We're on to 2020!

dnc said:

HillsboroDuck said:

It's not exactly a hot take to say 2020 is likely going be the most important recruiting class in UW history because of the high level in state (and former in state) recruits , but I think it's going to be a real test for this staff in more ways than just "can we close 5 stars with geographic ties?"

Here is the current list of kids from what I'd consider the Pac 12 recruiting blueprint (Pac12 states plus Idaho, Nevada and Hawaii) who are currently ranked in 247's top 247. All of these kids are four stars. Obviously not all these kids will be recruited by UW and others not listed will be, somebody else can research deeper if you like. This is just a starter look at what will likely be the majority of top western kids in the class.

Top 247 ranking (kids with UW offer in bold, kids UW is basically already out of it for in strikethrough, school committed to in parentheses)

Smalls - 2
Flowe - 4
Ringo - 7
Uigalelei - 9
Milton - 10
Ricks - 11 (LSU)
Jason Harris - 19 (top unoffered prospect on the list, Buck 'spect from Arizona where we've done pretty well, lets get in on him)
Murao - 20
Johnny Wilson - 21
Bijan - 29
Bryce Young - 39 (USC)
Jermaine Burton - 54 (WR from Calabasasas, teammate of Johnny Wilson, why no offer??)
Gee Jr - 58 (tOSU)
Clark Phillips - 59
Jay Butterfield - 71
John Humphreys - 73
Jack Miller - 86 (tOSU)
Darvon Hubbard - 90 (tOSU)
Botelho - 97
McMillan - 103
Bryant, JR - 105
Reece Atteberry - 108
Darion Green-Warren - 112 (OU)
Damian Sellers - 126
Brandon Jones - 136
Jamar Sekona - 152
Bryce Farrell - 153 (Stanford)
Daniyel - 154
Geirean - 165
Jaden Navarette - 170
Xavier Carlton - 173
Noah Sewell - 177
LV Bunkley-Shelton - 182
Chad Johnson - 190
Matt Sykes - 197
Elijah Badger - 205
Logan Loya - 213
Kris Hutson - 215
Ayden Hector - 217
Andrew Gentry - 224
Max Lenzy - 239
DJ Rogers - 242 (*sniff sniff*) (don't look at his offer sheet, just don't)
Justin Houston - 245
Jared Greenfield - 246
Sam Adams II - 247


Out of area but has in state ties:
Marcus Henderson - 82

A few things of note:

Either 247 is overrating WR or this is a generational WR class (abundance?). There are 47 (!) WRs in the top 247, or 1 of every 5.25 players. I know 2018 was similar but I don't remember the exact numbers. Crazy.

13 of those WRs are in the Pac footprint states, so there are plenty of WRs out there in what will probably be a 4 WR class for UW.

We have issued 23 offers to kids on this list. Of those 23 at least 5 are already not coming here (Uigalelai, Milton, Ricks, Young, Sewell). Of the remaining 18:

Four are from Washington (Smalls, Hackett, Hector, Adams)
Just two (!) are Polynesian (Murao, Botelho)
At least twelve have at least one African American (or African in Ngata's case) parent.

Obviously there are a ton of offers still to go out. But this has the potential to be either the blackest class Pete has recruited at UW or the most disappointing. The vast majority of early offers to highly rated western kids have gone out to African American kids. This was the right year to hire an African American WR coach, and to have Will Harris show his value. We have more African Americans on staff than at any point under Pete. They have a great opportunity to make us better this class.

P.S. Obviously there are offers out there that aren't listed above. I'm not going to bother to list the Texas/OK offers until we get a feel for who we are really in on as the strategy there is obviously an outlier. Here are the other western offers:

Jordan Banks (263)
Nick Herbig (302) (whitey)
Lathan Ransom (303) (how is he not top 247??) (217 by composite)
Josh Jackson - 374 (242 by composite)
Makell Esteen (402)
Mark Redman - 403 (whitey)
Dahlin Mesake (525) (Poly? Asian? Not sure here)
Tosh Baker (527) (whitey?)
Jeffrey Persi (574)
Gaard Memmelaar (647) (viking) (commit)
Rome Odunze - 782
Ethan Garbers - 788 (whitey)

So of the 12 other offers out there four are white kids, maybe one is Poly and the other 7 are mixed or African American.

This class will be defined by our ability to close kids with at least one black parent. We won't be able to rely on getting all the Polys this time around, as there just do not appear to be enough of them in this next class, and two of the best (Uigalelei and Nowell) ain't coming here.

Major level up challenge. Major level up opportunity.

16 commits in and only 1 Poly (assuming Murao is). Kind of a stunning shift of demographics after the last two classes. I think it's an outlier, obviously, but crazy nonetheless.

As far as kids with at least one black parent we are.... making progress. Already up to five commits which is the same signed in the 23 man class last year.

Jalen McMillian
Sam Adams
Rome Odunze
James Smith
Jay'Veon Sunday
Maybe Murao (is it clear I am not sure on his ethnicity?)

One would imagine we'll add two or three more African American kids as the DB's roll in and hopefully at least one edge. That would be our largest AA class in a couple years at least.

I think the conclusion here is simple - Pete's going to get the best kids he can get and we shouldn't freak out over the makeup any specific year which may skew one demographic direction or the other. If there was ever a class that we were going to struggle recruiting based on the stereotypes being spread about our roster it was this one. But here we are, killing it again.

In Pete I Trust.





















And Sam Huard.