UW Football | Program woes hinder recruiting

The Washington Huskies are off this weekend, leaving their coaches to a task that might be even more difficult than winning a game has been — recruiting.

Coach Tyrone Willingham said Thursday the Huskies will have the NCAA-maximum seven coaches out on the road recruiting this weekend, an apparent indication that their efforts in that area aren't waning even if their futures are in serious doubt.

But try as hard as they might, UW coaches will likely run into a lot of road blocks trying to sell recruits on the Huskies.

"It's very difficult right now," said Greg Biggins, a recruiting analyst for ESPN.com. "As they say in recruiting circles, the rumor or threat of a coaching change is more damaging than the coaching change itself. Right now, you have to understand Washington is being negatively recruited like crazy by other schools ... 'if you go to Washington, welcome to the hot seat, the coaches are not going to last the year.' The players are hearing that.

"But even without a hot seat, it's hard to recruit when you haven't won many games. So add the lack of wins with the possibility of a coaching change and it makes it almost impossible to recruit at a high level."

And indeed, the Huskies could be headed to one of their worst recruiting years.

Washington has just five commitments, tied with California for the fewest number in the Pac-10. It's a group rated last in the Pac-10 and No. 86 in the nation by Scout.com, a rating that took a hit when Garfield High defensive lineman Deandre Coleman said last week he no longer considered himself committed to UW and would visit other schools, due in part to the uncertainty of the coaching situation. He reportedly visited California last weekend.

Washington's five commits include two from in-state — defensive end Andru Pulu of Federal Way and cornerback Aaron Grymes of West Seattle. Neither is rated among the top 100 nationally at their positions, though Biggins says that "Pulu has a lot of upside; because of his size [6 feet 3, 250] he could grow into a good defensive end."

The other three commits are quarterback Keith Price of St. John Bosco in Bellflower, Calif.; safety Nathan Fellner of Clovis West High in Fresno; and cornerback Kenneth Pinkard of South Oak Cliff High in Dallas.

Of the three, Price is the most touted, Biggins said.

Price is a dual-threat quarterback who is "having a monster year," Biggins said. "I like him a lot."

The 6-2, 180-pound Price was recently referred to in a story in The Long Beach Press Telegram as being "arguably as gifted a quarterback as there is in Southern California this season." In his last game, he was 12 of 15 for 201 yards and three touchdowns passing and had runs of 26, 24 and 19 yards.

Price is thought to be solid on UW.

Fellner is rated as the No. 52 safety prospect in the nation and Biggins calls him "a solid player." Pinkard, Biggins said, is an "under-the-radar" recruit who wasn't on a lot of recruiting lists before committing to UW.

Willingham said seven UW assistants would be out on the road visiting high schools. He said with seven assistants out, he would stay in Seattle.

Biggins said that while he has seen no evidence that the effort of UW coaches is lacking with their jobs uncertain, he said it is something that has happened at other schools in similar situations.

"You see that a lot," he said. "Those guys aren't going to be on the phone calling kids if they know their head coach is going to be gone. They may find themselves not as motivated to kill themselves recruiting."

Some fans have wondered if that wouldn't be a reason to make a coaching change now. But the general thought is that it wouldn't help recruiting to make a change, as recruits would be wary until they knew who the new coach would be.

Woodward: Football program gets an "F"

In an interview on 950 KJR-AM Thursday morning, UW athletic director Scott Woodward reiterated that he is not in favor of making an in-season coaching change, saying he doesn't think it's "the Washington way." Instead, he said he will evaluate it at the end of the season.

"I will look at the whole body of work," Woodward said. "If you look at this as a grade and halfway through the semester, you look at this as a midterm, we have an 'F'. But I'm going to look at the whole body of work and consider past years and situations. But it is an 'F' if you are looking at the midterm grade."

Notes

• The team practiced Thursday, then took off for the weekend before returning Sunday to begin normal game-week preparations for Oregon State on Oct. 18.

• Willingham said there were "not a lot of new things" in terms of injuries or personnel updates. The Huskies have not done as much scrimmaging during this bye week as during the previous one three weeks ago, preferring instead to get players healthy, Willingham said.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com