“I loved it,” said Lemmens. “It was way better than I expected. I came away real impressed.
“I spent some time with Coach Delgado, the defensive line coach. I was real impressed with him. After just an hour meeting with him, I left feeling like I was a better football player. He has a natural, real calm way about him. He’s not a big yeller but watching film, you could tell he gets a lot out of players. A lot of the stuff (techniques), I hadn’t heard a lot about. But he got right up in there and showed me what he was talking about by demonstrating it. (WR) Coach Ferrigno’s also been recruiting me this whole time.
“Coach Tedford just came in from vacation and I really appreciated him stopping by. He wasn’t supposed to come into work until tomorrow but he decided to come in early today to see me and I really appreciated that. It was definitely impressive.
“And the guy they had show me around school, Mohammad Muqtar (Asst. Director of Student Services) –he knew everyone. He was the best tour guide ever. That guy’s a celebrity on campus. He’s just the nicest guy.
“We saw the Campanile and went in and talked to one of the better-known political science professor and probably went through the entire campus. I was there for a whole six hours with my dad.
“We also spent time at the stadium. It’s exciting about all the stuff that’s going to be going in in next couple years. I know right now they might be kind of on the bottom end with facilities in the Pac 10, but in a few years, they could be right up there with the best of them. I’ve seen some of the plans and they looked real good. Cal’s definitely got the alumni to pull it off.
Lemmens also got a chance to see more of the Bay Area on his visit to Cal.
“My dad and I went with a family friend who we stayed with last night to San Francisco, too. We kind of did the tourist thing. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf, Lombard Street, AT&T Park while the game was going on –it’s a beautiful city. The coolest thing about the city was there BART system. It gets you all around the city and the whole area. You don’t even need a car. We don’t have anything like that where I live.
It was apparent that another factor made a big impression on Lemmens during his visit.
“The most impressive thing to me about Cal is the education and what I can do with the degree,” noted Lemmens. “That’s the number one thing that sticks out to me. I mean, this isn’t a four year decision. It’s more like a forty year decision since there’s life after football.
Lemmens has been a busy guy this summer with many visits already taken and quite a few more planned.
“I’ve been to five schools including Cal so far,” said Lemmens. “I’ve been to Arizona, Georgia Tech, Florida and Texas A&M. I’m going for a one night camp at Florida on Thursday. I’m hopefully also going to see Miami on that trip and maybe Duke. And then when I get back, I’m going up to Oregon for their preview day. And then I’ll go up to Washington for one of their prospect days along with Colorado. So I’ve got a lot planned, actually.”
Where does Cal stand in Lemmens’ picture at this point?
Realistically, Cal is one of the schools I’d consider taking an official visit to, especially after this visit. So far, they’re one of the most impressive coaching staffs I’ve seen –not just coaching-wise, but also as far as character. I mean, Coach Tedford is just a great guy and I really appreciated my time with him,” concluded Lemmens.
And the Lemmens tour bus continues to roll on.
To view the player page for Duke Lemmens, use this link.
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