Huskies finished with ranked recruiting class third straight year

By Kshell

For the third straight year Steve Sarkisian has landed a ranked recruiting class for the Washington Huskies. The Huskies are ranked 22nd in the nation on scout.com and 20th in the nation on rivals.com . This has been a strange offseason for Sarkisian and I'm sure he is happy this recruiting process is finally over. This offseason has seen two coaches leave while firing three other coaches. This class also dealt with the devastating blow of losing four of the five top in state recruits which saw three going to conference rivals. The Huskies for the bulk of the recruiting season were ranked near the bottom of the conference below Oregon State, Utah and Colorado. Even on signing day the Huskies were dealt a blow as talented four-star recruit Jordan Payton decommited 14 hours after committing to the Huskies to commit to the UCLA Bruins. Sarkisian did steal plenty of recruits on his own on the last day as well. Most of the guys Sarkisian stole late were on the defensive side of the ball which is a big plus since hte offense appears Rose Bowl ready.

This class features 25 recruits which has 12 offensive players, 11 defensive players and two kickers. Of those 25 players the Huskies landed 15 from the state of California, five from their home state of Washington, three from Hawaii. They also landed three-star wide receiver Kendyl Taylor from Arizona and four-star quarterback Cyler Miles from Colorado. Based on Rivals rankings the Huskies had one five-star recruit, five four-star recruits and 14 three-star recruits. Based on Scouts rankings the Huskies have one five-star recruit in safety Shaq Thompson, three four-star recruits and 15 three-star recruits. The Huskies aren't quite recruiting at a Pac-12 championship level but they are recruiting at a nice level unlike the previous coaching regime.  In this following post I'll describe each of the big recruits the Huskies had landed in this class.

Jeff Lindquist- QB:

Jeff Lindquist is a four star quarterback according to both rivals and scout.com from Mercer Island. Lindquist had committed to the Huskies last May of 2011 as Sarkisian was hoping to have Lindquist build on the state of Washington.  Lindquist chose the Huskies over the Stanford Cardinal early in the process. He is the 8th rated quarterback in the nation per scout.com and 7th rated in the nation per rivals. com. During his high school career he was a three year starter where he showed he is a good pocket quarterback who can also scramble. Lindquist as a sophomore threw for 1,474 yards with 13 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. He also ran for 519 yards with 11 touchdowns. Then he had a breakkout junior year throwing for 1,993 yards with 15 touchdowns to nine interceptions while rushing for 1,015 yards with 18 touchdowns. As a senior Lindquist threw for 1,303 yards with 11 touchdowns to six interceptions while rushing for 555 yards and 12 touchdowns(in only six games). Lindquist who 6'3" is the type of quarterback most schools dream about committing to them. For the Huskies who have Keith Price for two more years and a guy they are high on in Derrick Brown the most important position in sports will be loaded. Adding Lindquist to your class is a great get for most schools. Well Sarkisian did land another four star quarterback as well only this guy was out of state.

Cyler Miles - QB:

Cyler Miles was another big get for Sarkisian back in June. Then Miles had second thoughts in late January about USC decided to stick with Washington only to have second thoughts again on signing day to eventually stay with the Huskies. What the Huskies are getting in the 6'4"Miles from Mullen High School in Denver Colorado is a four star recruit according to both scout and rivals.com. Scout has him ranked as the 13th best quarterback while Rivals has him as the 2nd best quarterback in the nation(35th overall player). Besides beating out the Trojans for Miles the Huskies also beat out Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Clemson, the home state Colorado and Colorado State, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Vanderbelt, and two powerhouses Florida and Oklahoma State. During Miles junior season he led Mullen high school to a state championship where he completed over 70.0% of his passes for 2,131 yards with 20 touchdowns to just two interceptions while rushing for 256 yards with six touchdowns while catching a pass for 40 yards. In the U.S. Army all-american game which has the games top high schoolers going up against each other Miles was named the game MVP as he was seven for eight passing for 155 yards with a touchdown while rushing for another. He also had an 80 yard touchdown pass wiped away due to Zach Banner getting a costly holding penalty. The quarterback position is in good hands with Sarkisian landing these two four star quarterbacks.

Jaydon Mickens - WR:

When you land two talented quarterbacks they will need someone to throw the ball to which is the case with Jaydon Mickens. Mickens who is only 5'8" but runs a 4.4 40 is electric in open space. Mickens comes from Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, California and is a  four-star recruit according to both scout and rivals.com. Mickens is the 45th ranked receiver in the nation on scout and 11th ranked receiver in the nation on rivals. During his senior year Mickens was an all around athlete as he caught 32 passes for 558 yards(17.4 YPC) with seven touchdowns, he also ran the ball 82 times for 378 yards(4.61 YPC) with 13 touchdowns. He even attempted 32 passes on the year for 238 yards passing. Mickens had offers from Arizona, Arizona State, California, Hawaii, SMU, UCLA and USC. For his hat announcment it was down to Washington, Washington State and Oklahoma State. He immediately faked putting on the Cougars hat then tossed it away before choosing the Huskies hat. Although the Huskies lost the talented Jordan Payton they still landed Mickens along with three other receivers who were all three stars so the receivers at Montlake should be just fine.

Brandon Beaver - CB:

This year the Huskies also landed some talented defensive players which is key seeing how they scored 56 points in a bowl game and lost. The Huskies landed the talented 6'1" Brandon Beaver out of Dominguez High School in Compton, California. Beaver also played in the Army All-American game and depending on the site is where he is ranked. On scout.com he is a three star recruit and is the 27th ranked corner in the nation. On rivals he is a four-star recruit and is the 12th ranked corner in the nation. Beaver many suspected had committed to the Huskies a few weeks ago which caused a huge storm on twitter which beg the question do recruiting sites do more harm than good? As Beaver almost went to other schools due to that. Beaver chose the Huskies over Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Colorado, Fresno State, Nebraska, New Mexico, New Mexico State, SMU, Tennessee, and UCLA. Then it came down to Utah and Washington State who Beaver passed over to put on the Purple and Gold. This was the last guy that Sarkisian snatched up on signing day as this was a huge signing for the Huskies as their secondary has been poor for quite some years. With Beaver who is a tall physical corner that will allow Wilcox the freedom to blitz more in the future.

Pio Vatuvei - DE:

While the Huskies may have lost Payton they did steal defensive end Pio Vatuvei from the USC Trojans on signing day as he was a USC commit. The 6'2" 280 pound Vatuvei is a three-star on scout as he is the 43rd defensive end in the country. While on rivals he is a four-star as he is the 11th ranked defensive end in the country. Coming from Patterson high school in Patterson, California Vatuvei was a very nice defensive addition by Sarkisian. Vatuvei chose the Huskies over Arizona, Boise State, California, Colorado, Fresno State, Idaho, Nevada, USC, Utah, Utah State and Washington State. Basically every school on the west coast wanted him including the Trojans who only had 15 scholarships to give out. The Trojans gladly gave one of their 15 to Vatuvei which should tell you how incredible of a prospect he could be. Sarkisian knows if he wishes to be the coach that he expects from himself he will need his defense to step up.

Shaq Thompson - Safety:

Sarkisian made some major noise two days prior to signing day when landing the consensus five-star and #1 safety in the country Shaq Thompson from Grant Union High School in Sacramento, California. Thompson who is 6'2" who also played in the Army All-American game is the biggest Husky out of state recruit in a long time. When Sarkisian landed Thompson it created a buzz throughout the social networking scene and came at a good time. That was the same day Sarkisian lost out on Banner but the fans quickly forget as they landed Thompson. Thompson is a five-star recruit on both rivals and scout while being the #1 rated safety in both. On scout he is the 3rd rated player overally in the entire country while on rivals he is the 4th overall player(1st in California though) meaning the Huskies have reshaped their defense in a big way. Thompson who was originally a Golden Bear commit chose the Huskies over the Michigan Wolverines, USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Florida Gators, Arizona State Sun Devils, Oregon Ducks and of course the California Golden Bears. Thompson is the crown jewel of this recruiting class and whatever the Huskies are paying Tosh Lupoi was well deserved.

This recruiting class showed that Sarkisian is still a good recruiter and unlike the myths out there he is also a good closer. Sarkisian signed seven guys on the February 1st or January 31st which doesn't even count Payton who decommitted 14 hours later or Miles who re-assured he was staying at Washington. Of those seven that Sarkisian snatched at the last moments four were on defense and two were on the offensive line. Sarkisian brought in two highly touted quarterbacks, five offensive lineman, five defensive lineman(four of which are ends), and four guys in the secondary including two highly touted guys in Thompson and Beaver. Despite only having a month to recruit for Lupoi and Wilcox the Huskies staff did a fine job. Look for next offseason to have even more fireworks which is a good thing going forward. Also due to the depth on the team already look for Sarkisian to redshirt another 18 or so kids like he did last year. The Husky football program is heading in the right direction and Sarkisian closed out this class with a bang.

What happened to the fence Sark?

By Kshell

When Steve Sarkisian became the head coach of the Washington Huskies he promised to keep a fence around the state of Washington. During the 2010 and 2011 recruiting seasons Sarkisian did a good job upholding that promise as he kept 9 of 11 blue chip recruits here at Washington. Last year he was a perfect six for six showing that he had put up a fence. Then this year happened and someone busted that fence down as this state produced five blue chip players. The Huskies will only land one of those five. Sarkisian's fence is no longer up anymore showing a changing of the times. Not even during the Tyrone Willingham days did the Huskies recruit this poorly in state. Sarkisian who is known for being a good recruiter struck out on this state and has his work cut out for him in the next 36 hours.

The state of Washington had five blue chip recruits with Joshua Garnett(5 star recruit, #3 guard in the nation) from Puyallup High School, Zach Banner(4 star recruit, #13 tackle in nation) from Lakes High School, Cedric Dozier(4 star recruit at either receiver or defensive back) also from Lakes High School, Keivarae Russell(4 star recruit, #24 running back in nation) from Mariner High School in Everett, and Jeff Lindquist(4 star recruit, #8 quarterback in nation) from Mercer Island. Sarkisian started off this recruiting season nicely landing Lindquist back in May. After that it was downhill as Dozier immediately eliminated the Huskies choosing the California Golden Bears(he has no considered going to in state rival Washington State Cougars). Then Russell chose Notre Dame Fighting Irish on the day the Huskies lost to the Baylor Bears in the Alamo Bowl. The Huskies then recently lost Garnett who eliminated the Huskies rather quickly to divisional rival Stanford Cardinal. Now today Zach Banner who is the bioligical son of the greatest Huskies offensive lineman in history Lincoln Kennedy. Banner is going to conference rival USC Trojans meaning Sarkisian went just one for five on the big in state recruits which is good for 20.0% which isn't going to get the job done at all. This recruiting year is bringing up memories of the "Lazy Recruiter" also known as Tyrone Willingham.

When Tyrone Willingham was the Huskies head coach he had a reputation as being a lazy recruiter who spent too much time on his golf game and not enough time recruiting. One of the main reasons Sarkisian was hired was his love for recruiting and supposedly being a great recruiter. During Willingham's career with the Huskies his recruiting classes were ranked 55th, 35th, 29th and 14th while at Washington. His average class was ranked 33.25 nationally and 5.7 in the Pac-10. Which isn't that good but still better than Sarkisian who has seen his classes ranked 66th, 11th, 22nd and currently 46th. Sarkisian's average class ranking is 35.75 and 6.5 in the conference. Sarkisian is actually recruiting at a slightly worse clip than the lazy recruiter did. Luckily for Sarkisian signing day is a day away meaning he still has time(be it very short) to salvage this recruiting class as he has his eyes set out on some major recruits from out of conference.

If you believe the reports the Huskies are trying to poach two California recruits with the recent hires of Tosh Lupoi and Justin Wilcox. Sarkisian is after Shaq Thompson from Grant Union High School in Sacramento, California. Thompson is the #1 overall safety in the nation and a five star recruit. In fact Thompson is the #3 player overall out of all positions in the nation. The Huskies are also in on Jordan Payton of Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California. Payton is a four star recruit and #15 wide receiver in the nation. The Huskies are also hoping to close the deal on Brandon Beaver from Dominguez High School in Compton, California. Beaver is a three star recruit #27 cornerback in the nation. If the Huskies can land those three to go along with Jeff Lindquist and quarterback Cyler Miles(4 star quarterback, #13th in the country) from Mullen High School in Denver Colorado that is a pretty solid class. The key is since Sarkisian let the fence get broken for the state is to steal from other opponents backyards like what had happened to him.

This is a big time for Sarkisian to steal other recruits as his own state has turned on him. If he can salvage this class with what just happened that would be huge. The state of Washington no longer has a fence around it like Sarkisian had promised. Perhaps he can make up for it with some big out of state recruits which would be nice. I haven't given up on Sarksian as a recruiter yet just this year far as this state is concerned was pretty bad.




As I finished this post Sarkisian did just land Shaq Thompson so feel free to mock this post as this post is really outdated.

Do recruiting sites do more harm than good for their respective programs?

By Kshell


Never in the history of media as a single "WOOF!!! WOOF!!! WOOF!!!" cause so much controversy but that was the case last night on twitter. When Washington Huskies head coach Steve Sarkisian tweeted that tweet that typically means he just signed a new recruit. Per NCAA rules Sarkisian isn't allowed to say who. There had been rumors for a few weeks now that three-star(was a four-star last week) cornerback Brandon Beaver from Dominguez high school from Compton, California was going to commit to the Huskies soon. So without even talking to him first Crazy Ruth Robbins of Realdawg reported that Beaver was a Husky. After Dave "Softy" Mahler of KJR had retweeted that she quickly backed off that report which started a giant twitter war. Soon after Dawgman.com had reported Beaver was also coming to the Huskies. Beaver who is only 18 years old about to embark on his biggest decision of his life had his moment taken away from him. Now Beaver is going on his trip to Oklahoma Sooners and the Arizona Wildcats. The Huskies could lose out on Beaver when it is all said and done considering 20 years ago this wouldn't have been a problem Beaver would be a Husky now he might be just another cautionary tale of yet another recruit lost at the hands of crazy Ruth Robbins. So you have to wonder do these recruiting sites do more harm for their school they represent than good?

When crazy Ruth(you can see she has killed Huskies recruiting in the past with this picture on James Montgomery's page) tweeted that Softy Mahler retweeted that. A day after blasting me saying he would only quote a credible source he had no problem quoting crazy Ruth despite her being known for jumping the gun. Immediately after crazy Ruth had said she hadn't spoke to Beaver. Then Softy was upset(rightfully so as he looks dumb by default) with Crazy Ruth which then proceeded to be the most entertaining 15 minutes of twitter war I've seen. In this case Softy was 100% correct in questioning crazy Ruth who in returned pissed off the "Husky commit" Brandon Beaver. He actually tweeted about Ruth saying "Ruth is something else...SMH...sad to say". Beaver wanted to let his family and friends know first hand. He wanted to enjoy this special moment of his life that he'll forever remember instead it was all ruined by crazy Ruth who is only in the business to help herself and herself only. She can care less about the Huskies program and the damage she has constantly done to this football program. She isn't the only guilty one in this mess as her rival recruiting site Dawgman.com also reported this. Then Softy Mahler had Chris Fetters on as a guest today and Fetters unintentionally took heat off crazy Ruth and put it on his site instead.

Today on Softy Mahler's show Dawgman writer Chris Fetters was on there. Fetters did more damage than good for his site today. The most telling quote was him saying "I'm only in this business to put Dick's burgers in my stomach and shoes on my feet" translation I'm in this for me and me only screw the program. Dawgman in the past has sat on their hands on key information such as Tyrone Willingham knowing that had they came out to say he needs to go good chance he would have been let go heading into 2008. Instead they protected him and the Huskies went 0-12 in the process. Fetters and crazy Ruth are showing that these recruiting sites don't give a shit about the Huskies, the kids involved or the people they hurt. They are in this business about themselves and themselves only. Kim Grinolds the site owner did his best politician act on Mahler's facebook page today trying to clean up the big steaming pile of crap that Fetters had put on his fanbase as subscribers are being lost by the minute. That is the problem when you have two sites targeting the same material to the same fanbase and those two absolutely hate each other. In the end once again the program and the fans are the ones who are hurt the most. Their level of selfishness may have cost the Huskies a talented cornerback which this program has been starving for since the 2000 Rose Bowl championship team.

In conclusion, this town isn't big enough for two recruiting sites. One has to go and while Dawgman looks bad today that option is clearly Crazy Ruth. Husky booster Bill Fleenor has stated Steve Sarkisian and Huskies athletic director Scott Woodward aren't happy with crazy Ruth and her credentials might be finally revoked which is a move that has been long overdue. At some point these guys need to have a soul and let these kids celebrate the moment. Unless these kids personally say to them they are going to their school they should remain quiet. Like Mahler has stated and I believe him he has sat on key information for the better of the school.  Fetters and crazy Ruth showed their true colors today and last night. They showed they care about their own personal gain than the team they supposedly cheer for on Saturday's. Hopefully Beaver still comes here after the damage Crazy Ruth did today. Sarkisian will do his best to separate himself from these clowns and hopefully Beaver realizes those groups don't represent the Husky fanbase at all.