Clay Helton is a sh*t recruiter & pretty much everyone knows he's on the chopping block.
The top kids in Cali aren't staying home like they used to, they basically go everywhere & unless USC is dominant or dropping major bags, they're not going to be bringing in big time recruiting classes until they get a legit HC.
Chip Kelly was never a great recruiter, in fact he hates recruiting. He had his success at Oregon by loading up on underrated kids from Cali, Hawaii, Utah & even plucked a few from Texas. What Chip will find out the hard way is that UCLA can't compete in the recruiting wars unless they have a high energy aggressive type HC on the trail, Jim Mora was the best HC they've had since the Bob Toledo era in the late 90's - early 00's.
Chip also has a terrible rep that will be used against him on the trail, a lot of players that have played for him absolutely hate his guts, his personality runs sour after awhile if you're not winning. He's a big time egomaniac & a lot of players just plain don't like the guy, he's basically the Football version of George Karl.
Chris Petersen, Mario Cristobal & David Shaw will be the top dogs in recruiting for the Pac-12 for the foreseeable future, but a lot of that shiny new toy intrigue will wear off on Cristobal once he starts annually putting up 8-4 seasons.
The wild cards in the Pac-12 are Arizona & AZ St, AZ St in particular because they got a staff with some good recruiters in Antonio Pierce & Tony White, plus they brought on Shaun Aguano who was a great HS HC & built Chandler into a powerhouse.
Utah is also another sleeper program in the Pac-12, Whittingham has done a good job there & they've actually low key built a small pipeline into getting some South Fla kids out there that are flourishing in their system because they do a good job developing players. They'll never recruit at a high level, but they'll get the most out the ones they do get & can play with & beat just about anybody in that conference except Washington.
