Washington gets recruiting boost

All the recruiting ground that Washington made up this weekend also serves to underscore how far behind the Huskies once were.

Coach Tyrone Willingham’s first recruiting class still seems destined for the university’s lowest national ranking in memory, despite the recent additions of Bellevue High School linebacker E.J. Savannah and running back J.R. Hasty. Landing the Bellevue pair might not even be enough to nudge this recruiting class out of the cellar of the Pacific-10 Conference, although it suddenly makes UW competitive with Oregon State for ninth place, according to recruiting analysts.

When high school recruits’ letters of intent begin arriving on campus Wednesday, this class’ small quantity and lightly regarded quality is expected to reflect the ravages of an almost perfect storm of mishaps in the university’s athletics department.

“It’s pretty clear that the forces of nature have conspired against Washington,” said Chris Fetters, Northwest recruiting analyst for scout.com and editor of dawgman.com. “Whether it is because of the lack of time with the new staff coupled with the first 10-loss season in school history, there’s a lot of different factors involved, but it certainly doesn’t help when that staff is not in place.”

Uncertainty has swirled over Washington’s football program since Nov. 1, when it was announced that football coach Keith Gilbertson would be replaced. When Gilbertson left after the Apple Cup, the recruiting efforts were held together by a handful of assistant coaches who were asked to stay on.

Willingham was confirmed as the new coach on Dec. 12, but eight weeks later he continues to work with only about half of his staff, and without an offensive coordinator.

It is a leap of faith for players to jump into a program without knowing their position coach, and a jump no high school offensive player was willing to make until Hasty.

This recruiting class was never planned as a large one. Even before Gilbertson was dismissed, he expected to bring in only 13 or 14 players.

However, there were hopes for high-quality – hopes that slipped away one prospect at a time until Friday when Savannah went on local television and announced his intention to become a Husky.

That news was quickly followed by multiple reports that Hasty will join his teammate at UW.

Those announcements gave the Huskies’ eight known oral prep commitments: Savannah, Hasty, tight end Tim Williams of Chehalis, defensive end Tyrone Davis of Olympia, kicker Ryan Perkins of North Thurston, along with three out-of-staters – linebacker Darrion Jones of Lynwood, Calif.; linebacker Chris Stevens of Mojave, Calif.; and linebacker Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, a prize catch from Hawaii Prep whose commitment may be wavering.

Also committed is Johnny DuRocher, a redshirt sophomore quarterback from Bethel High who originally attended the University of Oregon.

Washington fans now hope that the announcement of the Bellevue duo will encourage other top prospects to follow them aboard.

“It could very well turn their fortunes around and really show that there are very, very good football players that are willing to make that commitment,” Fetters said. “It (was) very difficult when you see all of the top prospects either in the Northwest or on the West Coast looking at Washington, but then walking away.”

Until the Bellevue commitments, this UW recruiting class was rated 80th nationally and “definitely” 10th in the Pac-10, according to Allen Wallace, national recruiting editor of SuperPrep/scout.com.

The additions of Bellevue’s two nationally ranked players could move the Huskies to the low 60s nationally, Wallace said.

According to the SuperPrep/scout.com ratings, that would put the Huskies in the same neighborhood as Oregon State, but far behind Pac-10 rivals Southern Cal, Arizona and California, all ranked among the top dozen or so nationally.

“This will go down as one of the most disappointing classes, which in some respects is unfair to Tyrone Willingham because I don’t believe any coach should be judged on his first-year recruiting effort,” Wallace said. “It’s not a good way to evaluate a coach. It requires special circumstances to be able to come in and within the space of two months be able to compete with other coaches that have been working for 11 months on kids.”