Recruiting in Hawaii

Ferd Lewis has a list of the Advertiser's Top 25 recruits coming out of Hawaii this year, and how more and more schools are recruiting in UH's backyard.

Last year 27 players from Hawai'i signed with Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) schools on national letter of intent day, 10 with Bowl Championship Series member schools. This year the total will be similar.

They are remarkable numbers especially since, once upon a not-so-distant time, only a handful of so-called marquee schools sent coaches here to scout players. These days, however, Hawai'i has been turned into a veritable fishing tournament by recruiters. "It is becoming over-fished," groused one veteran recruiter.

Never before has the University of Hawai'i faced such a heavy or far-reaching onslaught for talent in its backyard. This year Arkansas, Baylor and Florida State joined the perennials — Brigham Young, Colorado, UCLA, Utah, Washington, etc. — in making scholarship offers.

And articles like this one from the Tulsa World is probably an indicator that recruiting will be getting even more competitive in the future.

Texas, Florida and Louisiana are known as the traditional high school football factories.

But none produces talent quite like Hawaii. Neither does any other state.

On a per capita basis, Hawaii produced the most players on Football Bowl Subdivision rosters in 2009, a Tulsa World analysis shows.

The Aloha State sent 3.8 players on to major college football teams per 1,000 boys age 15-19. That’s 50 percent more than the No. 2 state, Louisiana (2.5). Per capita, Honolulu is the top producing metro area (4.6), with almost 40 percent more than second-place New Orleans (3.2).