Recruiting future Huskies currently an uphill battle

Published 10:34 pm Wednesday, October 15, 2008

SEATTLE — With a weekend off last week, seven Washington football coaches — everyone but head coach Tyrone Willingham and his offensive and defensive coordinators — hit the road to do some recruiting.

Just how much they were able to accomplish remains to be seen, but there is very little doubt at this point that Husky coaches are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to recruiting.

The combination of an 0-5 start and a head coach seemingly on his way out has many recruits staying away from Washington or waiting to see how things shake out.

“It’s hard,” offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said of recruiting. “You’ve got to remember, recruiting is sales and the sale is very competitive. When you’re competition is a little bit wounded, the jabs start coming out. Everybody in this league is making all of our recruits on the West Coast aware of what the deal is. It’s a tough struggle right now. I’m not going to lie about that.”

Willingham said in August that many recruits are “waiting and watching” before they pick a college. And now?

“I think they’re still waiting and watching,” he said.

So far, the Huskies have received commitments from six players, and the most highly regarded recruit of that group, Garfield High School defensive tackle Deandre Coleman — the state’s top-ranked recruit — has since de-committed.

The five players still committed to Washington are linebacker Andru Pulu from Federal Way, safety Nathan Felner from Fresno, Calif., cornerback Aaron Grymes from Seattle, cornerback Kenneth Pinkard from Dallas and quarterback Keith Price from Bellflower, Calif.

Felner was rumored to be looking at other schools, but he said Tuesday that he is still committed to the Huskies.

“That’s not right,” he said of the Internet reports that he was planning to visit other schools. “Right now I’m committed and that’s all I can say. If I was going to take a visit I would make sure it would be OK with the coaches from Washington.”

Felner did admit that a situation like the one at Washington can have an effect on recruits.

“I’m committed to the school regardless, but it does affect me, because I like coach Willingham on top of the school,” he said. “I like coach Willingham a lot and I hope it all works out. I guess the stability is going to affect recruiting, because kids want to know who the coach is going to be.”

While the short-term future seems brighter for a Washington football team playing so many freshmen and sophomores, UW teams four and five years from now could be in trouble given the number of freshmen not redshirting this season — 12 of 25 have played so far — and how few could be enrolling next fall.

With so few recruits in the fold so far, the Huskies’ 2009 class is currently ranked 91st nationally by Rivals.com and 80th by Scout.com. Both recruiting sites have the Huskies last in the Pac-10.

Despite all the bad news, Willingham maintains that his coaches are getting positive feedback from recruits.

“The reception of the message I think has been positive,” he said. “What’s obviously been our dilemma in the situation that we’re in is that they’re kind of waiting to see exactly what’s going to happen with coaching, etc. But the message has been positive, the things that we talk about, our history, our tradition, their opportunities — all things that I think are important to young men — they seem to be receiving well.”

At this point, coaches know that their best shot at a recruit is to sell them on the University of Washington, and not a coaching staff that could be gone before those athletes graduate from high school.

“I think anybody that is serious about Washington right now is coming because they’re serious about the university, and that’s why you should come to begin with,” Lappano said. “Kids that make their choices for the right reasons come for the education and the University of Washington. Great education, great city and all that, but you’ve got to remember there are guys out there slamming us, so … kids are affected by that. They hear all that kind of stuff.”

Nothing new on Locker: Washington quarterback Jake Locker met with a hand specialist Wednesday, but results weren’t available when Tyrone Willingham met with reporters.

“I haven’t gotten the reports back yet,” Willingham said. “My best guess it will probably continue along the lines of what we initially anticipated, and I think that was six to eight weeks or so.”

On Tuesday, Lappano said he thought it was unlikely that Locker will return this season.

Other health updates: Willingham said that senior guard Casey Bulyca, who had his knee scoped Tuesday, is probably done for the season, though he was not yet sure of the exact damage to Bulyca’s knee.

Freshman tight end Kavario Middleton was back in pads Wednesday after sitting out Tuesday’s practice. It turned out that he was sidelined not because of the knee injury that has been bothering him since the BYU game, but rather because he had his wisdom teeth removed.

Tailback David Freeman, who has a pair of injured ankles, was not in pads Wednesday. Lappano said Tuesday that he is expecting to have three healthy tailbacks against Oregon State: Terrance Dailey, Willie Griffin and Brandon Johnson.

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog