Pac-12 recruiting: UCLA’s big weekend, ASU looks to Texas, Smalls to Colorado and Oregon’s future QB room
The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a weekly dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports.
The following information, in his words, was provided to the Hotline on May 4 …
With spring football wrapped up, we’re entering the season of official visits. And interestingly enough, the last school to wrap up spring workouts, UCLA, will be the first school to have a major weekend of visitations. The Bruins will welcome eight prospects this weekend.
Much has been made about coach Chip Kelly’s recruiting approach since he took the job at the end of the 2017 season, especially with his heavy reliance on the transfer portal.
And up until last year, the Bruins had largely done away with hosting official visits in the spring. Instead, they geared everything to during or after the season. But in 2022, they hosted official visits every weekend in May, and they’re doing the same this year.
This weekend, for example, the Bruins will have two of their 2024 commitments on campus, both three-star prospects, both offensive linemen: Mark Schroller, whose father, Karl, played for the Bruins in the 1990s; and Joshua Glanz, their first offensive commit.
They will also welcome two significant local recruits. One is four-star cornerback Marcelles Williams from St. John Bosco High School, who has two former teammates enrolling at UCLA in Ty Lee and R.J. Jones.
They would love to land Williams, but he has one brother at USC (Max) and another at ASU (Macen); the other prospect is four-star Mater Dei quarterback Elijah Brown.
A third big visitor from the Southland is three-star offensive lineman Justin Tauanuu. He picked up a scholarship offer from Stanford recently, then was offered by USC on Wednesday — just two days before his visit to UCLA. Clearly, there is some gamesmanship going on.
*** The Bruins aren’t the only school hosting visitors this weekend.
Arizona State has a prospect coming in from Texas: four-star safety Damani Maxson out of Clear Lake High School.
The presence of Ra’Shaad Samples on ASU’s coaching staff is helping; he’s from Texas. The same goes for assistant Bryan Carrington, a Texas native who played for Houston and is now ASU’s cornerbacks coach. Carrington has been the primary recruiter on Maxson.
The hiring of Samples and Carrington is a clear indication of new coach Kenny Dillingham’s interest in recruiting Texas.
*** Much has been made about all the players leaving Colorado, but coach Deion Sanders is getting players into the program, as well.
One of them is a former top-10 player nationally: Sav’ell Smalls, the ex-Washington linebacker who was a five-star prospect but had a disappointing career on Montlake.
He’s staying in the Pac-12 footprint but leaving his backyard.
*** We should mention three commitments that unfolded this week in the Pac-12:
1. Connor Bachhuber, a three-star lineman from San Clemente who had offers for both sides of the line of scrimmage, will play on the offensive front for Stanford. He is coach Troy Taylor’s fourth commitment.
2. On Monday, four-star receiver Xavier Jordan, the No. 11 player in California, announced his commitment to USC.
3. Finally, three-star quarterback Luke Moga, a top-50 prospect at his position nationally out of Arizona, has committed to Oregon.
Interestingly, Moga announced the commitment on April 28, the same time Oregon was hosting Michael Van Buren, an All-American from Baltimore who has a top three of Oregon, Penn State and Maryland.
So it looks like Oregon is going to bring in two quarterbacks.
Clearly, there’s a lot of buzz for the Ducks. Despite losing Dante Moore late to UCLA, adding Austin Novosad and having Ty Thompson on the roster, there’s still the chance of significant movement in the Ducks’ quarterback room.
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