The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a weekly dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports.
The following information, in his words, was provided to the Hotline on April 6 …
The 2023 high school quarterback class was strong.
The 2025 quarterback class out west is strong.
The 2024 class at the heart of the current recruiting cycle? Also strong. But where does the Pac-12 figure in?
A year after the conference landed a pair of five-star quarterbacks, one from Southern California and one from the Midwest, a top-50 passer from the Bay Area, a top-60 quarterback from Southern California and a top-75 signal-caller from Sacramento, can it repeat that success?
So far, the trend lines aren’t good.
Three of the top four quarterbacks in the country call the West home (and six of the top 20).
Right now, only one of those six is committed to a Pac-12 school: Garfield High School (Seattle) quarterback EJ Caminong, who has pledged to hometown Washington.
— Meanwhile, Pinnacle HS (Phoenix) is home to quarterback Dylan Raiola, the top-rated prospect in the country at any position.
The one-time Ohio State commit opened up his recruitment and has been bouncing back and forth between Georgia and USC.
Could the Trojans land a five-star quarterback for the second consecutive year after signing Malachi Nelson from the class of ’23? That’s their hope, but Georgia, the two-time defending champion, looms large.
Even Oregon is staying involved with Raiola, who is set to visit Eugene at the end of the month for the Ducks’ spring game.
— The No. 3 quarterback nationally is Santa Ana (California) Mater Dei passer Elijah Brown, who has lost just one game in three years as the starter for the Monarchs. (He took over the job from Bryce Young.)
Brown’s recruitment has a strong Pac-12 flavor with Oregon, USC, UCLA and Stanford all involved.
— The No. 4 quarterback nationally is from San Diego, but he’s already headed to the SEC: Carlsbad HS passer Julian Sayin, an Alabama pledge.
(The SEC also has the No. 2 quarterback in Arizona in Demond Williams, from Basha HS in the Phoenix area. He has committed to Mississippi.)
— Another quarterback who the Pac-12 has a real chance to corral is Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon HS’s Isaac Wilson, the No. 5 passer in the region.
His father, Mike, played at Utah, but his brother, Zach, starred at Brigham Young before going No. 2 in the 2021 NFL Draft.
One development undermined the Pac-12’s collective pursuit of the top passers in the region, albeit in a beneficial manner: The reclassification of Folsom (California) quarterback Austin Mack, who would have been a top-10 quarterback nationally in the class of 2024.
Instead, Mack became part of the 2023 class and committed to Washington.
In other words, Caminong is the only sure thing committed to the Pac-12 (and Texas A&M has gotten involved).
Otherwise, the hopes of the conference are pinned on USC regaining momentum with Raiola, Utah finally landing a Wilson, and Brown staying in the Pac-12 footprint.
Miss on those targets and the momentum in quarterback recruiting the conference gained in 2023 will have been squandered.
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