Late 2008 Recruit: Bryant Nnabuife

Scout.com has a story up about a late recruit. So late in fact, that I wasn't even aware that we even had any more scholarships available to give away. Cal picked up a late addition to their secondary, 2nd year Blinn College JUCO transfer, Bryant Nnabuife.

(credit Scout.com for image)

On paper, Nnabuife appears to be a great pick up. Nnabuife has great size for a defensive back at 6'2, 200 lbs, and has the speed to boot, reportedly running a 4.38 40 yard dash time in the Spring. Blinn College defensive line coach, Keith Browning, raved about his strength as well, citing that Nnabuife had power cleaned 295 lbs and squatted 425.

He's also shown versatility in his career to play both the safety and cornerback spots, although he's admitted to the Bears that he would prefer to play the latter, even though he's more than happy to contribute in either position.

Oh and he's got another cool name: Nnabuife. More headaches for ABC broadcasters.

Watch Nnabuife in action.

The Scout.com article goes into more detail about why Nnabuife wasn't highly recruited in college (mainly a coach's decision to switch Nnabuife to WR where he struggled, and his team's lackluster season in his senior year), which would explain why Nnabuife has flown under most scouts' radars. While Nnabuife is getting a bit of a late start, having not been able to participate in Spring practices, his Blinn College coaches have shown nothing but praise in Nnabuife's abilities both as player and teammate, as well as confidence that he'll be able to adjust to D1 football much sooner rather than later.

While it's much too early to say about how good Nnabuife will be, or how quickly he'll be able to contribute, if at all this year, I for one, and pretty pumped about the signing. It'll be a welcome change to get a big, strong corner to match up against some of the larger and more physical Pac-10 receivers. Don't get me wrong, I think some of our smaller corners over the past few years (Dante Hughes, Squid) have done pretty darn well, but I'm interested to see what we can do with someone who physically, could be more of a Antonie Cason type of defensive back.

All in all, I'm just happy to announce we've got a new Golden Bear. Welcome Bryant Nnabuife!