verbally committed to the Spartans over offers from Utah and Fresno State.

There was little surprise when Marquise Green’s turn rolled around for his announced commitment. San Jose State got their third commitment of the night from the 6’0”, 185 pound, cornerback but was also the only team who had extended an offer.

The Wilmer Carter prospect from Rialto, California has reported recruiting interest from Wyoming, UTEP, UNLV, and Fresno State.

When East Valley receiver C.J. Harris took the spotlight the big question was where in the Silver State will he go? The 6’1”, 188 pound, wide receiver had two offers going into the event, one from Nevada and one from UNLV. He went with first-year head coach Tony Sanchez.

Sanchez is a coach to watch. He built a powerhouse program at Bishop Gorman in Vegas winning the 2014 high school national championship along with six straight state titles. The catch here is none of the high school coaches who have transitioned to the college game as a head coach without serving first as an assistant have done well in the colligate ranks.

Summit High School’s Jabari Watson was the biggest recruit on stage Wednesday night, literally. Among all the cornerbacks and wide receivers was the 6’1”, 255 pound, defensive lineman. The Fontana area native had a tough choice picking between Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State – his first offer, Utah State, and Arizona. In the end the Wildcats came out on top for the big man.

Depending on how a season in the Arizona weight room goes, Watson could either be a nose tackle or a defensive end at the next level.

Of the Class of 2016 players on-hand Centennial cornerback Camryn Bynum was arguably the most highly recruited prospect of the bunch. Bynum has double-digit offers from teams like Boston College, Cal Poly, Dartmouth, Washington State, San Jose State, San Diego State, Navy, Army, Colorado State, and Boise State.

In the end the two-way star lining up at cornerback and wide receiver became the 14th verbal commitment for the Cal Golden Bears.

Photo credit: twitter.com; Camryn Bynum celebrates his commitment to Cal with friends.