The news of the year may have just happened, again. Former Cal player and defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi has decided to accept a job with the Washington Huskies.
Fans on the West coast are absolutely stunned at this development. However, once Coach Steve Sarkisian was able to reel in the talents of defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, this is not a huge surprise. The two are good friends and while Wilcox was at Tennessee he was hopeful to bring his friend to Knoxville. It never panned out, but once Wilcox moved out West it became reality.
Now with only two weeks left until signing day, which falls on Feb. 1 this year, the recruiting on the West just got a lot more interesting.
Tosh Lupoi was a successful recruiter but also a coach at Cal. In fact, he was arguably the top recruiter in the Pac-12 and one of the elite in the nation. With his new contract at Washington, here's a preview of who could follow or who may look elsewhere on the commit list.
Arik Armstead - No comment was given but this has got to have major implications for him on the eve of his decision. It has been noted the strongest draw to Cal for Armstead, was the relationship with coach Lupoi. THis could be one of the most interesting developments today with this news.
Shaq Thompson - Via twitter Thompson said, "I've got some thinking to do." There has never been a question where he would sign until today. In my expert opinion this is one player that could possibly follow Lupoi to Washington. But, as always in recruiting you never know.
Ellis McCarthy - McCarthy could be the biggest loss for the Bears from this change. He was already a bit soft on his commitment and USC was never going to let up. This in fact could be the biggest benefit for USC from this development.
Jordan Payton - I was able to contact Payton via text which returned a "No comment" on the news. Once again, this story could get real interesting and could be to the benefit of Notre Dame if anything was to happen.
Bryce Treggs - Treggs was shocked at the news when I asked him. His response was almost comical in fact. "Oh really? Well that's good for Washington but it doesn't affect me."
Stefon Diggs - It's hard to call Cal a long shot whenever you are including Tosh Lupoi, but it would appear that may be true now with Lupoi gone. Diggs didn't return any immediate attempts for comment.
Pio Vatuvei - The soft USC commit has been considering Cal but had yet to hear the news. His initial comment was surprise, but Vatuvei said he will continue to evaluate his options and it "just made his decision a whole lot harder."
D.J. Foster - Foster just returned from a solid visit to USC. Following the trip he put USC and Cal at the top of his list, as with McCarthy this may be the biggest coup for the Trojans with news of Lupoi's departure.
Cedric Dozier - Dozier actually called me back because he didn't believe me at first. He didn't want to go on record with an official comment, but it certainly sounded like he could be opening things up.
Damariay Drew - Who is a rumored soft commit said he has never met coach Lupoi so it has no bearing on his decision as he takes his final two official visits to Oregon and Cal.
Darius Powe - Powe returned a text indicating the news was fine with him and said, "I guess he has to do what he has to do." It appears he will stick with his Cal commitment.
Chris Harper - Harper said via twitter that he remains firm in his Cal commitment. Cal was one of his dream offers for quite some time.
Currently Cal is the No. 12 team in our up-to-date team recruiting rankings.
It is believed Washington offered Lupoi a salary close to $500K per year, which is almost three times his pay at Cal
- Justin Hopkins
- Recruiting Insider - 247Sports