Coffee is for "closers," and Lane Kiffen has been pounding the java

You may not like it, but Lane Kiffin is going to pull big time recruit after big time recruit to USC. Last week severed as another example that USC is the top recruiting powerhouse on the west coast, as Kiffin added Bakersfield quarterback Cody Kessler to an already impressive list of verbal commitments.

Two weeks ago Kessler was literally minutes away from committing to the University of Washington and Steve Sarkisian, but the Trojans came calling and eventually won out. What made this commitment intriguing was that Kessler was the 2nd quarterback commit in this class for USC. Max Whittek of Mater Dei has been aboard for a couple of months. There are maybe four or five schools in the country that could get two All American signal callers in the same class and despite the ever present NCAA storm clouds, these two studs have jumped aboard. This is not a tremendously deep year at QB on the West Coast and now the top tier guys are mostly spoken for. Cal has their guy in Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) product, Kyle Boehm, and USC is now certainly done. Oregon has a commit from a nice looking player out of St. Louis high school in Hawaii , plus they could take another national level prospect but appear done on the left coast.

UCLA and UW are next up to the plate, and both would love to nab the West Coast top rated QB in Arizona’s Brett Hundley. However, Hundley has nearly 20 offers and most indications are he will take his time. As high schools across the country let out, it will soon become summer camp season in college football. These are part NFL combine and part recruiting visit. It gives coaching staffs a chance to not only get a prospect on their campus but also watch and measure them. Expect the Husky and Bruin summer camps to be littered with quarterbacks fighting to earn the vauled scholarships.

If Rick Neuheisel strikes out on Hundley, it could have pretty big implications. As you can see by the numbers below, the Bruins are already behind in locking down this years class. While, Neuheisel was able to close in impressive fashion this past February, he faces a make a break year in Los Angeles.

Here's the number of early commitments for each Pac-10 school:
Arizona 3
Arizona State 1

California 3
Oregon 2

Oregon State 0

Stanford 15

UCLA 0

USC 7

Washington State 5

Washington 12