The local recruiting disconnect

Walker Williams (Tacoma Baptist)…“Those UW fans on the blogs and everything are ridiculas. 1st I’m garbage and they don’t need me, then josh is weak cause he’s not goin either, not u aren’t a good player cause u ain’t goin to UW. I wonder if they realize how much bein jerks to UW recruits who decide not to go there hurts washingtons recruitment. I don’t think they realize that all the in state guys know each other and lots of them are friends. They can dig their own graves tho!”

a lot can happen in the next 30 days or so. Sark wants to win and take the program to the next level. The firing displayed this. You want football players who want to be part of a program. It will be interesting to see what happens to Oregon. Might be able to capture some of their talent when the NCAA finally sanctions them.

Like, if a kid from the South picks Auburn over Bama? We’renothing compared to them.

I cannot fault an offensive linemen for wanting to play up front for Wisconsin. They put offensive linemen in the league every year and they obviously produce top talent. What I do fault him for is his lack of understanding how message boards work.

Side Note- I think Pitt made a great hire by taking Chryst, Wisconsins Off. Coordinator. Pitt is a blue collar area with lots of great linemen and running backs at their disposal. HUGE upgrade over Graham in my opinion.

Obviously something is amiss with 4 key guys heading elsewhere. But even if the Kelly’s are correct, we don’t have the details of who and what they were referring to. It could well be whispers at Bellevue since we have not yet offered Hasty and only recently Eldrenkamp. Perhaps it’s down at Lakes since we did not offer Webb and Manea. You could make the case that the staff has been targeting California players ahead of each of these guys. Maybe it’s the pressure tactic they used on Caleb Smith. Whatever the issue is – and perception is most likely the issue more than actual behavior (just my guess).

Let’s look a the 4 that are going elsewhere:

Russell – we offered early and clearly wanted him bringing him in for a Dec visit, his coach said the staff did a great classly job recruiting him (does that sound like an unhappy coach?); I think we need to know why his mom dislikes UW, this could have absolutely nothing to do with the coaches, that seems more logical than anything; I just wish he would have eliminated us earlier if his mom never was going to let him go to UW

Garnett – obviously we offered him a long time ago and I cannot for one minute think that the staff let up on him, that just doesn’t make any sense; I recall the Dawgman guys even a few years ago after he first go offered by UCLA saying he was already looking out of state; seems we were all just hopeful but never was realistic for whatever reason, and we don’t know if this has anything to do with the coaches and their approach/effort/focus on Garnett (that we’ve heard)

Dozier – we also offered him very early and clearly wanted him, he goes to a school that does well feeding UW; he wants to be a WR and we said CB which is probably what will happen to him at Cal anyway; for some reason he very early targeted Cal and it seems for personal reasons he was simply looking to leave; again I’ve yet to see any hint he was unhappy with the approach or effort of the staff (unless the lack of offers for the other Lakes guys played some factor we haven’t heard about)

Williams – this is the recruit that could be the center of the issues; we didn’t offer him super early, but neither did we wait until late in the game; we know he is close with Garnett, Banner, and seeing the posts also Russell to a degree; he picked Wisc long before any of this instate recruiting churn came up; perhaps as JB said, he wasn’t treated with the same level of emphasis as Garnett and Banner but how could he really be surprised by that; maybe he felt he was only being offered to entice the other two guys; either way, looks like we didn’t push hard early and he didn’t like it; and of anyone is he the one putting bugs in Russell and other’s ears? If so, was it enough to influence the decisions? When you look at this offer sheet it’s commensurate with his 3 star ranking and to some degree it’s interesting that Wisc found him and offered early – they don’t typically come out this way and are by far the best offer he got, though they didn’t offer the other two – they just saw something in him and probably saw him as a good developmental prospect.

When we look at the rest of the instate class, this rumor hasn’t hurt w/ Lindquist, English, Rector, Dean, etc. At the end of the day, we just don’t know what this rumor/issue really is, where it’s coming from and how it really has impacting things in reality. This could have nothing to do with why we have swung and missed on these big names this year. This also doesn’t mean Sark and the new staff don’t have some work to do to get a better sales pitch going and build better relationships with HS coaches. It also makes you wonder if Cozz is the type of recruiter and coach that we need since he could be the only common thread between Williams, Garnett and Banner. He seems to have had some reputational problems during his first stint at UW. Anything to this JB that we should be hoping Sark looks to address after fixing the D staff?

I don’t understand why Russell’s mom would dislike UW so much but I sincerely hope it’s not a legitimate reason that would cause other parents to be concerned about where their kids go to college.

As for what Williams said… I’d tell him to think about the age/occupation of most of the people posting things like that and to take into account how many of them actually went to the University of Washington. Every school has its bad apples but most graduates of UW have nothing but good things to say about the school and their time there. Every other school in the country has the same crap being posted on their blogs when players commit elsewhere and of course if you live in the state you’re going to hear a lot more crap because immature people will see it as a betrayal.

Oh and if you’re a recruit: DO NOT READ DAWGMAN FORUMS OR SEATTLE TIMES BLOG COMMENTS. It can be severely hazardous to your health.

The other blog has Utah dc Sitaki the person to watch

Bob’s Seattle Times Blog

Sundoger read the same thing it’s Sitaki’s job if he wants it. UW could do alot worse I hope it’s not like holt and Sitaki does the job only time will tell. Any thoughts Mr. Berkowitz

on an unproven DC. I’d have to see a DC with 3 seasons of direct experience as DC. UW has good money to offer we need as close to a sure thing as possible.

We’ve got some good coaches coming into the league. The winners are the ones fielding good defenses.

per Bob Condotta Utah officials say Kalani Sitake is not leaving. Justin Wilcox any thoughts on him

Really I think UW just needs to pay attention to more local kids. Have scouts out to more games, make the rounds more, not think that UW is entitled to the local elites. Just my take. i also think picking up a couple tough nosed 2 or 3 star types is good for the program.

How about Tormey as a linbacker coach? He has a lot of local connections. He might not get a shot because he was on the TW staff but most always say he was a good guy and football mind.

Any chance we are looking at Zook? He was canned at Illinois recently, but I think is a pretty good coach and a defensive guy.

Probably a total shot in the dark, but it would be an interesting one…..

Go look at their recruits…top level talent….on DEFENSE. Wow, what a strange concept. Maybe he can bring one or two of those kids along for the ride. Who knows. Even so, if he can’t, hopefully he starts bringing that type of talent to the beaches of Montlake.

was that it focused on just the recruits to make its case.

And not the High School coaches around the state.

There are too many variables in just looking at the this year’s crop of kids. And didn’t we we bring pretty much all the “blue chips” last year headlined by K. Williams and ASJ?

I remember one of Sark’s first acts after the announcement of his hiring was to head out to a local HS game…see the local talent…build relations with the local coaches.

If this has been overlooked since then, the HS coaches would be among the first to know.

I like to hear what they’re thinking.