Tag Archives: Colt Lyerla

Fans are throwing out a lot of reasons and blame for the Huskies’ losing ways, some justified, some ridiculous.  While there are certainly lots of factors, in my mind the only one that’s really significant is the talent level of the current players.  Coaching is a vital part of college sports, the ability to make players better as they spend time in your program.  The previous coaching staff failed miserably at that task.  It remains to be seen how this staff does in that regard.  Just as important, though, is recruiting.  It’s a lot easier to coach those players into impact players when they’re entering at an already high level.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, far too many potential impact players have turned UW down in recent years.  Even in bad years, UW gets their share of good players, probably always will.  But going back to the class of 2002 (as far back as Scout.com’s database shows) and excluding the 2011 class that has yet to sign, the Huskies have only gotten two high school recruits who were listed as 5-star prospects.  Jon Lyon was also a 5-star guy, but he was a junior college recruit and those rankings always seem a little fuzzy to me, so I’m only going to talk about high school here.

Recruiting stars aren’t always accurate, or predictors of success.  The Huskies best defender, Mason Foster, was a 2-star player.  Jake Locker was a 4-star.  People scout players differently, and the players are high schoolers, meaning they have a ton of growing left to do, both physically and mentally.  Again, college coaching plays a major role as well, which is what really killed the Huskies the past decade.  Regardless, the Huskies are struggling right now because of a lack of impact players, particularly on defense.  They don’t have a Vontaze Burfict or Akeem Ayers or Rahim Moore or Shayne Skov, a freak of nature of whom the offense is always aware.  Continue reading →