Ah, 1990. Seinfeld in, MC Hammer out.  Somewhere in the woods of the great Pacific Northwest, the word “nirvana” was muttered by an ugly, smelly, dying hippie who never quite attained it, while at a small club in Seattle, Washington, the word “Nirvana” was chanted by crowds of modern hippies, known as hipsters, in reverence of the most important rock band of my era. Seattle was on the map; grunge was king; I was rocking my flannel, and my 36 inch jeans lay on my 30 inch waist like Fogel’s “before” photo. That’s what size 32 belts are for, right? Thus began the great foray into The Emerald City.

What is the saying, every 20 years history repeats itself? Or is it every 30 years? Well, for the sake of this write up let’s say 20 and be historically inaccurate historians. Who doesn’t like irony!?  Ladies and gents, Seattle is once again relevant. Not only were the Huskies 41.666666% improved from the year prior, but according to recruiting services (I would disagree), they raked in one of the better classes in the conference. What is more disturbing is that the Dawgs seem to be hijacking our Hawaiian pipeline. Hawaiian recruits by team are as follows:

Washington-4

Arizona-1

Oregon State-1

UCLA-1

Arizona State-0

Cal-0

Oregon-0

Stanford-0

USC-0

Washington State-0

The Huskies with 300% more Hawaiian recruits than the Beavs? Hawaii was our lifeblood for a decade. Where do we regain that ground? The fertile mollisols of Oklahoma? Certainly not the cold gelisols of Alaska! Ah, nothing like soil references and blogging on a Wednesday night. Nevada dried up years ago. Maybe Texas. All I know is that the massive Pete Carroll creep tree is hanging over the conference…you either recruit dirty or you might as well not show up on Saturday. This conference is getting more and more competitive; what I don’t like to see is the Beavers losing ground in areas they historically dominate. And no, I don’t want to wait 30, or even 20 years, for history to repeat itself and the Beavs once again gain a stranglehold of The Aloha State.

Owa donning an orange polo.

Is this some variant of the hat switch/trick?

He would be the cruelest man alive if he takes it off and there’s powder blue or red underneath. He doesn’t strike me as that type of guy, so this is looking surprisingly optimistic.

This is where the Beavers need to start winning their battles. How high you’re able to perform on the field has a lot to do with who you sign on February 3rd. The Beavers consistently find themselves in the Sun Bowl and lower because their recruiting classes are consistently middle of the road.

This class has a chance to be special. Many pundits are already calling it the best class in school history, and this is without known verbals from Akuna or Owa. On the surface that sentiment appears valid, but circumstance will shave two 4-stars (i.e. Iona and Molesi) off the commit list and one high 3-star (i.e. Welch). Chances of seeing all three in Orange and Black are zero. If even one makes it onto the field be happy.

As far as the rest of the class, there are some nice players, but they are the same caliber that we’ve had until this point. There’s nothing about Fred Thompson that is better than say…Stephen Paea. Is Bibbee better than Roberson? Is Murphy better than Mitchell? You can see where I’m going with this. There’s no reason to believe any player in this class is more talented than the status quo. So while I like the class, unless it’s topped off with some elite talent (e.g. Akuna, Owa) I believe we’re looking at more Sun Bowls and below. I challenge you with these questions: where in this class is the player who stops Masoli on 4th down, and where is the player who covers a RB in the flat vs USC, or holds on to the ball vs Stanford? These eyes do not see him.

Here’s to hoping we can close on Owa and Akuna, because both (and more) are required to take the next step. As with any profession or talent (and much to the chagrin of Beaver fans everywhere), the greatest difference between being elite and middle-of-the-road lies in the measurables. Now let’s get out there and win the biggest game of the year, national signing day.

Alright, this is what I’ve gathered over the past couple days from every media source possible, reading between the lines, and one semi-decent source on campus.

1. Akuna is a Beaver–85%…I’ve heard “silent verbal” since his visit and everything he’s said has hinted the Beavers are the team to beat.

2. Gio will be a Beaver–51%. Riley’s in home tonight, meeting the parents again, talking Haiti, reminiscing about Yev…it should be enough to close the deal. Then again, it’s pretty much as far as you can travel without leaving the country…

3. Owa–Owa eliminated Oregon tonight. I gotta say, this kid seems like dust in the wind; I guess he commits wherever he happens to be when the breeze subsides?

4. Christian Thomas–Interesting that he canceled his Miami trip. I like this kid; he’s a character…from his comments about the chef to admitting to liking the weather in Oregon. We aren’t a lock, but we’re up there. USC is going to make a late push and we rarely win that battle, so I’m saying 40% on this one.

5. Taula–Arizona holds a soft commit, but since he’s been taking officials and taking them seriously, most acknowledge his word was given simply to secure a scholarship. It’s clearly between Udub, Arizona, and OSU…and I’d put them in that order. The Beavers had his interest early, but lost momentum when others offered and have not been able to regain it. Right now he’s a silent commit to Udub, even though he’s still listed as an Arizona commit. The Beavs chances are under 10%. Washington 65%, Zona the remainder.

Let’s admit it, these are the only 5 recruits we care about at this point. Others are topical, though, so discuss whomever you’d like.