Western 100: CFB landscape shifting dramatically. How does it affect high school recruiting?
Jason Brown Jr.’s 6,281 career rushing yards and 89 touchdowns at O’Dea High School turned the explosive, downhill running back into a four-star college recruit with a flurry of Division I offers.
By the end of his colossal 2023 senior season – when Brown Jr. averaged a dozen yards per touch and carried the Fighting Irish to the 3A semifinals – the state’s third-overall recruit had netted 23 total offers. Scholarships spanned the nation, from Michigan to Alabama to hometown Washington.
But one program offered Brown Jr. the opportunity to earn instant backfield touches this fall and impact the game as a true freshman, paired with honesty and transparency from a young, newer coaching staff – Arizona State.
“Throughout my whole recruitment process, being honest was a huge thing. Like, a coaching staff being honest with me,” Brown Jr. said. “My parents being honest with me, and me being honest with myself.
“To this day, all of the things they hit on, (ASU) never sold me a dream. They have never told me anything I felt they couldn’t truly provide to me.”
The Sun Devils weren’t included in Brown Jr.’s initial top-three preferences – Washington, Oregon and Michigan State – following his junior season at O’Dea in 2022. But he soon daydreamed of a future with up-and-coming Arizona State and located his spot on the depth chart inside an aging running-backs room.
“Of course, there’s some really good guys in that room,” he said. “But I feel like one of the hardest workers that (ASU) will have seen this upcoming season.
“I feel that I’m a good guy, too.”
Brown Jr. officially visited Arizona State last Dec. 1 and committed during the early signing period on Dec. 20, per 247Sports.
“I (wanted) someplace where I feel there will be a good opportunity to be Jason Brown, not be a copy-and-paste of a guy that another university has had previously, or (for) them to try to mold me into something I’m not instead of them molding me into the best possible player I can be.”
A rapidly changing college landscape creates turbulent times throughout recruiting processes for top prospects like Brown Jr. and those in the Western 100. Constant coaching departures, recent conference realignments, and the NCAA’s decision to lift their name, image, and likeness (NIL) ban in 2021 intensifies a student-athlete’s already-hectic scramble to choose a secondary destination.
What are the nation’s top recruits considering amid the recruiting flurry? The News Tribune’s “Recruits Checklist” breaks down the factors:
A CONSTANT COACHING CAROUSEL
On Jan. 8, Michigan defeated Washington, 34-13, to capture the College Football Playoff National Championship in Houston, Texas.
Sixteen days later, both head coaches had departed.
UW’s Kalen DeBoer assumed head coaching duties at Alabama in the wake of Nick Saban’s retirement, one of the sport’s all-time great coaches who directed the Crimson Tide to six national championships between 2007-23. News broke just four days after UW’s title loss to Michigan. Since, more than a dozen Huskies have entered the transfer portal, and at least 10 have committed to new programs.
Then, a less surprising move: Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh left his alma mater, officially on Jan. 24, to coach the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers.
Promotions aren’t new. But the abruptness and frequency of such moves spurs recruits to question whether their impending commitment will translate to a long-term – and predictable – stay.
Yelm head football coach Jason Ronquillo coached the Tornados to consecutive 3A state championship appearances in 2022-23 (including a 3A title in 2022) and will graduate a pair of Big Ten commits this spring in linebackers Brayden Platt (Oregon) and Isaiah Patterson (UCLA).
“If you’ve got a number of programs to choose from, where do you go? Do you go to the place that has the greatest facilities? Do you go where you have the best relationships? Everybody’s telling you, ‘Life is about relationships,’” Ronquillo said. “You’re building relationships with (potential college coaches) over the course of six months, a year, two years.
“Then, all of a sudden, when it’s time to make a decision (on) a school… that entire staff moves. Or you’re in school for six months, and then that first offseason, that staff moves. All of those relationships you had (went) out the door.”
Harbaugh’s departure, in particular, might cost Michigan a five-star recruit: Burley wide receiver Gatlin Bair (Burley, ID) just committed to Oregon as National Signing Day approaches on Feb. 7. Early indications pointed at Bair committing to the reigning-champion Wolverines, though the loss of Harbaugh, along with Michigan strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert to the NFL, created an obvious shockwave.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning recently reaffirmed his commitment to direct the Ducks into the future in the wake of the volatile coaching carousel.
Washington, meanwhile, might add an in-state high-school recruit by coincidence. Before DeBoer’s departure from Washington, UW lacked commitments from top in-state recruits despite its status as a national championship contender.
Garfield cornerback Rahshawn Clark, one of UW’s better chances to land a four-star recruit, instead committed to Arizona but did not enroll early. Then, Wildcats head coach Jedd Fisch departed for UW to fill DeBoer’s shoes. 247Sports now projects Clark to follow Fisch and secondary coach Paul Richardson to the Huskies.
“Out of my (original) top three, two of the (entire coaching) staffs ... are at different universities,” Brown Jr. said, referencing Michigan State and Washington. “It took a while to realize what’s real and what’s fake. That’s what took so long in my process.
“And I’ve also come across amazing coaches that have moved around a lot of different places. I’ve always felt like I had a good connection with coach Kenny (Dillingham) at ASU. … Where’s the one place I can see myself being successful in the scheme? Where can I see myself being happy 365 days a year?”
NIL DEALS
A fallout from Saban’s retirement at Alabama, the Crimson Tide watched QB Julian Sayin (Carlsbad, CA), the nation’s top-ranked quarterback recruit in the 2024 class, swiftly enter the transfer portal and commit to Ohio State.
Within a week, Panini America announced a multi-year trading card deal with Sayin, which will include exclusive autographed cards found in upcoming collegiate products. The company struck similar name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with UW standouts and NFL Draft prospects Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze last September.
From perennial powers like Alabama and Ohio State to the smaller FBS and FCS programs alike, NIL deals have emerged as a top priority among recruits, 247Sports’ national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman told The News Tribune. Such deals and brand sponsorships can, for the top-flight names, generate six- or seven-figure paydays before players sign professional contracts.
“I’ve had Big Sky coaches tell me that kids are coming in on visits asking what kind of NIL they can get at a Big Sky school,” Huffman said. “Not only that, but it’s usually the first question out of their mouth.
“What playing time will I get? What will the depth chart look like? What kind of NIL deal do you offer?”
It isn’t the question college programs want to hear. Coaches at larger schools with ample NIL allotments have told Huffman: “Well, that helps us reset our expectations with that recruit when that’s the first question they’re asking. Because it becomes clear that (their commitment) is transactional, not relational or (for) professional development, so to speak.”
“It’s becoming more and more of an issue, and it’s also why you’re seeing FCS schools and (Group of Five) schools getting better players,” Huffman added. “These kids are eliminating themselves with the higher schools, and by the time they come back, NIL is not an option.”
Huffman helps disperse an anonymous recruiting questionnaire to athletes at the annual All-American Bowl, where 90 to 100 of the nation’s top recruits convene.
“When it’s anonymous, they’ll put NIL as very key in their decision,” he said. “On the record, it’s ‘coaching and development, relationships with the coaches, the opportunity to play and win a national championship, going to the NFL.’ The reality is, deep down, it’s going to be NIL – first, second, and third.”
THE NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL
What happens when student-athletes find themselves in a program that resembles nothing of what they committed to, sometimes, only months prior? What if assured playing time is no longer available, or a student-athlete changes their major and opts for a different academic setting?
If anything, the NCAA’s transfer portal is a security blanket for such circumstances, granting student-athletes freedom to explore other programs on a year-by-year basis, as coaches consistently do.
“It gives athletes leeway and options,” Yelm’s Ronquillo said. “So (if a student-athlete) is like, ‘Hey, I made a poor decision when I’m 18 years old. I have the opportunity to make up for that decision by going to another school.’ There’s benefits to it, being able to change schools when maybe you made a life decision that was just too early in the process. You can go back on a few decisions … there’s a lot of positives to it.”
247Sports’ Huffman constantly encounters the claim that the NCAA’s Transfer Portal is “killing” the recruiting landscape.
“I think that’s kind of a myth,” Huffman responded. “What it’s doing is re-calibrating recruiting. I think it’s a unique time for high school recruiting. But I don’t think it’s a dead time for high school recruiting. It’s re-calibrating the levels of the schools, and what type of players they’re getting.”
“If you’re a good player, there’s a home for you,” Brown Jr. said.
CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
The Southeastern Conference’s (SEC) announced expansion in 2021 set the wheels in motion for massive realignments, and the welcoming of Texas and Oklahoma into college football’s premier conference was the first wave of change with lasting ripple effects.
Oregon, USC, UCLA and Washington join the Big Ten this Fall 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah will join the Big 12; California and Stanford merge with the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), leaving the remnants of a “Pac-2” between Oregon State and Washington State.
The massive shakeup won’t sway most recruits’ top preferences, Huffman challenges – though it lessens the Western region’s likelihood to retain homegrown talent.
The 2020 recruiting class defied the concept of “staying home” when the state of California boasted a trio of elite quarterback prospects – C.J. Stroud, D.J. Uiagalelei, and Bryce Young – and each left for Ohio State, Clemson and Alabama, respectively, over West Coast programs.
“We’ve had West Coast kids leave the region forever. But that was the class where … if there was one thing the West was holding onto, it was quarterbacks,” Huffman said. “When three of those quarterbacks left, and two of them went on to be top (NFL) draft picks … then the following year, Emeka Egbuka [Steilacoom] and J.T. Tuimoloau [Eastside Catholic] went to Ohio State.
“With games on television on every channel, with visibility stronger outside of the western footprint, kids are having a much easier time leaving the West. I think that’s evident in this class.
“Oregon is the one counter to that, but it (relates) to their move to the Big Ten.”
Yelm’s Platt chose Oregon, the true outlier. Location mattered to the state’s number-one recruit, Ronquillo said, as it did for the UCLA-commit Patterson.
“Both (Brayden and Isaiah) stayed on the West Coast because they wanted family members to be able to see at least half of their games,” Ronquillo said.
