Football: Carson's Presley ditches USC, commits to UCLA

Rick Neuheisel may have to wait a little longer before he can challenge the football monopoly in Southern California, but that hasn't stopped him from pulling off a recruiting coup d'etat at USC's expense.

Carson's Morrell Presley, one of the most-recruited tight ends in the country, switched his commitment from USC to UCLA on Wednesday night, according to Rivals.com. The 6-foot-4, 215 pounder committed to the Trojans as a sophomore and bucks the recent trend of high school players breaking previous commitments to join the Trojans.

Presley finished his senior season with 604 yards receiving and five touchdowns and was named first team All-City Section this week. His commitment gives Bruins' fans something to look forward to as USC gears up for its Rose Bowl game against Penn State.

* Update: Chris Foster reports Presley has already enrolled at UCLA.

And here's why Presley is such a popular player:

-- Austin Knoblauch

Photo: Carson's Morrell Presley. Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Happy4LA]

This is awesome! Kudos to Coach Neuheisel and staff. This gives this recruiting class some legitimacy and may make others re-think their commitments elsewhere. I truly believe UCLA is a sleeping giant and if they can get their recruiting level back to where it was under Bob Toledo, UCLA will be very competitive with usc. I think the monopoly may be over, even if usc will still be the power.

[SidelineVideo]

This guy's a stud...and with Milt Knox, Donovan Carter, new O line recruits and guys like Morrell coming on next year...I smell roses.