I've been making comments in various threads on what we might expect in our 2020 Hawaii recruiting class. I figured that people might like an in-depth breakdown all in one spot.

Hawaii Recruiting Overview

2019's recruiting class was a huge momentum builder for UW's stature in the islands from a results perspective, but two major factors have been building our momentum towards this year's breakout class. Coach Petersen and Coach Malloe have positioned our program for success making pitches to Hawaii's recruits, and our presence at the Polynesian Bowl.

USC is traditionally the dominant football brand in Hawaii, with Notre Dame and Oregon building their profile in recent years through Manti Te'o and Marcus Mariota's collegiate successes. UW has always been a consistent presence, but never a destination school for the state's best players. However, Coach Petersen's recruiting and team philosophy has put us in a position from a culture perspective to make an appealing recruiting pitch to Hawaii's recruits. Hawaii’s culture, and Polynesian families to an even greater extent, really have a close knit and well balanced community. Nothing is bigger than family and faith to many of these kids, and Coach Petersen’s OKG mantra and UW’s personal development focus is really big, especially for parents who are hugely important in the decision making process.

I think that it also helps that the Seattle area also has a very large concentration of Hawaii-natives that have moved to the mainland for school/opportunity. There is definitely less of a culture shock moving to Seattle than almost anywhere except California. This is something that I’ve heard Malloe really focusing on during his recruiting trips. Malloe being from Hawaii helps him to connect with them through his own experiences going through this process. Having that type of connection almost makes him an "insider" to every Hawaii recruit. Nothing against coaches that aren’t from Hawaii, but the culture makes it a lot easier for the kids to trust and connect with those from the islands.

Malloe's Hawaii upbringing also helps him identify where to best dedicate recruiting efforts. Like California, Hawaii's football scene is dominated by a very small number of public, and to a larger extent private schools that attract the best talent in the state. St. Louis, Punahou, Malloe's alma mater Kamehameha, and Kahuku HS usually produce the significant majority of the state's D1 athletes. Knowing which schools to target efforts makes a big difference, but it also helps when getting other recruiting information. Since these private schools do their own unofficial recruiting to build their own programs, their coaches know which other players to keep an eye out for. Players like Sama Pa'ama and Zion Tupuola-Fetui come from some of the smallest schools at the lowest divisions of Hawaii HS football, and neither were major participants on the summer camp circuit, but they were hidden gems that were probably uncovered by Malloe through tips from local coaches.

Aside from Malloe's terrific work recruiting the state, the Poly Bowl is a major contributor to our overall recruiting efforts and has become an unofficial UW recruiting event. The event's first year in 2017 established our presence with 5 participants including Keith Taylor, Brandon McKinney, and Hunter Bryant. 2018's Poly Bowl is where we made our presence known with 6 participants including the game's defensive MVP Kyler Gordon. 2018 was also significant since it was through the bowl event that our recruits swayed then-USC commit Tuli Letuligasenoa to flip his commitment to UW at the 11th hour. This momentum was continued to this year's Poly Bowl with 12 participants including Offensive and Defensive MVPs Puka Nacua and Daniel Heimuli, neither of whom were UW commits before the game.

With UW annually having some of the largest contingents of recruits at the game will certainly bode well for our overall recruiting profile since participants are drawn from across the country, but especially our heaviest recruiting grounds like WA, CA, and HI. The on-the-field success of our players in the game has also created a cumulative effect on our recruiting draw. The Poly Bowl has a unique selection process that incorporates local Hawaii standouts that might not otherwise participate in national all-star games. The Poly Bowl also has an amazing program that offers free tickets to Hawaii HS teams for kids to cheer on their Poly Bowl participant teammates. With such an overwhelming presence, UW is building its reputation organically with local participants interacting with UW recruits and underclassmen watching the game's best players all commit to UW.

In total, these developments have positioned us for continued success in Hawaii, and that isn't just in theory. I had a chance to chat with a bunch of up and coming 2022/2021 Hawaii kids that I have personal connections to, and they talked about UW being their dream school because of first the academic opportunity, then extended family in the area, and football success was third. They are becoming more aware of our program's success, and, upon further investigation, they like what they see.

2020 Recruiting

2020 is a down year for Hawaii in terms of the quantity of blue chip talent. There are still a bunch of solid prospects that might not be in our top one or two tiers of recruiting priority, LBs and teammates Jordan Botelho and Nick Herbig to name our priorities at the moment.

Botelho and Herbig are OLBs for St. Louis HS, and they are teammates with Tuitele. Botelho is a legit 4-star and I’d say we have a 80% chance on him from what I hear. Herbig is a current Stanford commit since his brother Nate is an All-American level OL for them, but my sources say that we are high enough on Botelho and Herbig that we offered them as a package deal. I’d say both have talent at least on par with 2019 commit Miki Ah You.

Top Priority Targets

Jordan Botelho (OLB, 6'3", 225 lbs): Tricky fit given his current film

I’ve seen him play a couple of times over the last two years. He’s a good athlete with size and a physical style of play. He currently plays as a hybrids DE/OLB, BUCK-type, in his HS 3-4 scheme, and he rushes the passer or aligns on the edge of the LOS at least 2/3 of the time. He has speed to beat slower tackles and power to overwhelm RBs. I’d say he doesn’t have a well developed repertoire of pass rush moves beyond the speed rush and bull rush, but his instincts in the run defense and shooting gaps should benefit his development as a pass rusher.

The tricky part about fitting his skill set into our scheme is that his best traits are his pass rush skills and downhill tackling, but he doesn’t have the build at this point to man our BUCK position. This isn’t for lack of trying to bulk up. He’s added lean muscle mass every year that I’ve been following his HS career, but he just isn’t going to ever fill out like Tryon or Mathis. He’s pretty close to his ideal size in my opinion, and he could slot in at Travis Bartlett’s old off the ball OLB position from before Wellington got hurt, but then you get into the question regarding his coverage ability. He has no really proven ability to cover in man or zone at this point, so projecting him to that position would be a real stretch. However, I think this is likely where he ends up. I’d watch the development of his coverage skills closely.

Alternatively, he could slot into the less coverage-intensive of the two ILB spots, but we already have a log-jam at that position so that doesn’t seem likely.

Nick Herbig (OLB, 6'2", 200 lbs): Depends on his physical development

Honestly, for college projection sake, I’d be a bit more I can see more potential in Herbig. He plays the "Bartlett" off the ball in his HS defense. He plays the majority of his snaps off the LOS, but he has experience on the LOS as an edge rusher when they use a more traditional 3-4 front with both OLBs on the LOS.

I like his film as a flats defender and anticipation of passing lanes. He is a fluid mover with upside as an OLB. The only concern at this point is if he will be able to maintain weight at the D1 level. He’s hovering around 200 lbs, which concerning if he were to stay at LB full time, but he does have the athleticism and instincts to compensate for a lack of size. Given our depth at DT/DL, and our willingness to play a quasi 3-DL front with Jaylen Johnson, there's a chance that we start to migrate towards a full-time base 3-3-5 personnel packages that aligns more like a 4-man front. This would allow us to get more 2-gapping DL on the field to protect smaller LBs like Herbig. Thus, from a fit perspective, Herbig might be easier to project into our defense from a skills and scheme perspective than Botelho, albeit with less athletic upside.

Other Names to Keep an Eye on

-Kaonohi Kaniho (DB, 5’10" 160), Kaniho’s brother Kaula is a stud DB for Boise St. after coming out of Kahuku HS and Kaonohi exhibits the same ball hawking and feel for coverage. While he is a middling 3-star recruit, he has a strong HS pedigree and might be in the running for a preferred walk-on spot with Myles Bryant upside. His strong fundamentals, plus athleticism and football IQ, and willingness to contribute on special teams would make him an ideal candidate. He is teammates with Ah You, which might be a selling point if we deem him to be a recruit worth pursuing.

-Alaka’i Gilman (DB, 5’10" 190), Similar to Kaniho, Gilman’s older brother Alohi was a stud for Kahuku HS before heading to Navy and was in consideration for the AAC defensive rookie of the year before transferring to Notre Dame. Alohi's started the whole 2018 season for the Irish and was among PFF's highest graded safeties. Alaka’i shows even more physicality and athleticism than both Alohi and the Kanihos, and his playing style reminds me of Rapp, albeit in the body of Byron Murphy. He’s played everywhere from corner to SS to FS, tackles like a LB, and has been used as a utility defender spying mobile QBs and rushing the passer. I believe he is the most likely non-line prospect from Hawaii to rise in the rankings over the next year, and I think UW would be a fantastic overall fit (both academically and athletically) depending on how the staff sets up their recruiting board and our scholarship numbers. He recently picked up an offer from USC, and we would being in a tough competition with the Trojans if we went after him being that he was teammates with 2019 recruits Tufono and safety Kaulana Makaula.

-Fa’aope Laloulu (OT, 6’7" 340), "Ope" has offers from USC, Oregon and Arizona but hasn’t picked up national recruiting momentum as he played for a small school in the lowest HS division in Hawaii. He is one of those "man-child" types dating back to intermediate football when he was 6’4" 300+ in 8th grade. Doesn’t have the basketball-type lateral agility that elite LT prospects exhibit, but is definitely fluid enough to warrant interest as a OT. I’d give him an Orlando Brown Jr. comparison as a huge OT type that doesn’t exhibit movement athleticism, but proper technique could allow him to utilize raw power and length to compensate. UW’s Built for Life program mantra and academic rigor aren’t likely to be great selling points from what I have heard, but athletic fit would be similar to 2019’s Julius Buelow. A new development to watch is the closure of his HS at the end of the 2019 academic year. He has expressed interest in transferring to St. Louis HS where he'd likely get national attention playing with Botelho and Herbig.

Like always, please post any questions, comments, and other ideas for articles below. Its a long off season and I need ideas.