While West region athletes such as Adoree' Jackson, John "Juju" Smith and Joe Mixon were lighting up offseason camps and 7-on-7 tournaments last spring, there was a fairly consistent buzz coming from media, coaches and parents in the know. That group was good, but the next might be even better.
Last Sunday's Los Angeles Nike Football Training Camp raised the curtain on the 2015 class in the West, and it didn't take long to notice that what had been future promise is now very much a reality.
On the surface, the numbers back up the idea that the West region will take a step forward in 2015, as there are 52 ESPN Junior 300 prospects compared to the 43 that were in the 2014 ESPN 300. Though there is still plenty of time for the rankings to shuffle, there are only three positions -- athlete, running back and tight end -- where the 2014 group placed more West prospects on the list than this year. And the two spots toward which much of 2015's fanfare has been directed -- quarterback and wide receiver -- have nine prospects each in the ESPN Junior 300, compared to eight combined in the 2014 rankings.
"I played with a lot of these guys in Pop Warner, so I know how good most of these guys are," said Iman Marshall, the No. 1 cornerback in the West and No. 41 recruit in the country. "This wasn't a surprise to me, that 2015 was going to be one of the top classes of the decade out here."
Marshall and wide receiver Trent Irwin are two of the least surprising names from the region to make the ESPN Junior 300. Marshall was viewed as a national recruit following his freshman year, while Irwin has been a passing league standout at this level since before he began his high school career.
"We have a lot of talent," Irwin said of the West recruits. "We have four or five quarterbacks that all have big-time offers. We have receivers and defensive backs. It's a great class and it will be fun to compete with them for the next few months."
If the recruits are looking forward to jostling for position and hoping to stake a claim as the best in the region, it likely doesn't come close to how excited Pac-12 coaches are to sign these players in February.
It was a furious close for the Pac-12 heading into the 2014 signing day, as six programs had a legitimate chance to finish the day with the top class in the conference. Ultimately, USC leapt three conference rivals to finish with the No. 1 class, while Stanford, Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA and Oregon all finished among the top 27 recruiting classes in the country. While the conference certainly won't turn its attention away from national recruiting -- Florida and Texas, especially, have become significant talent producers for the Pac-12 -- the abundance of local talent should enable the Pac-12 powers to load up.
Of course, it won't be that easy, as the region should be home to some of the fiercest recruiting battles in the country this year, as programs such as Alabama, Florida, Ohio State and Oklahoma have already looked to make their usual in-roads into California.
The Crimson Tide -- the recruiting gold standard right now -- offered 11 West region prospects in the 2014 class. Nick Saban has already extended eight offers in the 2015 class, well before the start of the spring evaluation period.
The quarterback position could get interesting in a hurry. USC pulled Ricky Town, the nation's No. 2 signal-caller, away from Alabama, and UCLA looks to be in good position to add No. 1 overall quarterback Josh Rosen when he announces on March 20. Notre Dame has made its usual presence felt in the West by nabbing a commitment from the nation's No. 3 dual-threat quarterback, Blake Barnett.
Brady White, Brett Rypien, Jake Browning, Sheriron Jones and Kyle Kearns -- all ESPN Junior 300 prospects -- could turn Pac-12 quarterback recruiting into a must-watch event, while Arizona standouts Bryce Perkins and Brian Lewerke are national prospects, as well.
But quarterback recruiting will likely be an appetizer to some of the battles for wide receivers and along the defensive line. Last year in the West, tackle Bryan Mone -- who signed with Michigan -- was the top defensive lineman in the region. Only five of the top 32 prospects in the West called the defensive line home, and the Pac-12 was able to keep just three of them home, including losing Qualen Cunningham to Texas A&M.
In 2015, five of the top 15 prospects in the West are defensive linemen, and the region placed seven defensive tackles in the ESPN Junior 300 -- one fewer than the past two years combined. Rasheem Green, Jacob Daniel and Kahlil McKenzie are national recruits with a number of programs in pursuit.
Outside linebacker John Houston Jr., the No. 5 recruit at his position and a teammate of Green's -- three Gardena (Calif.) Serra Cavaliers are among the top 300 prospects in the nation -- said this class could mean big things for the Pac-12, but nothing is guaranteed.
"It depends on the person," Houston said of whether all this talent could eventually stay local. "Some guys might want to go farther away, so it depends on the mindset."
But while programs from across the country will look to poach the area, and social media has greatly helped coaches develop relationships with out-of-state prospects, a huge majority of recruits still choose to remain close to home for college.
"Most of the dudes want to stay in Cali," Marshall said. "So it benefits a lot of the California colleges because they'll have the pick of a lot of the top players out here. But you still have to play your cards right and see how it falls out."
In 2014, it looked early on as though the West could lose out on a number of its top targets. Mone went off to Michigan and quarterback Kyle Allen made a fairly early commitment to Texas A&M. Jackson and Smith both had national programs as finalists, while Mixon and Michiah Quick eventually signed with Oklahoma. Still, the Pac-12 held onto seven of the top 10 prospects and 37 of the top 50 recruits in the region.
If the Pac-12 can duplicate those numbers with this class -- it's off to a positive start with two of the top 10 regional recruits already committed -- the immediate influx of talent into the conference will be noticeable.