Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Thursday, February 6, 1997

Better teams always
seem to get the best

GOOD thing coaching counts for something. Otherwise, we shouldn't even bother playing the game. The stories this week about high school football signings made one thing perfectly clear: all things being equal, the more talented players you recruit, the better your chances of winning.

And so when Super Prep Magazine listed Florida State, Penn State, Notre Dame, Florida and Michigan as having the top five recruiting classes this year, it should come as no surprise if they rank among the Top 10 teams in the nation by the year 2000.

I remember saving a sports clipping from several years ago noting that the University of Florida had the best recruiting class. The reason? They had signed an outstanding high school quarterback named Danny Wuerffel.

So, in a large way, what you have been reading this week in terms of recruiting will give you a glimpse of college football's future. Not surprisingly, the same schools keep coming up. It all comes down to the "haves" and "have-nots" with the rich only getting richer.

Bobby Bowden plucked defensive end David Warren, the USA Today defensive player of the year and the best Texas had to offer. And 6-5, 260-pound tight end Carver Donaldson of Lakeland, Fla., even turned down recruiting trips to Notre Dame, Penn State and Nebraska to play for Florida State.

Penn State continues its tradition as "Linebacker U." by signing LaVar Arrington (6-4, 225) and Ron Graham (6-3, 240), who are considered among the three best linebackers in the country. Arrington even ran for a career 4,357 yards and 72 touchdowns.

Lou Holtz has left Notre Dame, but the Fighting Irish didn't lose a step in the recruiting wars. Stanford landed the best quarterback in Randy Fasani, who "has All-American written all over him," according to Scholastic Sports Magazine.

OBVIOUSLY, there's no way that Hawaii's Fred vonAppen can compete with the big boys, who sign all the all-this and all-thats in the nation. He couldn't even get the top players in-state, other than 6-4, 260-pound offensive lineman Manly Kanoa of Kamehameha.

Overall, vonAppen and his staff did a good job on their first recruiting class. Still, as vonAppen says, you won't know how good they'll be until they play a game. "But on paper, it's a pretty good class," he said.

On paper they can't stack up with the Florida States of the college football world. Fortunately, UH is not playing the Seminoles. But it'll take a heckuva coaching job on von Appen's part just to stay competitive in the WAC, which is all Rainbows fans should hope for in view of the recruiting difficulties here.

Hawaii's annual blue-chip crop - around four to six a year - is always getting gobbled up by the big schools or Utah, which has the best pipeline going right now. And you can't blame the local kids for going away.

NEBRASKA'S Tom Osborne even came here last week to sign offensive lineman Dominic Raiola of St. Louis.

"They didn't want to make another mistake again," said Raiola's coach, Cal Lee.

Two years ago the Cornhuskers had told Chris Fuamata-Maafala and Olin Kreutz of St. Louis that they didn't have scholarships available but invited them to visit Lincoln anyway, which they declined. Both wound up as starters at Utah and Washington, respectively.

"They were two boys that they could have had and they admitted they made a big mistake," Lee said.

"To have Nebraska come here shows we have the talent. It's good for the state but maybe not good for the coaches for UH. You have all these schools coming. If each one takes just one, that don't leave you anything."

VonAppen knows the feeling.