On one of the biggest days in the college football calendar, when the hours and hours of phone calls, visits and text messages come to an end, University of Washington coach Steve Sarkisian admitted he could have used a nap.
The push to this year’s national letter of intent signing day was a grueling and seemingly endless grind. So despite his sharp suit and his upbeat voice, there was weariness about Sarkisian. The past few weeks of nonstop recruiting, including an odd 72-hour stretch full of twists and turns, had taken their toll.
“I’m tired,” he said, smiling. “Recruiting has gotten to a point where we’ve had kids that we’ve had committed to us for months and months and months and even at the end, at the 11th hour, you’re still talking to those kids every hour, on the hour. You can’t take anything for granted. It’s the nature of the game of the rules which we’re playing by. You have to recruit everybody, all of these 25 guys up until that fax comes in. That part is a bit exhausting.”
In the end, it was worth the exhaustion. The 2012 recruiting class, which at times looked like it might be a lost cause, turned into one of the better classes in the conference and country.
Scout.com rated it the fifth best class in the Pacific-12 Conference and 22nd in the country, while Rivals.com also rated the class fifth in the conference and 20th overall.
“I think it (addresses) a lot of our needs but yet brings in some very talented kids that aren’t just about filling a need, that are going to have some special qualities that will elevate our football team that make us better,” Sarkisian said. “When you look from the quarterback situation to running back to wide receiver, o-line, d-line, linebackers, defensive backs as well as specialists. I think it’s extremely complete. We cover a lot of bases. And at the end of the day, we’re better for it, and not just from a physical standpoint but a mental standpoint.”
Easily thetop recruit of the class was five-star safety Shaq Thompson out of Grant High in Sacramento. The former Cal commit is considered the No. 1 safety by Rivals and Scout.
“As everyone called it, the big fish in all this thing for us was to get Shaq Thompson,” Sarkisian said. “It’s just awesome. This kid is a tremendous football player. He’s got tremendous work ethic, he’s an excellent leader, but he’s also 6-2, 215 pounds playing safety who can run, played tailback in high school, is not afraid to put his face on anybody coming across the middle of the field, which I think is important. He’s a very intimidating figure back there and (I) couldn’t be more fired up to have Shaq as part of our program.”
Thompson leads a group of four defensive backs the Huskies signed for the class. It was a position of need after teams drilled them last season through the air.
Besides Thompson, Sarkisian lured three-star cornerbacks Brandon Beaver and Cleveland Wallace away from Cal and Oregon State, respectively. The Huskies also added Darien Washington, whom Sarkisian said can play corner or safety.
“It’s an area where we absolutely nailed it,” Sarkisian said. “It was a big need for us. It was something we wanted to focus our attention on and we really did.”
Signing day followed the same pattern that the last few weeks of recruiting had established with a few surprises.
The biggest stunner was four-star wide receiver Jordan Payton out of Oaks Christian in Westlake Village, Calif. On Tuesday, Payton announced live on ESPNU he was going to Washington. On Wednesday, he backed out of that statement and signed with UCLA.
While that loss was bad, it was the apparent wavering by prized quarterback commit Cyler Miles that had Sarkisian and his staff sweating.
Miles, a four-star quarterback out of Mullen High in Denver, was supposed to sign his letter of intent in the morning. But he decided to postpone it until later in the day as he weighed his options for going to Washington or USC.
In the end, he chose the Huskies.
“I committed there for a reason, and I had to stay loyal,” Miles told local media. “I mean, I love it up there. It’s just the place for me, I can’t put it any other way.”
Miles, along with Mercer Island’s Jeff Lindquist, give Washington two outstanding quarterback prospects. And with the departure of Nick Montana to a junior college, leaving just Keith Price and redshirt Derrick Brown, the two freshmen will have to be ready to compete.
“We needed to” Sarkisian said of signing two quarterbacks. “Our numbers are a little scary right now, quite honestly. We are light. You should have five on your roster. Right now, we will be sitting on four come the fall. The dynamic is we have to get these young guys ready to play – Derrick Brown and the young guys coming in.”
While the Huskies avoided any more surprise defections, they did had some unexpected additions, most notably Pio Vatuvei, a four-star defensive linemen from Patterson, Calif. Vatuvei was originally committed to USC, but a late phone call on Tuesday helped sway him to Washington.
“Anytime you can go into California and get a defensive lineman when that big school down there is on him, that’s a feather in our cap about getting Pio on board,” Sarkisian said. “He’s a special talent, 6-3, 270 pounds coming out of high school as a defensive end is a real … athlete that can come in and do some things right off the bat.”
The big out-of-state signees helped offset the losses of the top in-state talent. With five top Washington players choosing to go elsewhere, Sarkisian had to adjust.
“I would’ve loved to have gotten all of those guys,” he said. “The reality of it is they are doing what’s best for them and they are going to tremendous places and I wish them the best of luck. They are all good kids.”
Washington did sign five in-state recruits who were not quite as heralded.
“There will come a day when every kid in the state of Washington dreams and hopes of playing for the Huskies,” Sarkisian said. “We’re just not quite there yet and we’ll get there. It’s just we are not quite there yet. But there will be a day when we will have to turn some kids down, unfortunately. But the reality of it is those kids are going to tremendous places and wish them the best of luck.”
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
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