Huskies recruit Bellevue stars, but rank last in Pac-10

SEATTLE – On a day that is so much about the future, University of Washington football coach Tyrone Willingham had to be thinking about the recent past.

How recent? Try last Friday, when the Huskies landed what may have been the two most important recruits of the 2005 class.

When Willingham formally announced UW’s latest recruiting class on Wednesday, Bellevue High School teammates and late commitments J.R. Hasty and E.J. Savannah stuck out above the other 11 players.

“You’re talking about young men who are winners,” Willingham said of the duo that helped Bellevue go 51-2 and win four state titles over the past four seasons. “You like having guys jump into your program with that kind of background.”

Based on recruiting analysts, the Huskies didn’t land much of a class this year. Rivals.com ranked UW 65th overall and dead last in the Pac-10. But without Hasty and Savannah, Willingham’s first class could have been even worse.

“Anytime you’re able to get outstanding players in your home (state), I think that says something very positive about you’re doing in this area,” he said of the Bellevue duo, whom he locked up last Friday.

“We want this university, Seattle, the state of Washington, to be a place where people feel like is home.”

Hasty and Savannah appear to be the cornerstones of a class that was hampered by an untimely coaching change, an unsightly string of bad headlines and – perhaps most important of all – an inconceivable 1-10 season. But don’t expect much immediate help from the incoming recruits.

Johnny DuRocher, a quarterback who redshirted as a freshman at Oregon last season, is one of four transfers in the 13-man class. A trio of Pasadena Community College players – wide receiver Marlon Wood and cornerbacks Qwenton Freeman and Chris Handy - could compete for time.

Willingham stopped short of saying that DuRocher would compete for the starting job, but he didn’t deny it either.

Hasty, the son of former Washington State Cougar and NFL defensive back James Hasty, scored a state-record 50 touchdowns as a senior and was rated the No. 16 running back in the country by SuperPrep Magazine.