SEATTLE – On the day Chris Petersen first met the media as the UW Huskies head football coach, there were two words he used most.
Timing and fit.
Speaking mostly on his decision to leave Boise State for Washington back in December 2013, Petersen was also asked how much emphasis he would place on in-state recruiting. Fast forward more than six years, and those two words are perfect to address the recruitment of one particular Evergreen State football prospect.
However, before piecing together the logic behind UW offering four-star Eastside Catholic wide receiver Gee Scott Jr. 257 days after he made a verbal commitment to then-Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer on Christmas Day, first is the need to address how Petersen operates with respect to scholarship offers.
To use elementary school as an example, for every position –quarterback to place kicker and even long snapper – Petersen serves as the principal and his assistants are the classroom teachers.
When recruits take an official or unofficial visit to Washington and receive an offer from Petersen at the conclusion of their trip, almost always in his office overlooking Husky Stadium, that decision was made by the position coach of the player receiving the offer.
As the head coach, Petersen affirms the decision to offer a scholarship to said prospect based on a shared agreement that the recruit fits the program mold.
Petersen does not flip the script and offer recruits to supersede his assistants based on the premise that he doesn’t coach the positions.
Which explains why assistant coaches play a more prevalent role on the recruiting trail, scouting and evaluating players while the head coach takes a more birds eye approach. Petersen still goes on the trail to visit high schools but he can’t serve as WR coach and head coach simultaneously, in effect.
For the recruitment of Scott Jr. that meant Matt Lubick, hired after brief stints at Baylor and Ole Miss following his departure from Oregon after the 2016 season, was tasked with the duties as WR coach and co-offensive coordinator.
Before Lubick, current offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan served as the position coach for one season in 2016.
Petersen effectively terminated his first WR coach, Brent Pease, at the conclusion of the 2015 regular season and promoted Hamdan from his quality control position to interim receivers’ coach for the Heart of Dallas Bowl.
No other position has had more than two coaches since Petersen was hired prior to the 2014 season. Since then; Petersen has replaced his defensive line coach once, his offensive line coach once and his offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach once.
It stands to reason why the Huskies haven’t struggled on defense since Petersen took over, the staff hasn’t had nearly any turnover compared to the offensive coaching staff. Only two assistants, DL coach Ikaika Malloe and assistant defensive backs coach Will Harris, are on staff now that weren’t part of the original staff in 2014.
On offense, the one position that has struggled to find consistency over the six years Petersen has been in charge, are the receivers.
TheDawgReport.com has charted the players recruited by each WR coach since Petersen has been the head coach at Washington (seen above).
Pease is credited with signing nine receivers followed by Hamdan with five and Lubick with one. Adams on track to double his predecessor in under one full season with two verbal commitments in the 2020 class.
Examining the UW / Scott Jr. timeline
Matt Lubick held the role of WR coach and co-offensive coordinator for 683 days. It took 154 days for his replacement, Junior Adams, to evaluate and determine that Gee Scott Jr. was worthy of a scholarship offer from Washington.
Petersen hired Lubick, a former defensive backs at Western Montana College from 1991-94, on February 22, 2017 ten days after the Atlanta Falcons announced Bush Hamdan as their new QB coach.
Unlike Brent Pease, the Huskies first receivers coach from 2014-15, Lubick had never served as an assistant under Petersen while both shared one similar trait: neither played the position. Prior to joining the UW staff Lubick flip-flopped between DB coach and WR coach over his 22-year coaching career.
Hamdan was a former backup QB at Boise State, which gave him familiarity with Petersen but continued the trend of not having a former receiver coaching the WR position. Lubick was viewed as a solid recruiter and above-average coach, but in his two seasons at Washington neither materialized.
UW signed its first four-star receiver, St. John Bosco standout Terrell Bynum, in 2017 with Hamdan leading the recruitment for the staff. He secured two more four-stars, Marquis Spiker and Austin Osborne, before leaving for the Falcons job while both commitments were announced after Lubick was hired.
Hamdan was the WR coach when Scott Jr. made an unofficial visit on Sept. 30, 2016, a 44-6 win for Washington over Stanford, along with his younger brother Zion Scott and his father Gee Scott Sr.
At the time Scott Jr. was freshman.
The family returned to the campus the following spring three months after Lubick was hired for another unofficial visit. Scott Jr. attended the Huskies Spring Preview on April 22, 2017, shortly before his recruitment began to take off.
One week later the Oregon hosted Scott Jr. and his family when the Ducks became his first major offer. Over the following three months several other Pac-12 schools joined the list, including UCLA, Utah, Colorado and even Eastern Washington University, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level program.
In September 2017 another major offer came, this time from Notre Dame during an unofficial visit to South Bend, Indiana. Fast forward to just over one year later, October 6, 2018 to be specific, and that’s when Ohio State stepped up an offered Scott Jr. during an unofficial visit.
Four-star running back Sam Adams II, a teammate of Scott Jr. at Eastside Catholic High School who recently made his commitment to Washington, was also in Columbus that same weekend.
The Huskies offered Adams in early November, one month after he returned from Ohio State, around the same time that four-star cornerback Ayden Hector also picked up an offer from UW.
That left four-star tight end D.J. Rogers and Scott Jr. has the two Crusaders without an offer from the local school. UW has two TE commitments but could take a third should Hunter Bryant elect to forgo his final year of eligibility after the 2019 season and declare for the NFL Draft, which could open a spot for Rogers.
However, roughly seven months prior on April 22, 2018, four-star St. John Bosco WR Josh Delgado attempted to make a verbal commitment to Washington and Chris Petersen. But the head coach advised Delgado to hold off and he felt comfortable doing so with Petersen wanting recruits to not decide until they’re 100 percent ready.
Delgado received his offer from UW in August 2017 and had maintained a high interest in the program throughout his recruitment. Two months after being all but committed to UW, Delgado made a commitment to Oregon and enrolled this past January.
UW made an offer to three-star Upland High School (Upland, Calif.) WR Taj Davis, a teammate of four-star running back Cameron Davis who had already made his commitment to the staff. It took only 19 days for the Davis duo to become high school and future college teammates, with Taj announcing his commitment on May 23, 2018.
For the remainder of the 2018 season UW held just one receiver commit with only one other primary target, four-star Orem, Utah prospect Puka Nacua.
During an unofficial visit in June 2018 for the Huskies Rising Stars Camp, Nacua noted his conversation with Petersen as a key factor in maintaining his interest in the program throughout his recruitment.
Davis was in communication with Lubick during the season while UW running backs coach Keith Bhonapha was heavily involved given his strong connection to the Inland Empire.
When it was announced that Lubick would be leaving the coaching profession, Davis told TheDawgReport.com that he learned about the news on social media and never heard from Lubick directly.
Bhonapha reached out and kept Davis filled in on the coaching search acknowledging that Lubick was all but gone even prior to the 2018 season. When UW hired Junior Adams on January 17 it was Bhonapha who delivered the news.
Adams began developing a bond with both Scott Jr. and Scott Sr. immediately, while maintaining the Petersen code of offering. Had Adams elected to throw out 20 offers the first week he was hired, including one to Scott Jr., it wouldn’t fit the mold for what Petersen is about at Washington.
He wants to develop relationships and that can’t happen over night. It can, and does happen when the nights start to add up into weeks and months. As it turned out that’s how it came together.
Over the next few months Adams continued to foster a connection with the coveted receiver while offering other 2020 prospects, for instance Hockinson WR Sawyer Racanelli who picked UW over UCLA and several other schools this past spring.
It wasn’t for a lack of interest that prevented the offer, but rather making sure the time was right and that it was the right fit. Not to be forgotten is the notion that Scott Jr. remains an Ohio State commit, which could help Adams and Washington in the long run.
What might help the Huskies chance the most is simply having Junior Adams.
Eastside Catholic traveled to Boise State on June 15 to participate in a 7-on-7 camp hosted by the Broncos. Adams, a former assistant at the school from 2014-16, went back to his roots and used it as another chance to evaluate Scott Jr. and spend time with him and his family.
But he didn’t offer him a scholarship. Not until roughly one week later and just days prior to Scott Jr. taking off to Columbus for another visit with Sam Adams II. Since the two have returned one is a UW commit.
Scott Jr. is expected to make at least one more visit to Ohio State when the Buckeyes open the 2019 season in the Horseshoe hosting Florida Atlantic University on August 31. That still gives several home games for Adams, Adams II and the Huskies to host the Scott family before the early December signing period.
