Chris Petersen Letting Huskies Recruiting Success Speak For Itself
SEATTLE – Until this past February, Chris Petersen had yet to sign a recruiting class at Washington that finished ranked in the top 25, according to Rivals’ recruiting rankings.
The eighteen recruits UW signed for its 2017 class finished No. 23 in the country, fifth in the Pac-12 behind USC (sixth), Oregon (18th), Stanford (19th), UCLA (21st) and one spot below the reigning national champion Clemson Tigers.
In Petersen’s first class the Huskies ranked 36th best, signing 23 recruits including four-star safety Budda Baker and four-star offensive tackle Kaleb McGary. The Huskies jumped half a dozen spots in 2015 to finish 30th in Rivals’ final rankings before slipping down to 37th in 2016.
Currently, UW is on pace to finish better than their 31.5 average under the fourth-year coach, sitting 25th in the country with 11 verbal commits. Fresh off their first college football playoff berth under Petersen the Huskies have begun to see the perks from their 12-2 season in 2016.
But none of that matters to Petersen, who has never put any stock in star rankings or which team finishes with the best recruiting class. He receives no bonuses from the university for a better recruiting class (based on final rankings). He knows he can’t control the perception of how good or bad the Huskies recruiting is or isn’t.
“I think sometimes – I’ve gotten that question a bunch – it’s harder on the inside to know what the outside is really thinking,” Petersen said Sunday ahead of fall camp. “I think in general, I think our recruiting has been really, really strong. We wouldn’t have played in the semi-finals last year if our recruiting was not very strong from the start.”
Petersen had almost two months to the day from the moment he was hired on Dec. 6, 2013, until his first Signing Day at Washington. In that period the former Boise State coach assembled his staff, mostly comprised of assistants from his current staff, and kept several top recruits home.
By doing so, and players like Baker and under the radar players like cornerback Sidney Jones developing quickly, Petersen has established a fundamentally sound foundation for the Huskies recruiting efforts.
The two-time Bear Bryant Coach of the Year award winner brought his “O.K.G” (Our Kind of Guy) mantra to UW, and paired it with with his new job had to offer. Global University Ranking’s named Washington the 15th best university in 2016, which Petersen culminated into his Built For Life program.
For Petersen, the key to the success or failure in recruiting comes down to preparation.
“We’re very methodical. It’s not a big hype show,” Petersen said. “We get a guy here and get a guy here and just keep putting the pieces to the puzzle together and we’re very diligent in doing our homework. The process seems the same to me. We are getting good guys or we wouldn’t be playing how we played last year so we want to keep this going.”
When UW began to emerge in 2016 the recruiting class was beyond half full. By the time four-star CB Elijah Molden, the son of former NFL and Oregon defensive back Alex Molden, committed to the Huskies in November there was no room for new targets to emerge late.
The Huskies have not taken a full 25 man recruiting class, the maximum number of recruits a program can sign in a given year, and that’s the plan Petersen has stuck with from the beginning. With a wealth of recruits in the Pacific Northwest there still remains a constant flow of in-state recruits to Husky Stadium.
Yet, even still, Petersen knows that no matter what there will always be a pull in one director or another. Maintaining balance and not focusing on one area or region above the rest, while still branching out within reason, is the art the Huskies coach continues to perfect.
“No I think our approach stays the same. I think you have to know there’s a lot of ways to do this, and you got to know your way,” Petersen said, when asked if UW’s playoff appearance impacts the Huskies approach to recruiting.
“There’s not one way to do it for sure, but you have to know know your strengths and weaknesses and then set your plan and go accordingly…You can get pulled a lot of different ways in anything you do, and you have to be very careful to not, whatever we’re talking about be it jack of all traits master of none, we have to figure our thing and how we plan to get our little advantage and go with it. While being mindful of the world is changing, kids change, the whole thing are we still doing the best for our process.”