The Hotline is delighted to provide West Coast fans with a regular dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Phoenix-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports. He submitted the following report on Oct. 24  …

Senior year evaluations

Lost amid the ever-evolving NCAA recruiting calendar: the senior year.

Remember that?

With so many schools locking up their signing class by the end of July, the haste to finish has undermined the importance of senior seasons for emerging recruits.

While 2020 was a weird year because of COVID, there was a little-known quarterback in Utah who only had scholarship offers from BYU, Yale, Pennsylvania, Fordham and Louisiana.

But a superb senior season allowed Jaxson Dart to sign with USC (before he would transfer to Ole Miss and become a first-round draft pick of the New York Giants).

Cases like that are even more rare now.

Still, there is another Utah quarterback prospect experiencing the senior-season bump: Tradon Bessinger, a three-star recruit from Kaysville.

Bessinger committed to Boise State in the spring but has emerged as a target for BYU, Iowa and UCLA, with the Hawkeyes hosting him this weekend.

Boise State, no stranger to losing quarterbacks, is hoping Bessinger sticks with his original pledge.

The situation speaks to a larger point: The Darts and Bessingers are few and far between.

Interestingly enough, one school is seeing the senior-year illumination with two players: Cherry Creek, in Englewood, Colorado, the No. 1 team in the state and defending champions.

Cherry Creek’s star running back, Jayden Fox, committed to Connecticut in the spring, but his senior film has attracted new suitors, most notably Boise State, which hosted him for an official visit.

And the standout linebacker, Braylon Hodge, has moved from the back end of the top 10 in the state rankings — and a pledge to Michigan State — to the No. 1 recruit in Colorado and a selection to the Navy All-American Bowl.

He collected offers from Michigan, Missouri, Oregon and Texas and ultimately de-committed from Michigan State. After taking official visits to Michigan and Oregon, the four-star prospect announced for the Ducks on Friday.

Two-way standout

Toray Davis, a heavy candidate for Colorado State Player of the Year, has been doing what the guy across town did last year (Travis Hunter): shining on both sides of the ball.

The former UCLA commit from Boulder has grabbed offers from Indiana, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington. He’s expected to take an official visit to Seattle this weekend.

Meanwhile, Mission Viejo High School defensive lineman JD Hill was lightly recruited before he committed to Northern Arizona. But his senior-season film generated additional offers, with Arizona State, Miami and Utah among the schools in pursuit.

Arizona State will host him for a visit this weekend.

Jimmy’s JuCo jam

Given his late hiring and the need to rebuild the roster, Washington State coach Jimmy Rogers is hitting the junior college ranks pretty hard.

This week, the Cougars landed a pair of commits:

Iowa Western Community College offensive tackle Ashton Mozone committed to WSU on Thursday; one day later, his teammate, defensive lineman Andy Burburija, did the same.

Bruins flip, get flipped

No team has flipped its season quite like UCLA.

Horrific in their first four games, stout in their last three, the Bruins lost several commits following the firing of DeShaun Foster. But general manager Khary Darlington and senior recruiting operations director Marshawn Friloux have been doing the heavy lifting.

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This week, the Bruins flipped a commitment from Washington, cornerback CJ Lavender from Mater Dei High School in Southern California, and a Bowling Green pledge, offensive tackle Travis Robertson (from Michigan).

Of course, they did see Davis, the Colorado prospect, back off his pledge. And another commitment, four-star defensive lineman David Schwerzel, from Seattle, announced earlier this week that he was heading to Stanford.

Huskies Hosting Visitors

Aside from the aforementioned visit from Toray Davis , another significant prospect will be on Montlake this weekend.

And he, too, is a former UCLA commitment: linebacker Ramzak Fruean.

Fruean is the No. 3 recruit in the state of Washington in the 2026 class and had scheduled an official visit for June. He never made it, committing to UCLA instead.

But Fruean decommitted hours after Foster’s firing and has been to Arizona and BYU for official visits the past two weekends. Now, Washington will get its much awaited official visit.

The Huskies have an ace: The crown jewel of their 2025 class was Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, the No. 1 recruit in the state; he was teammates with Fruean at Bethel High in Spanaway.

The Huskies would love to do it two years in a row.

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