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Featured Fanpost: UW Needs in Recruiting

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

To warn anyone who reads this article, I am not a writer nor am I in a profession that requires any type of writing ability. It is recruiting time once again and I felt that I would shed a little light on the subject and give my opinions for anyone who cares. Personally I love the recruiting season much like the NFL draft season. It is fun to see the new faces on your team and the potential and renewed hope that comes with each class. A couple of things I would like to point out about this article is that first, I will not assume any position changes even though there undoubtedly will be and also when I am talking about a player and what year they are, I am talking about next season. I will be going position by position and addressing the depth and needs at each position. When I say commits needed it means what I believe the minimum amount of recruits this staff needs in this class at that position. In no way am I saying that that is a maximum number or that if they have more recruits then what I say at that position they are wasting scholarships. Much like the NFL draft I will probably be wrong with my assumptions and guesses about what will happen, but that’s okay.

The Offense

QB: I figured I would start with an easy one. We all know that next season will be a three man QB competition between Lindquist, Miles and Williams. They are all high profile elite 11 players, so the chances that at least one of them will succeed are high. They all are also young so whoever wins the job should be around for at minimum 2 seasons. One issue that may come up is that depending on who wins the job we may lose at least one guy to transfer. Because they are high profile players I would highly doubt that Miles or Williams would want to sit on the bench. If this happens we will only have two scholarship QBs on the roster which is dangerous. Unfortunately, anyone who follows recruiting knows that almost all QBs commit very early so that they will be "THE GUY" in the recruiting class. Because of this I do not believe we will see a QB commit to this class.

QB commits needed: 0

Current commits: 0

RB/FB: Bishop Sankey was a hell of a running back. But he will not be back next year. Although I believe everyone here would love to see Cooper come back and be an explosive starter, he is coming off of three knee injuries. The most likely starters at RB will be Callier or Washington. Callier will be a senior and Washington will be a redshirt sophomore. Cooper will be a senior, but may have some eligibility because he was held out of playing consecutive seasons for medical reasons. So we will see what happens with that. The last player that we have not seen anything from yet is Lavon Coleman. He is a bigger back, similar to Washington and will be a redshirt freshman next season. Because we have seen nothing from him yet I will not assume he will be a key contributor or starter, but acknowledge it as a possibility. They will probably need at least one RB commit in the class. I would assume that the recruit will redshirt or at least be a backup next season. FB I will not really address because we have a young one and really didn’t utilize the position much this season.

RB commits needed: 1

Current commits: 0

TE: Like RB we are losing a big time player in ASJ. Although his numbers were not eye popping this season he improved his blocking and I am sure was keyed on by defenses at times. Behind him we have Michael Hartvigson who will be a senior. Other than him we have many unknowns in David Ajuma a redshirt freshman, and two move type TE’s in Joshua Perkins a junior and Darrell Daniels who will be a sophomore. None of those names really jump out at me except Daniels. We need solid TEs for our 2 TE sets. Since we do not know how good Ajuma is and we also do not know much about Daniels at TE or if he will stay at the position, we will need some depth at this position beyond next season.

TE recruits needed: 1

Current Recruits: 2 (Chase Blakely, Drew Sample)

WR: This is a position that may not appear to look like a position of need, but when you dig into it a little we may need more receiver recruits then you would think. First off, I believe Kasen will return for his senior year. Along with him we will have Stringfellow who will be a sophomore. Others of note would be John Ross, Jaydon Mickens and Marvin Hall. Two of those three will be juniors and Ross will be a sophomore. What concerns me about this group is what will happen in two years. Kasen will be gone after next season and it would not be unreasonable to assume that either Stringfellow and/or Ross may forgo their senior seasons because they have NFL type potential. As of now Kasen and Stringfellow are the only two WR that are over 6 feet tall. We will need more big bodies at WR in two seasons. The reason I am stressing this now is because just like the OL most freshmen do not play much at WR because they are too raw. That would mean that if we didn’t get a 6 foot tall recruit this year, we could potentially not see a new taller big body receiver on the field for 3 years. If we knew Daniels was moving back to WR I would be less concerned. I feel this position needs to be addressed in some way this recruiting cycle, and definitely will be next recruiting cycle.

WR recruits needed: 2

Current Recruits: 0

OL: This is another group that can always use depth and talent. Next season we will have 4 seniors and 1 Junior on the line. That means that in 2 seasons we will only have 1 returning starter on the O-line. While I am confident in our new O-line coach, any time you have that much turnover in a position you will need all the help you can get. Depth at the O-line position includes Jake Eldrekamp who will be a sophomore, Shane Brostek (who hopefully redshirts) and will be a junior, Dane Crane a freshman, Taylor Hindy a sophomore, Andrew Kirkland a freshman and Coleman Shelton a freshman. While there are others on the line, these are the main players that will probably have playing time after next season. This unit has been underwhelming the last few years. I know that we are all hoping that some of these young players can rise up in two years and make this unit strong. But I would assume as the coaching staff probably is, that they will need to bring in a lot more talent at this position. This team will need to add more bodies to increase the level of competition and talent at the line.

OL recruits needed: 3

Current recruits: 2 (Matt James, John Turner)

I hope this helps you all with what we may see with the recruiting class. I also hope you could follow my logic. Please debate and disagree all you want, I encourage discussion. Also make any corrections as I am sure there are mistakes. According to my necessities for offense they need at least 7 commits. I actually believe that there will be at least 9 commits to the offense because they may get more OL and they currently have two TEs. If you enjoy reading this article I will write another about the defensive side of the ball. Best wishes, GO DAWGS.