A few thoughts:
- Noa is another high-profile recruit that we were trailing for once upon a time. Like Benhart, another school was in the driver’s seat for a while and a few months back, none of us really thought we’d nab him. He was considered a long shot. Noa is another example of how great a recruiting staff we have.
- I have been hoping for years we can start luring in Polynesian players again. We had a good crop for a while – Raiola, Fonoti, Tony Tata (retired due to injury), Dan Vili-Waldrop, Junior Tagoa’I – and almost all were good productive players for us. But after 2003 we couldn’t lure any more in and missed out on some really great ones like Deuce Lutui (All-American OG at USC) as they tend to gravitate to schools with a Polynesian population like Utah, Oregon, and USC.
- I hope we can land his cousin Matthew Pola-Mao as well. He’s the nose tackle prospect we’re missing in this class.
- Arizona is a state that’s been very kind to us in the past as most of the players we’ve gotten from there have been hits. From that 2007 haul only William Yancy was a miss.
- It’s still possible we land in the final Top 15 on Rivals. Many of us have been pointing to 2020’s class as the year we’ll finally bring in a top 15 haul but it could actually happen this year. After going 4-8 in two consecutive years, that’s really impressive. Can’t wait to see how well we do when we start winning big again.
