How good a recruiter is Tyrone Willingham?

"He must be good," said Butch Goncharoff, the coach at Bellevue High School. "He had a lot of ground to make up."

Maybe between them — Willingham's first recruiting class at Washington and Keith Gilbertson's last — they will get it right, get the Huskies back to where they've been.

First of all, bless Bellevue, for without the astonishingly successful prep program, Willingham's first recruiting attempt at Washington would have been dismissed out of hand.

Not that there aren't other players in the group of 13 recruits announced yesterday, but right now there aren't any but a couple of transfers from other Division I schools — quarterback Johnny DuRocher and cornerback Chris Handy — who figure to be of much help in the immediate future.

In viewing the class, the importance of running back J.R. Hasty and linebacker E.J. Savannah of Bellevue taking a chance on Willingham can't be overstated. Neither can his ability to sway them.

Although he was the state's player of the year, as a recruit Hasty may have gotten lost in the publicity surrounding Timberline's Jonathan Stewart, or actually been a victim of the successful system at Bellevue.

"All I know," said Willingham, "is that after seeing his tapes I offered him a scholarship."

Gilbertson hung back on Hasty, as Rick Neuheisel had done on Nate Robinson. Was Hasty fast enough, was Robinson big enough?

Hasty's numbers were amazing. At Qwest Field, he rushed for 274 yards and scored four times against De La Salle. In his most important regular-season games, he rushed for 280 yards against Liberty and 329 against Issaquah. In the showdown against Stewart, he rushed for 318. He scored six touchdowns in each of those three games.

"The bigger the games, the better they played," said Goncharoff of Hasty and Savannah. "I've heard people say J.R. was a product of the system. Well, he would have been terrific in any system."

Imagine if Hasty is as good as Greg Lewis was.

Willingham didn't start recruiting Hasty until it was almost too late.

"You need time to establish a relationship," said Willingham, "and we didn't have much time."

The relationships with Hasty and Savannah were brief, but significant.

"I really believe he's the right person to coach at Washington," said Hasty, who overcame both a last-minute home visit from Penn State's Joe Paterno and Washington's 10-loss season.

Said Savannah on television: "(Willingham) is the type of person who looks straight at you. It's almost like he is looking right through your soul."

Chris Tormey, the Washington assistant coach held over from Gilbertson's staff, was one of the school's best recruiters when he worked for Don James. He recruited Napoleon Kaufman and Mark Brunell, not to mention Tony Parrish.

"Coach Willingham is very similar to coach James," said Tormey, "in demeanor, organizational skills and attention to detail.

"Recruiting is hard work, and no one has a better work ethic than coach Willingham. He is very impressive one-on-one. He is concerned about the welfare of the student-athlete, and I think that comes across."

Willingham's class won't be rated very highly, lacking both numbers and universally-sought athletes. He was given too few scholarships and too little time to be appropriately judged.

In assessing Washington's future, it is better, I think, to look at the last two classes. The 23 players recruited by Gilbertson a year ago — heavy on linemen — and the one Willingham gathered, which has a top-notch quarterback and running back if nothing else.

Willingham recruited only one offensive lineman, but there were five in last year's class — Tyler Ashby, Casey Bulyca, Ryan Bush, Nathan Flowers and Jovon O'Connor — all of whom redshirted.

Four of the defensive linemen from that class — Greyson Gunheim, Jordan White-Frisbee, Caesar Rayford and Erik Lobos — played last season, Gunheim and White-Frisbee starting.

Tormey remembers recruiting Parrish, who has started for years in the NFL at safety.

"It was us and nobody else," said Tormey. "You have to get a list of kids and then be just very diligent in checking them out. It's hard work."

Tormey thinks Chris Stevens, a running back and linebacker from Mojave, Calif., could be in the Parrish mold.

"A lot of people didn't know about him," said Tormey, "but he has excellent speed, is hard-working, comes from a good home life and is a three-sport kid."

Neuheisel's classes were highly ranked, but they had too many defections and disappointments.

Willingham said he gave each prospect a physical, hopeful of avoiding pre-existing injuries that plagued some of Neuheisel's recruits. He said there were checks of class attendance, anything that could reveal character and commitment.

The Huskies will have no more scholarships next year than they had this year.

Improvement will come not with numbers, but with good coaching and solid recruiting.

Which sounds a lot why Willingham was hired in the first place.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com