Washington Huskies: Latest incident should be final strike against Jimmy Lake
Recruiting failures
Since taking over for Chris Peterson, Lake and his staff have vastly underwhelmed. According to 24/7 sports, for the 2021 recruiting cycle, the Huskies ranked 39th in the nation and 6th in the Pac-12. Their big prize was quarterback Sam Huard. He is a legacy and committed to UW well before Lake became the head coach.
This cycle, Washington is 8th in conference and 54th nationally so far. They have no five-star players and two four-star players, WR Germie Bernard and TE Ryan Otton, committed to to the program. Neither has a rank higher than 191 by 24/7, ESPN, or Rivals.
Bernard made a verbal commitment to UW in July of 2020, which was before Lake took over. Otton is a legacy and likely headed to the Huskies anyway.
Peterson did a good job with in-state recruiting; Lake has been much less successful. In the 2021 recruiting class, three of the top four in-state recruits went elsewhere, including five-star defensive tackle J.T. Tuimoloau (Ohio State). But at least they got numbers two, five, six, and seven. Among this year’s class, Otton is the highest ranked at number five. Two of the top four are committed to Oregon and Notre Dame, respectively, while the other two remain undecided.
One other consequence of Lake’s actions on Saturday will show up in recruiting. Coaches from other schools Washington is competing with for recruits will show the film of Lake and Fuavai and say, “Do you really want to play for a guy like that?”
Get used to seeing this from J.T. Tuimoloau. pic.twitter.com/jveHl5LLgy
— Bill Rabinowitz 🗞 (@brdispatch) October 26, 2021