Brandon Huffman Pac-12 recruiting notebook

The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a dive into the process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting analyst for 247Sports.

Huffman will relay news and insight into the latest developments and cast an eye ahead to upcoming events that will shape the 2022-23 recruiting cycle.

*** USC is back in the news.

The Trojans landed a commitment Monday from the No. 6 safety in the country, Braxton Myers, a four-star prospect and the No. 20 overall player in the state of Texas.

Texas is a hotbed that USC started to dip into under former coach Clay Helton, but it’s pretty much where Lincoln Riley made a living during his tenure at Oklahoma.

Now, he’s mining Texas to get Meyers, who had over 30 scholarship offers from the likes of Clemson, Florida State, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, among others. He’s a nice pickup for Riley.

*** Oregon was also in the news.

The Ducks collected a commitment out of the South from four-star running back Dante Dowdell, who’s from Mississippi.

Most people thought he was headed to Ole Miss. Instead, he spurned the in-state Rebels and will play for running backs coach Carlos Locklyn at Oregon.

Dowdell is a four-star player in the 247Sports composite rankings and the No. 20 running back in the country.

He had 25 scholarship offers and is the No. 4 overall player in the state of Mississippi. Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Ole Miss were some of the schools recruiting him.

So both Oregon and USC continue to recruit nationally.

*** Within the Pac-12 footprint, five-star quarterback Jaden Rashada, the No. 1 player in Northern California, is expected make an announcement Tuesday afternoon.

Most likely, it will be him revealing a top list of schools. I don’t anticipate him making a commitment.

I spoke with his father, Harlan, and they were on the Oregon campus this past weekend for an unofficial visit — the one originally supposed to take place the weekend of Oregon’s spring game (in mid-April). Rashada ended up at Ole Miss, so he took the visit to Eugene this weekend.

He is planning to visit Texas A&M, get back down to LSU and possibly get back to Ole Miss.

This all could tie into his brother, Roman Rashada, a cornerback who attends Diablo Valley College in the East Bay. Roman Rashada named his top three, and they were Virginia Tech, Ole Miss and Miami.

Why is that significant? Well, Virginia Tech has not offered Jaden Rashada, but the Hokies are in the top three for Roman. Ole Miss and Miami both have hosted Jaden Rashada for visits.

So do the brothers become a package deal? That will be something to monitor.

*** Oregon State hosted one official visit over the weekend. That was defensive end/tight end Brady Nassar out of Pleasanton, California.

The Beavers have recruited him for both sides of the ball. More likely than not, he will end up on offense, but some schools are recruiting him as a defensive end.

*** UCLA and Washington both hosted a significant number of recruits this past weekend.

As of now, none of the high school players have committed to either school — at least that we know of publicly. An assistant for UCLA did tweet out ‘Boom’ on Monday, and that’s typically the sign that a commitment is coming.

The Bruins had a number of visitors from the West Coast: three from California and one from Utah, plus one from Iowa.

*** Washington had an in-state visitor, edge rusher Sekai Afoa-Asoau.

He has matriculated from a number of schools: He graduated from high school in 2019, went to Central Washington, then Dixie State (in Utah). He left Dixie State and went to the College of San Mateo in the Bay Area.

USC offered a scholarship, but Washington was his last official visit. On Monday evening, Afoa-Asoau committed to the Huskies.

*** The big out-of-state official visitor for Washington this weekend was Rashid Williams, the top-247 receiver from the Bay Area. He took the first of three expected visits. He’s also scheduled to see Oregon State and Cal later this month.

Among the other players visiting UW was four-star cornerback Jyaire Hill from Illinois. The Huskies are kind of focusing on the West Coast but, like UCLA, they did have a Midwest visitor come through.

*** That’s it for the pressing news.

Obviously, Rashada’s announcement Tuesday could set the tone for more quarterback dominoes in the class of ‘23, depending on what the announcement is.

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