Herring brings talent, loyalty to UNLV

By Ryan Greene (contact)

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 | 2:09 a.m.

Rivals.com

UNLV signee Caleb Herring

Most kids would have chosen to attend the other high school in town as an incoming freshman, one with an established football program rather than starting from scratch.

Most kids, with a Division I football scholarship locked up, would say no way to playing varsity basketball as a senior. Injury risk is always there.

And most kids would at least listen to what a big, shiny, tradition-soaked football program like Oregon has to say when it comes calling late in the recruiting game.

Caleb Herring, apparently, is not like most kids.

Four years ago he chose brand-spankin' new Citrus Hill High, he currently averages 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds for a basketball program seeking its first ever state playoff win -- and essentially turned a deaf ear to the Ducks' coaching staff.

He oozes loyalty, and the 6-foot-3, 185-pound quarterback out of Perris, Calif., will continue to show that when he puts his name on the dotted line of a National Letter of Intent to play football at UNLV this afternoon.

"We opened this school in 2005, and ever since he walked through the door, he's had to play varsity football," said Citrus Hill coach Doug Dubois. "He could have had some other (collegiate) opportunities. But that's what I respect about him most -- his word's his word."

The situation was unique not just for Herring, but for Dubois, too.

Most high school coaches get to work with the same starting quarterback for maybe one year, sometimes two years, hardly ever three years.

Dubois had Herring for four, and even as a 6-foot, 155-pound freshman, he was thrown into the furnace as Citrus Hill's first football season included a six-game varsity schedule.

He can still recall that first game, a 58-6 bludgeoning at the hands of Riverside's Notre Dame High.

"My first ever varsity game was a pretty good beatdown, and I got smacked around pretty good," Herring said. "It was definitely an advantage. Most guys don't get to play varsity (that early). Getting used to it early, freshman, sophomore year, I was a little guy and was getting beat up on."

Citrus Hill went 2-4 in that first season, but games against Notre Dame served as benchmarks over the next three seasons in showing just how much Herring continued to progress.

As a sophomore, in leading the Hawks to a 7-4 record, he threw for one score and ran for two more in a 23-22 victory over Notre Dame. As a junior and senior, he'd beat them twice by a combined score of 99-46, including a 348-yard, four-touchdown performance this past October.

By that point, he'd developed into a strapping Division I prospect, and those final two victories over the division rival were part of a 28-game win streak that Citrus Hill will have to defend next season without Herring in uniform. Each 14-0 campaign resulted in a CIF Southern Section title.

Herring threw for 5,649 yards, 62 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions during that run, and as a senior did so in a newly implemented spread offense, much like the one he'll learn to handle in Las Vegas. Plus, as is the case with skill players on most winning teams, he hardly ever played a full game.

Oddly enough, it was his last full game for the Hawks that Dubois said epitomizes everything Herring is about.

In the Eastern Division final, which ultimately ran the win streak up to 28, the spread was essentially tossed by the wayside once the Hawks got off the bus, felt the 40 mph desert winds and saw trees blowing over on their sides.

Herring threw one pass in the 31-27 victory over Barstow.

"I threw one pass and it ended up being an interception because of the wind," Herring recalled with a laugh. "We were on the goal line, we tried to run a trick play, the ball just kind of got taken by the wind and into the defense's hands."

Junior Deontae Cooper, one of the state's leading rushers, took the reins and finished with 260 yards and the game-winning score on 36 carries.

"Our quarterback was extremely humble and willing to take a step back for the good of the team," Dubois told the Riverside Press Enterprise after the game. "It's that kind of sacrifice that has brought us where we are."

Now he'll need that humility more than ever in coming to UNLV.

For as much potential as Herring brings with his quick release, size and instinct, it just might be awhile before Rebels fans see it put to work.

Herring enters a quarterback pool behind junior-to-be Omar Clayton and sophomore-to-be Mike Clausen, another Inland area product who Herring has known for a couple of years. Clayton will arguably be the Mountain West's second-best returning quarterback next season behind BYU senior Max Hall.

That depth, in turn, will take some of the pressure off Herring early on.

"There's a plan to redshirt and get a better feel for the offense, because you want to be comfortable with what you're running," Herring said. "Also to get a little bit of meat on my bones."

You could even say that Herring matches perfectly with where UNLV's program is at right now -- coming off a building block of a season with plenty of room and expectation to improve.

In a situation similar to the one he faced when entering high school -- with the opening of Citrus Hill, incoming freshmen had an open enrollment option -- Herring chose UNLV because he wanted to get in at the ground level of a program looking to rise.

"Really, the thing that got to me about them was how they approached me," Herring said. "A lot of schools will come after a guy and hype his head up, just to win him over to their program, but UNLV came to me as if I was just another player. It humbled me, let me know I'm still working to get there."

His dedication to his commitments can't help but trickle down to his two younger sisters, who both already are accomplished prep athletes.

Alycia, a junior at nearby Rancho Verde High, Caleb calls "the fastest little thing I've ever seen on a track." A standout triple-jumper, she's already been looked at by the likes of Baylor, Arizona State, UCLA and -- of course -- UNLV. Tamara, a freshman at Citrus Hill, is already playing varsity hoops.

And speaking of basketball, that's where Herring's focus will shift toward this afternoon following a signing day ceremony at the school.

Hours later, the Hawks will travel to face Beaumont High, hoping to improve an 11-8 record.

"I didn't want anything serious to happen where it could hinder me having the best chances at the next level, but basketball is part of what I do," he said. "I've always loved playing basketball, and I didn't want to give that up my senior year and let my teammates down that I've been playing with for four years. That'd be hard to do, to up and abandon them my senior year."

It's an attitude sure to be welcomed at UNLV.