Huffman on West Coast recruiting: Colorado targets H.S. prospects, UCLA’s big flip, success for Arizona and Oregon State

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

Here comes Ralphie

With a bowl berth secured, Colorado, known to prefer the transfer portal under Deion Sanders, is heating up on the recruiting trail, too.

And now that the Buffaloes are back in the Big 12, they have focused on two states with Big 12 schools, Florida and Texas, and flipped a pair of pledges to other Big 12 schools.

UCF received a commitment from defensive lineman Christian Hudson, a top-50 prospect from the Sunshine State, back in July.

But he visited Boulder in mid-October, then decommitted from the Knights and gave Colorado his pledge.

It got better on Saturday.

Just three days after decommitting from Arizona State, four-star receiver Adrian Wilson announced he, too, would be headed to play for Sanders.

While the Buffaloes have just 10 high school commitments, Wilson becomes the second highest-rated pledge in the class.

Pasadena flipper

Brigham Young is unbeaten, and UCLA is scuffling. But it’s tough to beat the hometown school.

The latest example of that came courtesy of three-star edge rusher Cole Cogshell, who plays for Muir High School in Pasadena, the home of the Rose Bowl.

Cogshell committed to BYU in the summer, but his senior film prompted his recruitment to skyrocket and his stock to rise in the rankings.

On Monday, he decommitted from the Cougars.

On Tuesday, he was offered by UCLA.

By Wednesday, Cogshell was the newest member of the Bruins’ class of 2025.

He told 247Sports’ Blair Angulo that the opportunity to play in front of his friends and family at the venerable Rose Bowl while attending school just 30 minutes away was too great to pass up.

He’ll get a head start on playing in the Arroyo Seco when Muir, the alma mater of perhaps UCLA’s finest athlete, Jackie Robinson, takes on crosstown rival Pasadena in the Turkey Tussle on Friday in the Rose Bowl.

Beavers gain momentum

Saturday could not have gone much worse for Oregon State when the Beavers faced former Pac-12 rival Cal in Berkeley. Only a late score avoided a shutout in their 44-7 loss.

But it wasn’t all bad: OSU flipped a pair of out-of-state recruits, one prior to the Cal game and one early this week.

Both three-star prospects, Niklas Fisher from Texas and Bleu Dantzler from Arizona, had taken official visits to Corvallis a week earlier when the Beavers hosted UNLV.

Dantzler is making a lateral move within the rebuilt Pac-12: He was committed to Utah State, but the Aggies are still under an interim coach and looking to make a permanent hire. Even with their impending move to the Pac-12 in the summer of 2026, there’s uncertainty about their head coach in 2025.

Fisher, on the other hand, was committed to Texas State, but a late pursuit by the Beavers — and the subsequent official visit — landed Oregon State a top-60 edge rusher from the Lone Star State.

Wildcats flip one, land another

As with Oregon State, it was a rough weekend for Arizona, once a preseason Top-25 team that has now lost four in a row (three of them at home) since its victory at Utah.

But the Wildcats also flipped a commit from one former Pac-12 school, then pulled in perhaps the fastest-rising prospect in Northern California.

Last week, longtime Cal commit Carter Jones, a linebacker from Southern California, decommitted from the Bears and then announced he would be headed to Arizona.

But the big win came on Wednesday when Louis Akpa, an offensive tackle from Serra High School in San Mateo, committed to the Wildcats.

Arizona head coach Brent Brennan had long recruited Serra when he and his staff were at San Jose State.  And Akpa, who, like Brennan, played in the West Catholic Athletic League, connected with offensive line coach Josh Oglesby, who was previously at San Jose State.

Akpa had visited Boise State officially and had set an official visit to Oregon State while lining up dates with Cal and Minnesota.

Yet on the visit to Arizona, he felt the move was Tucson.

Akpa had some help. His host was former Serra teammate Jabari Mann, a San Jose State signee who got out of his letter-of-intent once Brennan left for Arizona. Eventually, Mann joined Brennan in Tucson.

What makes the three-star prospect so intriguing?

He was a former basketball player who made the move to football and didn’t become a starter until this fall. But at 6-foot-6 and 260-pounds, with a long, lean build, his recruitment took off during the summer camp circuit. And his senior-year film led to Akpa racking up Power Four offers.

Now he’ll head to the Big 12.

UW’s last chance

Washington has had several opportunities to impress recruits this year — the Michigan game, on a pristine afternoon in Seattle, was one.

But with their final home game (Nov. 15) on a Friday night, a difficult night for recruits to attend games, this week’s date with USC is the Huskies’ final Saturday game of the year on Montlake.

As a result, they made it a big day for visitors, both locally and nationally, to see coach Jedd Fisch and his squad one final time.

How does the No. 1 safety in the country in the 2026 class sound?

The Huskies will have Mississippi native Bralan Womack in the stadium on Saturday. That’s a significant visit from a player with scholarship offers from a who’s-who list of the top programs.

But the Huskies staff has been working hard to stay in the mix. Now, they’ll get Womack on campus.

Washington will also host the top-rated player in their own state, Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, and Top247 linebacker Tristan Phillips in attendance, as well. (Rainey-Sale has committed to UW.)

But all eyes will be on Womack.

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