It is the week before Christmas and this is the last weekend coaches can recruit before the dead period begins which extends through the holidays. Steve Sarkisian is back in LA recruiting the Southland and in his spare time helping the Trojans get ready for the Rose Bowl. Come Monday the Trojans will be a full time job for him on until that final goodbye on January 2nd.
What we have noticed over the past week is a lot of excitement that has translated well on the recruiting front. Washington currently has the 77th ranked recruiting class according to Scout.com but expect that to rise to somewhere to the middle 30's before it is all said or done.
Washington should always have a top 15-20 recruiting class. Expect the Huskies to always be there once Sarkisian gets the ball rolling. Willingham on the other hand only had one class in the category the four years he was at UW. Sarkisian's low water mark represents the norm of what Willingham did for the most part while at UW.
Molly Yanity of the Seattle PI shares what she knows about recruiting this morning in her blog and came up with a couple of names I had forgotten to mention the other day that she received from U Dub Sports which is the Rivals site. The focus of that site is usually basketball but every once in awhile they do something on football to attract new membership. For my money I prefer Dawgman which frankly is the best Husky recruiting site on the planet.
On the coaching front a couple of names emerged on offense. The first is Kennedy Pola who is rumored to be in line for the RB coach job. Pola almost came to Seattle with Neuheisel but decided against it because his wife didn't like the weather. They have reportedly divorced so that hurdle should be out of the way. Pola and Sark coached together for three years at USC and they are pretty good friends so that rumor probably has some legs. Pola is a very good coach and a strong recruiter.
The other rumor coming out of the Southland is that former Michigan QB coach Scott Loefler has accepted an offer to join the staff at Washington in the same capacity. This would be a really solid hire that leaves us relieved after all the talk about Trojan GA Yogi Roth joining Sark in Seattle. Once again you are talking about an experienced coach who can help elevate the play of Jake Locker.
On the DC front we should have an answer as soon as today. I have been rooting for Rocky Long but I heard last night that UW hasn't been in contact with him. He commented to a newspaper that he had been amused while reading the Internet to find out where he is going next. As of last night it looked like Tulane or Fresno State. Once again the speculation turned to current Louisville DC Ron English who may be more interested in the head coaching job at Eastern Michigan.
No word yet on Charlie Camp who media outlets insisted had been hired to coach LB's at UW. That didn't happen last week which makes me think that they are waiting to see what the DC's specialty is before making that final hire on the defensive side of the ball.
No official word yet on the WR position but it is known that Sark covets former UW coach Eric Yarber who is currently with Dennis Erickson at ASU. UW could offer him more money but it would be tough for him to leave a man he has coached with most of his career for a few more dollars. When you factor in the coast of living in Seattle compared to Phoenix those dollars don't really add up.
California TE/ST coach Pete Alamar is a name that keeps coming up. Word out of Berkeley is that he will be staying at this point. We haven't heard any other names yet for this position but expect something to surface over the weekend.
As far as timing goes expect the bulk of the staff should be finalized before January 2nd when full time recruiting resumes and UW starts having some big recruiting weekends on campus.