Oregon St. tries to steal Turner from Rebels

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Jan. 22, 1999 | 10:46 a.m.

With the Feb. 3 national letter of intent signing period approaching quickly, top high school football prospects find their phones ringing off the hook.

Just ask Cheyenne High School's Lawrence Turner.

The Sun's Offensive Player of the Year gave UNLV a non-binding verbal commitment last weekend.

Despite the fact his commitment was well-publicized, Turner started getting phone calls from coaches at Oregon State.

"The first time they called me was after I had already committed," he said. "They said they were trying to throw the opportunity of playing in the Pac-10 out there to see if maybe I might change my mind."

Turner, rated the West Coast's 75th-best prospect by talent scout Tom Lemming of Schaumburg, Ill, also got phone calls from Colorado State and Weber State this week. Still, he didn't budge when confronted with the opportunity to play for Dennis Erickson's Beavers.

"I might have thought about them if they had contacted me earlier," he said. "But I'm happy with my decision to attend UNLV."

The state's two other top college prospects, defensive lineman Kawika Sagapolu and linebacker Arnold Parker of state 4-A champion Cimarron-Memorial, left this morning for a trip to Brigham Young.

Sagapolu (6-4, 285), rated the 56th best prospect in the West by Lemming, is also strongly considering UNLV as well as Oregon and Arizona State.

Parker (6-2, 210) canceled a trip to Michigan State this week when the Spartans told him they were recruiting him as a running back. He wants to play linebacker in college. He has also visited Utah, UNLV and Oregon, a last-minute change last weekend in place of Arizona State.

Parker also said he has been getting calls from a number of other schools this week, including Oregon State, trying to get one last shot at getting him to take a recruiting visit.

"This will probably be it for me this weekend," he said. "When I get back, I'll probably take a few days to think it over and then decide."

Is one school leading the others at this time?

"Yeah," Parker replied. "But I'd rather not say at the moment."

* HORTON TO WISCONSIN? A newspaper in Madison, Wis., reported this week that former UNLV head coach Jeff Horton was going to take over as offensive coordinator at Rose Bowl champion Wisconsin.

But Horton, contacted at his Green Valley home on Thursday afternoon, said there was "no truth" to the report.

"Nah, there's nothing to it," Horton said. "I'm still looking at a couple of options but I haven't made any decision yet."

One of those options is accepting an offer from UNLV to work in athletic administration, an offer the popular Horton is seriously considering.

* ROBINSON RETURNS: UNLV head football coach John Robinson flew back from California this morning in time for his third straight recruiting weekend.

This will be a relatively light weekend for the Rebels, who brought in 17 recruits last week but will entertain just seven this weekend.

Two highly touted defensive line prospects -- George Heather (6-6, 285) of Alan Hancock JC in Santa Maria, Calif., and Kevin Mack (6-3, 235) of Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard, Calif. -- top the list.

The explosive Mack, who is also considering Washington, Oregon, San Diego State and Colorado State, wowed college scouts by running an eye-popping 4.00 shuttle at the Ventura County Scouting Combine last spring.

* RECRUITING NOTES: Linebacker Cory Redding (6-5, 240) of Northshore High in Houston, regarded by many as the nation's top defensive prospect, picked Texas over Arizona on Thursday even though older brother Chris plays for the Wildcats. Don't feel too sorry for Dick Tomey, however. Arizona still managed to pick up commitments from the top player in Hawaii, linebacker Joseph Siofele (6-2, 235) of Honolulu St. Louis (remember him, Green Valley fans?) as well as the top fullback prospect on the West Coast, Lance Briggs (6-2, 225) of Sacramento (Calif.) Elk Grove. Siofele picked Arizona over Nebraska while Briggs picked the Wildcats over USC because Arizona said he could play linebacker. ... UCLA picked up a verbal commitment from the top-line prospect in the Pacific Northwest when Bryce Bohlander (6-7, 260) of Keizer (Ore.) McNary picked the Bruins over local favorite Oregon and USC.