Final Surprise: Booker to FSU

The No. 1 rated player in the country, Lorenzo Booker, takes Florida State over Notre Dame, surprising thousands of Irish fans. The first major surprise of the signing period happened out West as Oregon pulled a major coup stealing Haloti Ngata at the 11th hour. Follow the day's major commits and de-commits.

Major Commitments Ticker
(Click on Name for Player Detail)
* RB Lorenzo Booker commits to FLORIDA STATE *
* DT Haloti Ngata decommits from BYU for OREGON *
* CB Nick Turner commits to MISSISSIPPI STATE *
* OL Brandon Jeffries to TENNESSEE *
* TE Aaron Kirkland to TENNESSEE *
* QB James Banks to TENNESSEE *
* OL Derek Morris to OHIO STATE *
* OL Max Jean-Gilles to GEORGIA *
* DB Leon Washington to FLORIDA STATE *
* DE Chris Bradwell to FLORIDA STATE *
* OL A.J. Davis decommits from NORTH CAROLINA for NC STATE *
* WR Richard Washington decommits from OHIO STATE for NC STATE *
* LB Ricardo Hurley to SOUTH CAROLINA *
* LB/FB Brandon Snow to PENN STATE *
* DE Darius Sanders to OREGON *
* WR Devin Aromashodu decommits from FLORIDA for AUBURN *
* OLs Marcus McNeil and Jonathan Palmer to AUBURN *

Booker Surprises: FSU
Wavering until the last minute, Lorenzo Booker, 5-11, 175 pound running back from St. Bonaventure (Calif.) has committed to Florida State. It had been widely speculated all day that Booker was going to commit to Notre Dame.

"It was Notre Dame and Washington and then Bobby Bowden came in for a home visit last week and he had my whole family in awe of him," Booker told PacWestFootball.com's Greg Biggins. "Florida State was always my dream school. I mean I watch a Florida State highlite tape almost every day and I was thinking strongly about Florida State to the point where I thought that might be where I would go.

"When I woke up this morning, I was thinking about Florida State. I watched this Peter Warrick highlite tape Florida State sent me all night and I saw myself out there. I even signed both letters of intent and my mom did too."

Notre Dame did salvage one big commit, landing Rhema McKnight, the No. 1 receiver in the West according to PacWestFootball.com.

The 1st team CalHiSports.com all-state player, rated No. 41 nationally by Student Sports, returned two of his five interceptions for touchdowns and broke up 10 passes as Fighting Irish's top defender.

No. 1 DL Shocks with Commit to Oregon
Haloti Ngata, rated the No. 2 player in the nation, shocked the recruiting world by signing with Oregon today after having been committed first to Nebraska and then BYU up until yesterday.

The 6-foot-4, 310 pound defensive tackle, who ran a 4.84 at last spring's Nike Football Training Camp in Texas, first committed to the Cornhuskers in the fall, but backed out on that commitment at the end of December.

He then committed to BYU on his early campus visit in January, but in the last 24 hours word leaked out that he was rethinking his Cougar commitment after having tripped to Oregon.

His parents took an unofficial visit to Eugene over the weekend and strangely, though seen by dozens of people in Oregon, denied to family and BYU coaches that they had made the trip.

According to sources close to BYU, the mother, Olga Ngata, even told BYU coaches three times on Monday that her son would sign with the Utah school.

Many feel that Haloti's uncle, also named Haloti Ngata, was anti-BYU and was pressuring his nephew to go to Nebraska or Oregon, partly because he went to Utah, BYU's intstate rival.

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