As one of the elite prospects in the Class of 2012, Arik Armstead knows he’ll be receiving plenty of attention during his senior season at Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove, Calif.
The attention will be at its highest right out of the gate as Pleasant Grove’s opening game against Monterey Trail will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
“That should be a big indicator of how good we’re going to be,” Armstead said of the nationally broadcast opener. “We should be pretty good.”
Armstead has been verbally committed to USC for over a year now, but he’s keeping his options open and will take all five official visits. The Trojans will likely receive an official visit for sure, but seven other schools are still in the running for the other four trips.
According to his father, Gus, Armstead is still considering Notre Dame, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Miami and Nevada as his other official visit stops. He’ll narrow his list down to five, including USC, at some point next month.
“After the first couple of games, we’ll go ahead and do four,” Guss Armstead said. “I think USC will probably be the last one.”
Notre Dame assistant Mike Denbrock has made sure the Irish have been included as an option to this point.
“I’ve been talking to Coach Denbrock a little bit on Facebook,” Armstead said.
After being unable to make a stop at South Bend over the summer, Armstead is considering taking an official visit to Notre Dame when the Irish play USC on Oct. 22. The Irish already have a host of top prospects committed to official visits that weekend, but it would be particularly special for Armstead, whose brother Armond plays for the Trojans.
“We’ve got to look at what his schedule is and all of that stuff, but that’s what we had talked about,” the elder Armstead said.
With the football season here now, the 6-foot-7, 290-pound lineman knows everyone, including his opponents, will have their eyes fixed on him.
“It’s really no pressure,” said Armstead. “I kind of went through some of the same things last year. It’ll be a little more this year, but I can handle the pressure. All of that actually motivates me because I know people are gunning for me and looking to make something off playing against me. It just motivates me to be my best at all times.”
Pleasant Grove went 13-1 last year and Armstead is hoping for another successful season with plenty of returning contributors. A string of two-a-day practices, which began Monday, couldn’t prevent Armstead from being fired up about the year.
“It’s pretty easy because I’m excited for the season and the hard work that comes with it,” he said. “I’m just excited to get out there, get back with my team and get everybody focused so we can make this run and win some games.”
Unlike some of the nation’s other elite prospects, Armstead hasn’t spent the last several months focused solely on football. Armstead, who is hoping to play basketball in college as well, played basketball all winter and all summer while fitting in football workouts as well.
“The basketball definitely got me a lot more athletic,” he said. “I’m up to 290 now and getting stronger. I think I’m better. I don’t even know how it happened. All I’ve been doing is running around and playing basketball and I’m still gaining weight. I guess it’s just natural.”
Armstead felt he had a successful summer of hoops on the AAU circuit and was able to show college coaches what he can do. He even picked up basketball-only scholarship offers from schools like Fresno State, Oregon State and San Diego State. While it’s unlikely Armstead would be accepting scholarships for basketball only, Nevada made his top eight by offering a hoops scholarship over a year ago. He’s also impressed the school he’s already committed to, USC.
“They really like me too,” said Armstead. “It’s real comforting. Coach said if don’t start my freshman year, I’ll be able to play 20, 25 minutes.”
The Notre Dame hoops program has also shown some interest and all indications are that Armstead would be welcome to join the squad if he decided to attend Notre Dame.
“Their basketball program was at one of my games,” Armstead said of the Irish. “I guess we’ll see how it goes, I have to talk to them a little more.”
But for now, Armstead is happy to be back on the gridiron.
“I’m excited to get back out there and be more physical,” he said. “In basketball, you really can’t be too aggressive, so it should be fun.”
