What Nick Montana Means to Washington's Purple Wave

Great teams from the University of Washington's past have been called names like the purple gang and the purple rain.

Washington's coach Steve Sarkisian in his first full year of recruiting has put together a large and quality class with 30 and counting recruits. With the surprise addition of Sean Parker, the 5th rated safety in the country, it became the 11th rated class in the nation according Scout.com. 

It's not only quantity and quality that has come through, but Sarkisian has filled all the needed position weaknesses with possibly 22 different positions recruited. 

With names like Quarterback Nick Montana, Offensive Lineman Erik Kohler, Safety Sean Parker, and Running back Deontae Cooper, Wide Receiver Steve Smith, he has brought name recognition to campus.  

One of those names sounds very familiar. 

Is he possibly the son of a famous quarterback? 

What was his name? 

Oh yes,  Joe Montana.  

When a former pro quarterback of that caliber, says I want you to coach my son, that is a compliment to the coaching job Sarkisian has done and speaks volumes for how he is perceived in the coaching world.

There is also a name of note, Defensive Linemen Sione Potoa'e.  Noted, not only because he is rated one of the top ten defensive tackles in the country, but because of the other poly players on the husky roster already—20 to be exact on the present roster and seven more amongst the new recruits. 

With 85 scholarships on the team that is a large part of the total roster, Sarkisian made it a point to really go after the Hawaii kids and it has paid off.  Of course when one of your main recruiters is Johny Nansen, who is from Somoa, you can get four of the best out of Hawaii and another four from the west coast, it is easy to see the strong poly connection. 

The Purple Wave would be a very good name for this recruiting class.

Also of note in this class is the amount of offensive lineman. 

There are a total of seven, with four of them coming from the top ten on the west coast. 

Perhaps more important than getting Montana is the fact that he brought along the guy who protected him, Erik Kohler, one of the top rated lineman in the country. Also, he signed Micah Hatchie all Hawaii lineman, Mike Cristi out of Cal., Colin porter and Ben Riva out of Washington, and Colin Tanigawa out of So Cal.  In addition, he add to that group  a complete surprise named James Atoe 6-6 339lbs, out of the small town of Dalles, Oregon.

Atoe was completely under the radar.

He was invited to Washington's camp and Sarkisian said he improved every day of camp. Sark said he just about offered him a scholarship then, but decided to wait so that he wouldn't draw notice to him. 

It worked and now he is a Huskie.  

Other players under the radar were Linebacker Garret Gilliland injured most of the year, was named trinity league defensive player of the year. In his junior year he was named Co- MVP with Matt Barkley a quarterback for So Cal. 

John Timu saw his senoir season cut short by injury, played quarterback in his junior year passing for 1,395 yds and rushing for 642 yds.

He also played safety and the team's punter, listed at number 61 safety by scout.com. He will be grey shirted next year for an ACL recovery. DiAndre Campbell was another player under the radar. He led his league in receptions with 28 on a team that didn't throw much and was a standout on the basketball team.

After his first year Sarkesian was 5 and 7 with a team that went 0 and 12 the year before. So we know he could coach and now we know he can recruit.  Watch out Pac 10. Montana and Washington's Purple Wave are coming and it might be a tsunami you can't stop.