Looking Back at Washington's 2021 Recruiting Class

One thing that Husky fans expected from former coach Jimmy Lake when he took over was a massive improvement in recruiting. The high school class in the state of Washington in 2021 was considered the best in state history at the time, highlighted by three five-star recruits in J.T. Tuimoloau, Emeka Egbuka and Sam Huard.

Obviously, Tuimoloau and Egbuka opted to go to Ohio State, where they found great success, while Huard struggled during his time at Washington before ultimately transferring to Cal Poly. There's a more extensive debate to be had about the pandemic and what it did to talent evaluation at most schools, and Washington's class, which was ranked 26th in the country by 247 Sports, is a perfect example of that.

Now, former four-star receiver Jabez Tinae is the only "blue-chip" signee remaining from the class of 2021. Tinae struggled to get on the field last fall and sat out all of spring practice due to an injury, and is one of just seven members of the class of 2021.

Bralen Trice (@Ocho_Trice) and Maurice Heims (@Maurice_hms) getting some pass rush work in pic.twitter.com/h61jNBgRXW
— Roman Tomashoff (@rtomashoff34) September 17, 2022

Of the other six, only cornerback Davon Banks has seen significant playing time so far. Defensive back Dyson McCutcheon and tight end Quentin Moore have seen some action and should draw more in 2023, but neither should be expected to begin the season on the two-deep depth chart.

Of course, there's edge rusher Maurice Heims, who is one of the most athletically gifted members of the Husky roster. Heims suffered a scary-looking neck injury during Washington's first spring practice but appears to have fully recovered, and will almost certainly enter the rotation along the defensive line this fall.

Finally, there's Vince Nunley and Robert Wyrsch. Nunley saw action in the 2022 opener against Kent State before an injury ended his season, and Wyrsch has yet to get on the field. However, both seem to be in the good graces of the coaching staff and could break into the two-deeps by the time fall camp rolls around.

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