Washington Football: Grading the Huskies 2019 recruiting class

The Washington Huskies currently have the No. 2 ranked 2019 recruiting class in the Pac-12. Here’s what that class looks like.

The 2018 college football season was a mixed one for the Washington Huskies. Chris Petersen led his team to 10 wins this past season, but the Huskies lost big games to Auburn, Oregon, and Ohio State in the Rose Bowl and then somehow lost to the California Golden Bears on top of that. This is a team that won the Pac-12 and represented the conference in the Rose Bowl but then also fell victim to Cal.

Given how this season went, it’s only fitting that this team would be one that would have a really good recruiting class relative to the rest of the Pac-12 but then not even break into the top 15 of recruiting rankings nationally.

Washington’s 2019 recruiting class is definitely impressive when compared to its colleagues out west, but it’s not that great when put next to some other teams from various other conferences.

The Huskies loaded up on defense in this recruiting class.

Seemingly the focus for Chris Petersen and his staff was to load up this recruiting class with some of the best defensive players that they could find. And in all honesty, it worked! Washington has assembled a group of strong defensive linemen, stout linebackers, and versatile defensive backs that will help the Huskies have one of the best defenses on the West Coast, if not the entire country.

Four of the Huskies’ top five recruits in their 2019 signing class are on the defensive side of things. Faatui Tuitele and Jacob Bandes, the two highest-rated players in this group, are both defensive tackles.

Following Tuitele and Bandes come Trent McDuffie and Laiatu Latu, a cornerback and a defensive end respectively. Then comes Dylan Morris, Washington’s highest-rated recruit on the offensive side of things, a four-star pro-style quarterback.

Here’s how the entirety of Washington’s 2019 recruiting class looks according to 247Sports:

All things considered, this is a respectable class, but it could certainly still be better. This team won 10 games this season and is somehow outside the top 15 in recruiting rankings. That’s just not good enough for a program that is aiming to be consistently relevant at a national level.

The Washington Huskies have a solid class that will come in and helps move the program forward. However, Chris Petersen and his team need to do a bit better on the recruiting trail.

Washington and the rest of the Pac-12 really need to find ways to improve recruiting efforts and results. If the conference is going to be taken seriously and actually contend for national titles, then the upper echelon teams in this conference like Washington need to recruit as if they’re national title contenders.