The esteemed TSIO hosts postulated early in this recruiting season that this could be a disappointing class for us thanks to the strengths of the class not lining up with our strengths (geographic and recruiters). 17 commits in, this might not be a monster class, but it is looking likely very good, with a shot at better if a few notables hop on bored down the stretch.
Obviously, some things have changed since their warning, perhaps most notably the hires of Matt Lubick and Scott Huff, who between them have brought in almost half of the real BRB, YO caliber talent in this class.
But the other chinteresting development, and the one I want to dig into just a bit here, is where this class is coming from. OTOH, traditionally Washington (like everyone else in the conference) has gotten at least 60% of its kids from California, roughly 30% from Washington and filled in 10% from Hawaii, Oregon, and the occasional kid from somewhere else.
This class looks different. A lot different. Of the 17 commits, here's where they come from:
Washington - 4 (Sirmon, Culp, Ale, Liu)
California - 3 (Newton, Osborne, Spiker)
Oregon - 2 (Bynum, Lowe)
Utah - 2 (Taimani, Tafisi)
Arizona - 2 (Mele, Hampton)
Hawaii - 1 (Zion)
Idaho - 1 Yankoff
Tennessee - 1 (Sirmon 2)
Texas - 1 (Curne)
As it currently stands, Washington recruits account for 23.5% of the class and California recruits account for only 17.6% (!). Combined, our two primary states make up 40.1% of the class.
81% of the time (probably more) that would be a death sentence for UW. But somehow we? have successfully expanded the footprint to put together a strong class despite a below average year for us in state and a WAY below average year for us in California. With no research to back this up I'd venture this is by far the fewest kids we've ever pulled from Cali, even if we finish with Tremblay, Irving and Tuliapupu (we won't).
While I would expect us? to do much better in Cali moving forward, the rise of the WAC states in UW recruiting is really fascinating, and seems to be more likely a trend than a blip. Arizona has become a state we consistently pluck a kid from under Pete, Utah had a historic class this year but we've now gotten 3 kids from there in 2 years, and Hawaii appears to be a priority state next class.
I don't know how much of this has to do with increasing talent from those states (particularly Utah and Arizona) and how much has to do with Petersen prioritizing them more/better than previous UW coaches, but it appears our recruiting footprint is expanding, and not just into the much discussed Texas.
Maybe hiring a coach who knew the WAC recruiting base wasn't so bad after all.
