The college football offseason is slowly crawling along. In the Pac-12 on National Signing Day, 11 of the 12 programs collected a recruiting class which placed in the top 50. Only California finished outside the top 50. Six schools finished inside the top 30, marking real improvement for the conference as a whole. What should be said about the coaches in this conference as recruiters?
David Shaw, Stanford Cardinal
The USC program recruits better than Stanford does on a regular basis, because USC recruits better than any other Pac-12 program on a regular basis. This is true almost always in spite of the coach on hand. Therefore, Clay Helton of USC does not get first or even second place on this list. His program recruits more than he does, in a manner of speaking.
Shaw exists at Stanford, a program with very high academic requirements. Places such as Duke and Northwestern, also top academic schools which make it harder for football players to qualify for a scholarship, have been historically difficult to win at – at least in the past 40 years or so. (They were both powerful football schools in the first half of the 20th century, but that was a different time.) It is therefore very impressive that Shaw has maintained what Jim Harbaugh built at Stanford. It was very easy to think that as soon as Harbaugh and then Andrew Luck left, the program would fall apart, but that’s not what has happened. Shaw has continued to make and win Rose Bowls without Luck as his quarterback. He has made three Rose Bowls and won two of them. His recruiting ability stands on its own in ways that don’t quite apply to other coaches on this list.
Willie Taggart, Oregon Ducks
Though only in his first season at Oregon, Taggart finished second in recruiting rankings behind USC. The Trojans’ 2017 class was first, at No. 5, but Oregon was second at 16, the only other program to finish with a class ranked in the top 20. This is the magic of Taggart, who recruited well at South Florida to turn that program from 2-10 to 10-2 in terms of regular season win-loss records. Taggart has also assembled a coaching staff known for its recruiting ability. He will continue to recruit really well at Oregon.
Clay Helton, USC Trojans
The Trojans will consistently get very good recruits regardless of the coach. What is to Helton’s credit, though, is that he rescued the 2016 season and got his team to the Rose Bowl. If he hadn’t done that – and if USC had gone 8-4 and played in the Holiday Bowl – chances are this class wouldn’t have been nearly as good. Helton must continue to win games in the fall if he is to continue to remain on this list. If he starts losing, USC won’t fall out of the top 20 in recruiting classes, but it will fall out of the top 10, most likely. There’s – once again – a lot of hype surrounding this team as we get ready for the 2017 season.
Mike MacIntyre, Colorado Buffaloes
This is remarkable – being able to finish in the top 30 of recruiting in a league with Arizona State, UCLA, Arizona, and other schools which can attract recruits with sunny, warm weather. It’s true that UCLA finished at 21 in the recruiting rankings and Colorado 30, but UCLA (being in Los Angeles, like USC) should not be happy with a finish outside the top 20. Colorado, on the other hand, is overachieving by hitting 30.
Chris Petersen, Washington Huskies
The Huskies are defending Pac-12 champions, so why is Petersen so low on this list? Well, for one thing, Washington finished at No. 23 in the recruiting rankings, fourth overall while Stanford was fifth at No. 24. Given the incredible 2016 season Washington had, that seems modest. The bigger point, though, is that Washington didn’t have an elite recruiting class the year before. Petersen is a good recruiter in that he gets players to fit his system, but he doesn’t get incredible recruiting classes in terms of rankings. Petersen simply coaches lower-ranked recruits better than anyone else in the Pac-12. Coaching, not recruiting, is Petersen’s true strength.
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