ASU’s wild week, UCLA keeps Toia and Deion’s latest

The Hotline is delighted to provide Pac-12 fans with a regular dive into the recruiting process through the eyes and ears of Brandon Huffman, the Seattle-based national recruiting editor for 247Sports. He submitted the following report on April 25 …

Scorching start for Sun Devils

While last week was something of a roller coaster for Arizona State, the weekend itself proved to be quite fruitful.

Sure, the loss of quarterback Jaden Rashada and cornerback Ed Woods to the transfer portal came out of relative nowhere.

But second-year coach Kenny Dillingham and his staff’s persistence in recruiting — and doing it within the guidelines of the NCAA rules — paid off.

The strong of success started last Friday, when ASU’s new receivers coach, former Pittsburgh Steelers great Hines Ward, pulled off a stunner and landed four-star receiver Adrian Wilson out of Texas.

Despite previously losing assistant Ra’Shaad Samples to Oregon — he specialized in recruiting the Lone Star State — the Sun Devils’ established connections enabled Ward and Dillingham to seal the deal with Wilson.

While that commitment came on offense, the next three all came on the defensive side of the ball from Hawaii, California and most importantly, Phoenix.

Arizona State went out to the 50th state to snag Waipahu linebacker Isaiah Iosefa, a top-10 player on the Islands in the class of 2025.

The Devils headed to neighboring California to reel in safety Benjamin Alefaio, a top-100 player in the state from powerhouse Orange Lutheran High School.

And critically, they went to nearby Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix to grab safety Rylon Dillard-Allen, the No. 32 safety nationally and the No. 4 player in the state of Arizona.

It appeared Dillard-Allen would be heading elsewhere — he had set up official visits to UCLA and USC. But getting him on campus last weekend allowed Dillingham to secure the commitment.

And the Devils may not be done. They made a huge impact on Honolulu offensive lineman Houston Kaahaaina-Torres, the No. 1 player in Hawaii per the 247Sports Composite Rankings, when he took an official visit last weekend.

Portal palooza heats up

The departing Pac-12 schools suffered losses to the transfer portal all week — and gains, as well.

In fact, the same school both lost and gained.

More notably, it was the same player.

The one player UCLA could least afford to lose on a graduation-gutted defense was tackle Jay Toia, but he went into the portal last week.

A visit to Texas made it seem like it was a matter of when, not if, he would commit to the Longhorns and new co-defensive coordinator, Johnny Nansen.

After all, Nansen recruited Toia to USC, and when he joined UCLA’s coaching staff, Toia followed him to Westwood.  While Toia wouldn’t then follow Nansen to Arizona, the announcement that he entered the portal last week led to speculation that they would reunite (in Austin) for Toia’s final season.

But in a stunning move, Toia announced on Monday night he would return to UCLA.

Arizona State wasn’t as lucky and lost Rashada, who signed in 2023 and was the Week 1 starter after his own, circuitous recruitment. (He decommitted from Miami, signed with Florida, then wiggled out of his letter-of-intent because of issues with his NIL package.)

Rashada announced on Thursday morning that he would transfer to Georgia, following a similar arc as fellow 2023 quarterback Dante Moore, who flipped from Oregon to UCLA, started much of the season for the Bruins, then transferred to Oregon. In Eugene, Moore will back up Dillon Gabriel for a year, then become the starter in 2025.

With Georgia’s Carson Beck coming back after a 13-1 season, Rashada heads to Athens knowing he will be the second stringer for a season, then (presumably) take over.