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.

Huskies land #1 safety in country Shaq Thompson!

By Kshell

In sports one player can truly make the difference in the perception of your team. That point was further proven tonight when Grant Union High School star Shaq Thompson tweeted he was going to the Washington Huskies. On the same day the Huskies recruiting hit rock bottom in the Sarkisian era as they landed just one of five recruits in state the Huskies landed the biggest recruit since Reggie Williams. Shaq Thompson is a five star safety from out of state(Sacramento, California) who is the #1 ranked safety in the nation. He is also the #3 overall player in the entire country. For Sarkisian this is the third five star recruit he has landed in the last two years. For the Huskies they moved up from 46th to 34th in the country according to scout.com and moved up to 26th according to rivals. com. The Huskies aren't done recruiting yet as they plan to steal another highly recruited player from the California Golden Bears four star wide receiver Jordan Payton. The California Golden Bears who once had a top five class in the country have lost the #2 and #3 overall players in the country in a span of 36 hours to conference foes. This move for Sarkisian was a giant move for this recruiting class as he still has one more day to land some key kids.

The Huskies are landing the #1 safety in the country from out of state which is very significant. 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 a great athlete who can play both safety positions as well as both corner positions. He can and will play some receiver/running back this season too so expect some trick plays with Thompson. Thompson is electric in the open field so expect him to return kicks and when he has an interception he is looking to score. Thompson will also play baseball like another Huskies safety who was a legend Lawyer Milloy. Thompson along with teammates Sean Parker and James Sample(Thompson's cousin) form a great trio of safeties for the Huskies bringing them back to the days of Safety U.

There was a time when the Huskies were safety university starting with Shane Pahukoa and highly recruited Tommie Smith from California. That tandem helped the Huskies to three Rose Bowls and a national championship. Following that terrific tandem was the greatest safety in Huskies history Lawyer Milloy who was first team all pac-10 twice and an all-american. Milloy like Thompson also played baseball and led the team in tackles in 1994 and 1995. Milloy would go on to the NFL where he won a super bowl and made several Pro Bowl appearances. In fact Milloy on twitter was very influential in landing Thompson as those two were tweeting back and forth. Following up Milloy was another future NFL player in Tony Parish who was also first team all Pac-10 as well. After Parish the Huskies enjoyed the tandem of Hakim Akbar and the late Curtis Williams who helped the Huskies earn a Rose Bowl title in 2000. After that there was a drop off until 2006 when C.J. Wallace was named first team all Pac-10 and eventually made the NFL. The Huskies now with Parker, Sample and Thompson are returning back to that era of greatness with the safety play. Milloy wasn't the only one who recruited Thompson hard. Instead the man that athletic director Scott Woodward paid a lot of money towards came through right off the bat.

After the defense let the Huskies down in the Alamo Bowl Sarkisian and Woodward recognized changes needed to be made. They hired former Oregon Ducks players Justin Wilcox and Peter Sirmon as coaches. Then the Huskies stole former California coach and player Tosh Lupoi to their staff. Lupoi was named the recruiter of the year in 2010 and was a big reason why the Golden Bears had a top five recruiting class. The Huskies finished second on Thompson originally to California but when hiring Wilcox(coached Thompson's brother) and Lupoi(played with Thompson's brother and is very close to Thompson) that changed everything. Lupoi is a big reason why many expect the Huskies to land four star wide receiver Jordan Payton tomorrow. Lupoi has been on the job less than a month and has already made an impact on this recruiting class. As CEO of this program Sarkisian deserves a lot of credit as well for scouting out Lupoi. Woodward who is basically the owner of this program spent enough money to convince Lupoi to leave his alma matter for Washington. Lupoi will truly make his name with the Huskies next season when he has a whole season to recruit. Remember this year the Golden Bears were ranked in the top five then Lupoi leaves and they are now ranked 33rd while Washington is up to 34th. Lupoi is the Mariano Rivera of this staff which is what they needed. The knock on Sarkisian is that he can get guys interested in the Huskies that the Huskies have no business being in the running for but can't close. Well he has his closer now so look out Pac-12 here comes the Dawgs!

This was a huge land by the Sarkisian staff on the same day he lost out on Banner. Tomorrow's headlines won't care about losing out on Banner as Sarkisian went out of state and landed a top five player in the nation to decommit and come to Washington. For the third straight year now it is looking like the Huskies will have a ranked recruiting class. Unlike last two years where Sarkisian wrapped up the classes early this year was at the very last second and there are more recruits to be had in the next 48 hours. Sarkisian stepped up and replaced his staff admitting he couldn't do it alone. Whether Lupoi or Sarkisian landed Thompson doesn't matter. What matters is the Huskies got a premiere defensive player for the first time in a very long time. Recruiting matters and the Huskies just knocked one out of the ball park with two outs in the ninth inning when everyone had counted them out for the dead this recruiting season including myself.

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.