Oaks Christian School senior lineman Cassius Marsh made a verbal commitment this morning to play football at LSU.

Marsh chose LSU over USC, Cal and Oklahoma. The 6-foot-5, 288-pound Marsh originally committed to Cal, but changed his mind after taking other visits.

"I think he was a little too excited when he was up at Cal and a little too fired up," Oaks Christian head coach Bill Redell said. "It was one of his first trips and they do a great job recruiting. But he wanted to see a few other places, and really liked LSU. He is elated to be going there."

Marsh is the first Oaks Christian football player to ever commit to LSU, and is the final playing in this season's big six to make his college choice. Zac Stout and Alani Fua have committed to Brigham Young University, Nick Montana and Erik Kohler are heading to Washington and Malcolm Jones will be signing with UCLA.

Marc Tyler is not convinced this year's Oaks Christian football team is better than the 2006 version.

Tyler, a USC redshirt sophomore tailback, recently read an article in the L.A. Daily News that questioned if this year's Oaks squad would overtake the 2006 team as "the best in region history."

The 2006 team went undefeated and won the inaugural CIF-State Division III bowl title. Nine seniors earned Division I scholarships, including Jimmy Clausen (Notre Dame), Marshall Jones (USC), Duke Lemmens (Florida) and Tyler (USC).

This year's Oaks team features Nick Montana (Washington), Malcolm Jones (UCLA or Stanford), Erik Kohler (Washington), Cassius Marsh (LSU, Oklahoma or Cal) and Zac Stout (BYU).

"I read the paper yesterday so I watched their game last night," Tyler said after USC's win over San Jose State on Saturday. "I think Kohler said this offense is more explosive, but I didn't see that. I didn't see that. Our line was bigger and our backfield was better. They might have us at the receiver spot because they have some good, young receivers. But other than that - nah. I didn't see that explosive offense."

It's likely the jury will be out and arguments will be made for both sides until the end of the year. Even then, there could be some questions about a final verdict. 

Six area football players have made the MaxPreps 2009 Preseason All-State team.