Huffman on Recruiting: Oregon lands Hawaii’s top prospect, Cal’s in-state success and a Bruin QB brewing

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 analyst for Rivals/On3. 

And here we go…

Visits, commitments, visits, commitments, visits, commitments — this is June, after all.

With the expedited recruiting calendar, a slew of West Coast prospects came off the board over the past week, fresh off campus visits and spurning upcoming trips.

The old days of schools wanting the last visit with a recruit have been replaced with an approach summed up like this: Get the first visit, then hope you do enough to prompt them to cancel all the rest.

Schools that were preparing for loads of visitors in the coming weeks have already seen their lists look vastly different.

Ducks land Hawaii’s No. 1

No commitment out West in the past week was bigger than the one Oregon received on Wednesday.

The Ducks went to Hawaii, where they have had tremendous success over the years, and snagged the No. 1 player in the state in linebacker Toa Satele.

The Mililani High School four-star prospect — that’s the same school that produced former Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, by the way — was supposed to visit Texas, Notre Dame and Cal this month.

But the Ducks lured him to campus first and secured his commitment. They won’t have to weather any other trips.

The added bonus?

Satele’s younger brother, Trison, is the top defensive recruit in Hawaii in the class of 2028 and a Navy All-American Bowl selection. The brothers have insisted they’re a package deal.

With Toa going first, it probably puts the Ducks in strong position for Trison in the 2027-28 recruiting cycle, barring some sibling squabble.

Bears double down

After the good news Cal received last weekend with Dane Weber, the four-star quarterback from Southern California,  the visits couldn’t have gone any better for first-year coach Tosh Lupoi.

The Bears landed a pair of in-state, four-star prospects in Sacramento tight end Rahzario Edwards and Los Angeles linebacker Elyjah Staples.

They also pulled in a pair of linemen: Texas’ Jaderian Jones (defense) and California’s Amaziah Siale (offense).

But the most important bits of news for the Bears were the reaffirmations of commitment from defensive lineman Giovanni Hodge and edge rusher Troy Bowens.

Hodge, who is Edwards’ teammate at Grant High School in Sacramento, committed to the Bears months ago. But  UCLA and Stanford were both pushing and had him scheduled for official visits.

After his official visit to Berkeley last weekend, Hodge said he was shutting down his recruitment and sticking with the Bears.

Bowens, the highest-rated defensive pledge for Lupoi, committed in March. He scheduled visits to Stanford and Michigan but shut down his recruitment this week and is headed to Cal.

From beach to Buckeye to Bruin?

One of the most intriguing official visits this weekend is that of Huntington Beach four-star quarterback Brady Edmunds.

He committed to Ohio State on Dec. 2, 2024 — so long ago that Chip Kelly was still the offensive coordinator for the Buckeyes, who were reeling from their fourth straight loss to Michigan. (They went on to win the national championship.)

But UCLA visited Edmunds in January and got him onto campus twice in the spring despite his commitment to the Buckeyes.

With the Bruins whiffing on Weber, they turned up the heat on Edmunds. He was at the Elite 11 Finals last week and qualified for The Opening Finals later this month.

But this weekend, he’ll be in Westwood, taking an official visit to UCLA and testing that 18-month commitment to Ohio State.

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