Roll Out the Welcome Matt : Colleges Vie for Temple City Linebacker’s Services

Matt Gilmour has always had a dream to play college football, but unlike so many other players, the dream is approaching its fruition.

The 6-foot-5 and 220-pound Temple City High senior is one of the most heavily recruited outside linebacker prospects in the state.

Gilmour estimates he has already received 200 to 300 letters and mailings from prospective colleges--not to mention countless telephone calls from recruiters.

Recruiters first started contacting Gilmour when he was a sophomore.

The recruiting process can be a grind for some prospects, but Gilmour has been able to get advice from his older brother, who went through the process. Steve, 22, played offensive lineman for Temple City and San Diego State.

“It was something new for me at first,” Gilmour said. “To tell you the truth, it was a surprise when I first started to receive letters, but my brother told me I’d be getting some because he remembered when he started getting recruited.

“My brother helped me a lot because he’d been through it before. Without him, it would have been a lot more difficult for me.”

But the interest Gilmour received from colleges as a sophomore was merely a trickle compared to the attention he has received since last season. It didn’t hurt to earn All-CIF Division VII honors as a defensive lineman last season and make numerous preseason All-American teams.

“The letters started coming in more after my junior year,” he said. “Then, after those all-star teams came out, that’s when they really started coming.”

Gilmour said he has received the most interest from USC, Colorado, Nebraska, Colorado State and schools in the Pacific 10 Conference.

On an average night, Gilmour said he receives a call or two from college recruiters.

“I get calls almost every night, usually that a coach wants to come to visit or maybe just to find out how I’m doing or how my last game went,” he said. “I don’t mind talking about football. I don’t mind that at all.”

It is the occasional recruiter that gets a little too pushy that turns off Gilmour, although he said he isn’t afraid to be honest with them.

“Sometimes they ask me if I’m going to their school and I will flat-out tell them if I’m not interested,” he said.

For the most part, though, Gilmour said the distractions of the recruiting process have been kept to a minimum.

“The recruiting is pretty much handled by my coach,” he said. “All I have to do is concentrate on my schoolwork, my grades and, of course, football.”

Gilmour said that grades will not be a problem for him, although he admits there was a time when he wasn’t focusing on schoolwork.

“I won’t have any problems with that any more,” he said. “I’ve begun to bring up my grades and concentrate on that more because I know that’s important. There was a problem with laziness before, to be honest, but now I’m more serious about that.”

There has never been a problem with laziness on the football field.

Besides being one of Temple City’s leaders on defense, he is also a team captain.

“He’s extremely knowledgeable about football and he’s a very intelligent player,” Coach Jim Walker said. “On the field he makes very good (signal) calls, he’s very aware of what’s going on around him and he’s just a great leader.”

Walker said the development of Gilmour on defense has been a prime factor in Temple City’s success the past three seasons. In Gilmour’s three seasons as a starter, the Rams are 24-6-1, including a 5-0 record this year.

“Matt’s come a long way from his sophomore to his senior year,” Walker said. “I think he’s grown a lot along with the rest of the program. In no way has he reached his peak. He still has a long way to go, but he has already attained a lot as a player.”

Despite the fact that he has been a starter on defense for the Rams since his sophomore year,

Gilmour said he was looking to improve his game before this season started.

“Going into the summer I improved my strength and my weight and I worked on my speed, too,” he said. “I also did a lot of running.”

Although Gilmour said he is not as fast as he would like, he has improved his time in the 40-yard dash to 4.8 seconds. He also expects to grow another inch or two and add weight before entering college.

“I think I should fill out a little by the time I go to college,” he said.

A lot may depend on what position he plays in college. Walker and scouts agree that Gilmour will probably wind up as a defensive lineman, although he has been mostly a linebacker at Temple City.

“Some colleges may think of him as a defensive end but for us he’s always played outside linebacker,” he said. “He’s played that for three years and he’s an outstanding one. But because of his size, (recruiters) probably see him as a defensive lineman.”

From Gilmour’s perspective, he doesn’t care what position he plays as long as it is on defense.

“I’ve played some tight end before, but I just love playing defense,” he said. “I used to play offense when I was younger but I moved to defense when I was in Pop Warner (youth ball) and I’ve stayed there ever since. I just like making the big hit on people.”

Gilmour has also been a success in other sports for Temple City. He is starting center on the basketball team and averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds last season. He batted .385 as starting first baseman for the baseball team last season.

“I like (playing) them all,” he said. “It probably goes in that order--football, basketball and baseball. But football’s definitely my sport for college.”

Gilmour led the Rams to the Division VII semifinals the past two seasons, but you will not catch him looking past Friday’s game against Rio Hondo League rival San Marino.

“We’ve been taught to take just one game at a time,” he said. “When the playoffs come, we’ll start thinking about it a little more. That’s our ultimate goal. But we also want to win every game and so far we’re doing pretty good.”

Gilmour admits that he thinks about his dream of playing college football all the time. But as a high school player, he still has a few more goals left to accomplish.