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2019 Recruiting Wrap Up Part Two: Defense
HillsboroDuck
Member Posts: 9,186
Refer to part one for the primer and to be more disappointed, then come back here to BRB, YO.
DL
Needed - A second consecutive class full of DT’s to stock the depth after the 2016 and 2017 disasters. At least one or two guys who can contribute right away, if needed.
Got -
Jacob Bandes / Pittsburg (Pittsburg, CA) / #86 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #57 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Faatui Tuitele / St. Louis (Honolulu, HI) / #83 Overall Composite (4-Star)/ #122 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Sama Pa'ama / Kaimuki (Honolulu, HI) / #353 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #385 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Noa Ngalu / Menlo-Atherton (Menlo Park, CA) / #642 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #457 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Analysis - This is just an embarrassment of riches. UW got three of the top 4 DT’s in the West. UW got the three best DT’s enrolling in Pac12 schools. Bandes is the highest rated of the three, Tuitele had the most hype for most of high school, but He’s a bad Sama Pa’ama might be the one UW fans are most excited about. He’s drawn constant comparisons to Vita Vea, and he’ll be 17 years old his entire freshman season. You read that correctly. He probably redshirts but he’ll play his four games and be a total monster when he takes off the redshirt. Bandes and Tuitele will be ready to play now, if called upon and at least one of them will be. All three can rush the passer and clog the run. I can’t even do individual write ups on each of them because if I do I’ll just gush all over the cyberspace and nobody wants to read that.
Oh, and Noa Ngalu feels like an afterthought but he’s an exciting player in his own right. Tuitele comes with the added bonus of his dad being one of the world’s greatest living humans (after Joey Thomas and Kevin King) and a hell of a recruiter on top of that. Shoutout to Justin Tuittele!
You can nitpick not getting Stephon Wright or Apu Ika if you want to be greedy. You can’t nitpick the players we signed though. Who knows if any of these kids will ever reach Vea, Rogers, Empterman status in the hearts of UW fans, but we do know we’ve never taken a DL class with this much potential. And the guy coaching them develops as well as anybody. This class will be so fun to watch grow.
Primary recruiter - Post Malloe
Talent Grade: A+
Fit Grade: A+
Quantity Grade: A+
Overall Grade: A+
How does the class compare to 2018? 2018 was a really good DL class, keeping Taimani from Bama and ND, flipping the best DT in Cali from USC late, taking Bynum out of Oregon, and getting the sleeper in state kid with the NFL future in Liu. This class makes that one look like @EsophagealFeces. Major improvement.
Outside LBs
Needed - A BUCK recruit who can get after the QB. Or three. Any BUCK recruit. A warm body even. Maybe a SAM.
Got -
Laiatu Latu / Jesuit (Carmichael, CA) / #128 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #98 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Bralen Trice / Sandra Day O'Connor (Glendale, AZ) / #458 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #590 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Analysis - Had Bralen Trice played any other position he probably would have been met with a collective yawn. He’s a guy with some nice tools who looks a long way from putting them together, but he was good enough to be pursued by Notre Dame and Oregon. Which meant there was no way we were getting him because Kwat’s edge rush recruiting has been worse than our TE recruiting.
But then a miracle happened and he picked us.
DDY had theorized for a number of months that if Kwat could just get one recruiting victory under his belt maybe just maybe he could gain some confidence and be serviceable, and I’ll be damned if he didn’t call it. Kwat followed up Trice with the first elite BUCK recruit of the Pete era. Latu has it all, he’s big enough to set the edge, he’s fast enough to wreak havoc on the QB, he’s violent. He can contribute right away, which he will probably need to.
Primary recruiter - Pete Kwiatkowski (with an assist from Malloe, Hawaiian shirt Pete and #PolyMovement)
Talent Grade: A-
Fit Grade: A
Quantity Grade: B (Could had used one more probably but this is a major step forward)
Overall Grade: A-
How does the class compare to 2018? Axe @RhythmicSlappingDawg. (For those who don’t speak HHese, huge improvement.)
MLB
Needed - A major injection of depth to compensate for multiple couch sales (Eifler, Wellington, Alebama)
Got -
Daniel Heimuli / Menlo Park (Menlo-Atherton), CA / / #199 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #155 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Joshua Calvert / Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, CA) / #219 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #242 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Miki Ah You / Kahuku (Kahuku, HI) / #686 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #419 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Alphonzo Tuputala / Federal Way (Federal Way, WA) / #1081 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #878 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Hammer Heimuli is the gem of the class, just a hair behind what Kaho was last year but with all his foreign language credits. Absolute baller who had Bama after him but wasn’t interested. He’ll play right away. Easily the most drama free late signee of the two signing period era, he seemed destined to be a Dawg for months. His tight friendship with high school teammate certainly helped with that.
Calvert is a great get who saw his brother endure the dumpster fire at SC and got the hell out of dodge. He seemed destined for UCLA at first but UW made a great pitch to him and his parents and here he is. The third Calvert, Ethan, is a 2021 LB prospect who will likely follow in Josh’s pawprints. If I had to guess now I’d say Calvert will not redshirt but he’s going to be one of the more interesting ones to follow, I could see him going either way. Classic EWIWBI case.
Ah You is sort of like Ngalu in that he feels like an afterthought but is a solid prospect in his own right who made an impact as a recruiter, except in Ah You’s case it was even bigger. He was a key player in recruiting all of his fellow Hawaaians in this class, especially Tuitele, and seems likely to help with some next year as well (along with his cousin Kingsley who is a stud OL prospect from Utah). Ah You’s ranking might have been better had he not missed basically his whole senior year with a torn ACL. He’ll almost certainly redshirt, rehab and bulk up and be ready to contribute if needed in 2020.
Tuputala is the lowest ranked position player in this class and easily the most underrated IMO. I like him better than a number of guys ahead of him (I put him at 13 in my personal rankings of this class, ahead of 3 kids who were rated 4 stars by the services). I really really like him. He’s going to be a run stuffing thumper. His family was bigly involved in recruiting other Polys as well, most noticeably Latu. I thought Tuputala might end up on the outside but for now at least it looks like he’s starting out inside.
Analysis - I’d argue that after BUCK this was the biggest positional need of this class and we hit a home run. Heimuli is my favorite ILB on the West Coast this year and Calvert is like 3rd or 4th. Tuputala is a stud and Ah You has nice potential.
Primary recruiter - Bob Gregory, with assists from Malloe, various other Poly recruits and Clay Helton.
Talent Grade: A-
Fit Grade: A
Quantity Grade: A+
Overall Grade: A
How does the class compare to 2018? Calvert is a better version of Sirmon, Tuputala is basically even with Tafisi and as noted Heimuli is a notch below Kaho. As far as signing day is concerned this class is basically last year plus Ah You so it has a slight edge. But Kaho never made it on campus, assuming these four do this year’s MLB class has a big edge on last year’s.
DL
Needed - A second consecutive class full of DT’s to stock the depth after the 2016 and 2017 disasters. At least one or two guys who can contribute right away, if needed.
Got -
Jacob Bandes / Pittsburg (Pittsburg, CA) / #86 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #57 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Faatui Tuitele / St. Louis (Honolulu, HI) / #83 Overall Composite (4-Star)/ #122 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Sama Pa'ama / Kaimuki (Honolulu, HI) / #353 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #385 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Noa Ngalu / Menlo-Atherton (Menlo Park, CA) / #642 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #457 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Analysis - This is just an embarrassment of riches. UW got three of the top 4 DT’s in the West. UW got the three best DT’s enrolling in Pac12 schools. Bandes is the highest rated of the three, Tuitele had the most hype for most of high school, but He’s a bad Sama Pa’ama might be the one UW fans are most excited about. He’s drawn constant comparisons to Vita Vea, and he’ll be 17 years old his entire freshman season. You read that correctly. He probably redshirts but he’ll play his four games and be a total monster when he takes off the redshirt. Bandes and Tuitele will be ready to play now, if called upon and at least one of them will be. All three can rush the passer and clog the run. I can’t even do individual write ups on each of them because if I do I’ll just gush all over the cyberspace and nobody wants to read that.
Oh, and Noa Ngalu feels like an afterthought but he’s an exciting player in his own right. Tuitele comes with the added bonus of his dad being one of the world’s greatest living humans (after Joey Thomas and Kevin King) and a hell of a recruiter on top of that. Shoutout to Justin Tuittele!
You can nitpick not getting Stephon Wright or Apu Ika if you want to be greedy. You can’t nitpick the players we signed though. Who knows if any of these kids will ever reach Vea, Rogers, Empterman status in the hearts of UW fans, but we do know we’ve never taken a DL class with this much potential. And the guy coaching them develops as well as anybody. This class will be so fun to watch grow.
Primary recruiter - Post Malloe
Talent Grade: A+
Fit Grade: A+
Quantity Grade: A+
Overall Grade: A+
How does the class compare to 2018? 2018 was a really good DL class, keeping Taimani from Bama and ND, flipping the best DT in Cali from USC late, taking Bynum out of Oregon, and getting the sleeper in state kid with the NFL future in Liu. This class makes that one look like @EsophagealFeces. Major improvement.
Outside LBs
Needed - A BUCK recruit who can get after the QB. Or three. Any BUCK recruit. A warm body even. Maybe a SAM.
Got -
Laiatu Latu / Jesuit (Carmichael, CA) / #128 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #98 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Bralen Trice / Sandra Day O'Connor (Glendale, AZ) / #458 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #590 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Analysis - Had Bralen Trice played any other position he probably would have been met with a collective yawn. He’s a guy with some nice tools who looks a long way from putting them together, but he was good enough to be pursued by Notre Dame and Oregon. Which meant there was no way we were getting him because Kwat’s edge rush recruiting has been worse than our TE recruiting.
But then a miracle happened and he picked us.
DDY had theorized for a number of months that if Kwat could just get one recruiting victory under his belt maybe just maybe he could gain some confidence and be serviceable, and I’ll be damned if he didn’t call it. Kwat followed up Trice with the first elite BUCK recruit of the Pete era. Latu has it all, he’s big enough to set the edge, he’s fast enough to wreak havoc on the QB, he’s violent. He can contribute right away, which he will probably need to.
Primary recruiter - Pete Kwiatkowski (with an assist from Malloe, Hawaiian shirt Pete and #PolyMovement)
Talent Grade: A-
Fit Grade: A
Quantity Grade: B (Could had used one more probably but this is a major step forward)
Overall Grade: A-
How does the class compare to 2018? Axe @RhythmicSlappingDawg. (For those who don’t speak HHese, huge improvement.)
MLB
Needed - A major injection of depth to compensate for multiple couch sales (Eifler, Wellington, Alebama)
Got -
Daniel Heimuli / Menlo Park (Menlo-Atherton), CA / / #199 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #155 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Joshua Calvert / Oaks Christian (Westlake Village, CA) / #219 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #242 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Miki Ah You / Kahuku (Kahuku, HI) / #686 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #419 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Alphonzo Tuputala / Federal Way (Federal Way, WA) / #1081 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #878 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Hammer Heimuli is the gem of the class, just a hair behind what Kaho was last year but with all his foreign language credits. Absolute baller who had Bama after him but wasn’t interested. He’ll play right away. Easily the most drama free late signee of the two signing period era, he seemed destined to be a Dawg for months. His tight friendship with high school teammate certainly helped with that.
Calvert is a great get who saw his brother endure the dumpster fire at SC and got the hell out of dodge. He seemed destined for UCLA at first but UW made a great pitch to him and his parents and here he is. The third Calvert, Ethan, is a 2021 LB prospect who will likely follow in Josh’s pawprints. If I had to guess now I’d say Calvert will not redshirt but he’s going to be one of the more interesting ones to follow, I could see him going either way. Classic EWIWBI case.
Ah You is sort of like Ngalu in that he feels like an afterthought but is a solid prospect in his own right who made an impact as a recruiter, except in Ah You’s case it was even bigger. He was a key player in recruiting all of his fellow Hawaaians in this class, especially Tuitele, and seems likely to help with some next year as well (along with his cousin Kingsley who is a stud OL prospect from Utah). Ah You’s ranking might have been better had he not missed basically his whole senior year with a torn ACL. He’ll almost certainly redshirt, rehab and bulk up and be ready to contribute if needed in 2020.
Tuputala is the lowest ranked position player in this class and easily the most underrated IMO. I like him better than a number of guys ahead of him (I put him at 13 in my personal rankings of this class, ahead of 3 kids who were rated 4 stars by the services). I really really like him. He’s going to be a run stuffing thumper. His family was bigly involved in recruiting other Polys as well, most noticeably Latu. I thought Tuputala might end up on the outside but for now at least it looks like he’s starting out inside.
Analysis - I’d argue that after BUCK this was the biggest positional need of this class and we hit a home run. Heimuli is my favorite ILB on the West Coast this year and Calvert is like 3rd or 4th. Tuputala is a stud and Ah You has nice potential.
Primary recruiter - Bob Gregory, with assists from Malloe, various other Poly recruits and Clay Helton.
Talent Grade: A-
Fit Grade: A
Quantity Grade: A+
Overall Grade: A
How does the class compare to 2018? Calvert is a better version of Sirmon, Tuputala is basically even with Tafisi and as noted Heimuli is a notch below Kaho. As far as signing day is concerned this class is basically last year plus Ah You so it has a slight edge. But Kaho never made it on campus, assuming these four do this year’s MLB class has a big edge on last year’s.
Comments
Needed - At least two corners and a couple of safeties for a team losing 5 DB’s.
Got -
Trent McDuffie / St. John Bosco (Bellflower, CA) / #126 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #61 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Asa Turner / Carlsbad (Carlsbad, CA) / #300 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #198 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Kamren Fabiculanan / Westlake (Thousand Oaks, CA) / #378 Overall Composite (4-Star) / #226 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Cameron Williams / Bakersfield (Bakersfield, CA) / #404 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #322 Overall 247 (4-Star)
Analysis - Jimmy Lake has done it again! It’s almost ho hum at this point. UW loses 5 DBs including two early entries, and I don’t think anyone has major concerns about the secondary next year or going forward. Jimmy Lake scouts, recruits and develops as well or better than anyone in the country. He also succeeds at making Tom Loy look dumb again and again. Did I mention Jimmy Lake is good?
Okay, enough about my non Swayexual mancrush. Let’s talk about the kids enrolling in #DBU. McDuffie was my favorite CB in the class, a kid I fell in love with early once I realized he had ties to Julius Irving and had speed, speed, speed. He’s going to be a star at CB and a superstar at punt returner, where we need an immediate upgrade. He should play right away and Aaron Fuller should never return another punt. Defensively he could play inside or outside and will be another first or second round pick one day. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
The best safety in the west, Turner’s was the most rollercoaster recruitment of the class, committing to UW early, flirting with ND throughout, deleting his Twitter history, making more Tweets, deleting them again, etc. He was kind of exhausting. Good thing he’s worth the headache. Boy is he worth it. A tall, long safety with ball skills and a huge frame, Turner is probably going to make more highlight reel, game changing big plays than anyone in this class save maybe Latu. He’ll start at Taylor Rapp’s safety spot by his sophomore year at the latest and hold the spot until he leaves for the draft, probably early. It’s just too bad Lake’s going to move him to LB early in his career.
Fabiculananana was one of my four or five favorite corners in the west. He does everything well, covers well, hits hard, has good ball skills and shows good athleticism. He might take the Jordan Miller career path and might be similarly underrated like Miller but he’ll play in the NFL for a long time just like Miller is about to. Big time get.
Williams is the super rare Jimmy Lake recruit who I like less than the recruiting sites. He can hit like JoJo McIntosh and actually has ball skills, but I fear his lack of speed and athleticism is going to catch up to him at the next level. He was a major playmaker in HS though. If that translates he could be a very good one, but I think he carries some risk of never seeing the field.
Primary recruiter - Todd Light’s Daddy
Talent Grade: A-
Fit Grade: A
Quantity Grade: B (They obviously wanted one more here and I would have liked to have seen them get one more. I think had they known they were going to lose Joyner and both Rapp and Murphy were leaving early they would have pursued Criddell or Darien Chase, maybe both).
Overall Grade: A-
How does the class compare to 2018? Talent wise it’s probably an ever so slight downgrade as Lake hit three home runs last year and *only* two home runs, a triple and a double this year. Filling one more spot this time around was good, and needed though.
Specialists
Needed - Someone who can hit field goals and kick the ball deep on kickoffs to prevent our awful coverage from being exploited. Did not need a punter. Should not be scholarshipping long snappers.
Got: Timothy Horn / Punahou (Honolulu, HI) / #1899 Overall Composite (3-Star) / #2237 Overall 247 (3-Star)
Analysis - It’s not a major stretch to say that UW is a field goal kicker away from two more wins the last two years, which would make us look significantly closer to the elite. The good news it they got the kicker they wanted, all indications are that Horn was number one on their list and he has a monster leg (and a large frame). The bad news is that Horn was very inaccurate this year and this is one position this staff has shown no ability to develop (nor evaluate). I think Horn has the tools to be a good college FG kicker but I don’t think he’s ready to be one next year, nor am I confident this staff has what it takes to help him get there. At least he should help address the kickoff issues.
Primary recruiter - Malloe, maybe?
Talent Grade: B-
Fit Grade: B-
Quantity Grade: A (you can only take one)
Overall Grade: B
How does the class compare to 2018? We neither took nor needed one last year, so hard to compare.
Push up the middle, heat off the edge, a sledge hammer in the middle of the gaps, speed speed speed from sideline to sideline, spam chancellor crashing down, ball skills and length everywhere in the secondary, pick six or fumble return back capable players all over. I feel like this defense could have PPG even lower than this year while having the kind of extra scoring plays like when we? had Shaq on the field. Nevermind if the offense just shows up enough to not put them in a short field half the time.
I'm feeling dizzy...
Does any one have shitty technical skills?
Also, Swayexual should enter everyone's rotation. Immediately.
edit: Someone is probably going to show me I'm dumb because Bama probably got 3 5 star DL or some shit.