Morris, Wright and Allen receive full football scholarships

Rancho Cotate?s star football player, Cody Allen, is likely to remember the day he signed a national letter of intent to attend Sacramento State.

During an early Wednesday morning break at the Rohnert Park campus, serenaded by a drum line from the Rancho Cotate marching band, and observed by a large gathering of students in the campus quad, Allen, a atandout quarterback and defensive back, officially became a Sacramento State Hornet.

?It was great,? said Allen, whose parents were on hand as well as Rancho football coach Ed Conroy and athletic director Henri Sarlatte as well as other school officials. Allen signed in two places of the five-page document that gives him a full athletic scholarship at Sacramento State, a Division I AA school.

Allen, who has been told he?ll be converted to a weakside linebacker, plans on attending late training camp in June before the first practice in late summer.

A handful of Redwood Empire players signed with four-year colleges on Wednesday, the official signing date of the NCAA, most following a verbal commitment by the athlete.

Cardinal Newman quarterback Randy Wright signed his letter with UC Davis, Ukiah quarterback Kyle Morris signed with Idaho State and two linemen, Korey Langhals of Windsor and Garrett Edwards of Ukiah signed with Division II Humboldt State. Bud Guinn of Rancho Cotate plans on signing with Div. II New Mexico Highlands and Cardinal Newman?s Joe Ferguson is set on signing with Truman State, a Div. II college in Missouri.

Only Allen, Wright and Morris received full scholarships.

For fans of Empire high school football, there would seem to be some prominent names missing, such as Jeff Badger and Jacob Gowan of Cardinal Newman, Matt O?Brien of Casa Grande, Adam Murray of Rancho Cotate and Mike Mulas of Sonoma.

For whatever reason, most often size and speed related, the Empire?s best are bypassed by the larger college programs. Sometimes the players wind up going to a junior college and then get better offers. Badger and Murray have indicated they may take that route.

Badger, an outstanding running back and linebacker, who played in this season?s Division III state championship game against St. Bonaventure, was offered early by the Air Force Academy, but decided he didn?t want to commit to the nine years required.

Badger said Wednesday he?s hoping some Big Sky or WAC schools didn?t fill out their rosters on signing day. He said it could take a couple months for those schools to finalize the rosters.

Plenty of Division II and small colleges have shown interest in players like Badger, Murray and O?Brien, but when it comes to large schools, such as the Pac-10, most have asked those players if they?re interested in walking-on, a sort of no-strings attached invitation, but without a scholarship, at least until the player makes the team.

Gowan, who many consider the best offensive lineman in the County this year, has received plenty of interest, but is leaning toward the Ivy League, specifically Cornell, Brown and Princeton. Stanford has expressed interest and wants Gowan to walk on. As a student with a GPA over 4.0 Gowan qualifies for academic scholarships. The Ivy League schools don?t give athletic scholarships.

?It?s a little different playing football there (in the Ivy League),? McGowan said. ?Instead of playing in front of 60 thousand, it?s more like 10 or 15 thousand.?

Gowan, who got so tired of the phone calls and correspondence, didn?t answer his cell phone last week and let his mother handle the recruitors. Gowan said he?s anxious for it to be over and hopes to have a decision by next week.

Petaluma?s Nick Marsh turned down a full ride to Nevada-Reno as a kicker/punter. Marsh, who won a punting competition in Las Vegas involved over 300 punters, hoped to draw an offer from one of the major college programs. Utah, Stanford and New Mexico has shown interest and Marsh figured he?d have to wait after Wednesday?s signing date to see which schools may have lost kickers to the competition.

Another top kicker from the Empire, Casa Grande?s Connor Derby, will walk on at Sacramento State.