At just 27 years old, Washington’s new director of recruiting Spencer Henkle has already accrued worlds of experience. After starting out as a recruiting intern at Fresno State, he was hired to join the recruiting staff full-time at UCLA, where he stayed for just over two years. Henkle then returned to Fresno State for 45 days, before Oregon’s director of football recruiting Don Johnson Jr. got ahold of him and got him to Oregon.
At Oregon, Henkle said that he learned a lot about recruiting from former head coach Mario Cristobal. He was mainly involved in developing itineraries and visit planning for every recruit, which he said he did in one on one meetings with Miami’s new head coach. “I learned so much from Coach Cristobal,” he said. “He’s very involved in every aspect of a recruit’s trip, and pays attention to every little detail, all the way down to what sides we want to give them with their dinner.”
When Cristobal left for Miami, he said that he received a call from his good friend and mentor, Courtney Morgan. He said that when he got that call, it was a “no-brainer” to come to Washington, and it was because of the people involved. “I really believe in this staff, and that they’ll be able to change the culture here,” Henkle said. “Coach DeBoer is a big family guy, and the way that he gets involved with all of his players and recruits is something that I absolutely wanted to be a part of. On the field, I think he and [offensive coordinator] Ryan Grubb are two of the best play-callers in the country, and I think we can really do something special here.”
Another big reason that Henkle said he chose to link up with his mentor at Washington is that there’s “no fluff” involved in the Husky recruiting process. “Once the recruiting hype is over in places like Ann Arbor and Eugene, you see that there isn’t really a lot to do in the town. Here in Seattle, we aren’t lying about what we can do off the field.”
While he was involved in a lot of the planning at Oregon, Henkle wanted to be more hands-on on the recruiting front, and he’s done a great job in organizing both official and unofficial visits. “We want to try to get recruits on campus at least three times,” he said. “Once for a camp, one for an unofficial visit, and then once for an official visit, that way they get to truly experience everything that Washington can offer them. When we get them on campus for an unofficial, we want to give them the gist of things. We’ll give them a tour of the campus and the U-Village, their photoshoot, and we want to make sure they get quick introductions to everyone but spend the majority of time with Coach DeBoer and their position coach.”
“Official visits are where we can really dive into what the recruit likes. We want to make sure we hit the best restaurants, and tailor the visit to show that we really did our research and that we truly care about their best interests. We cater the visit around what they want to get out of Washington as a student and an athlete. We’ll lay out academic presentations, nutrition presentations, and make sure to spend a lot of time with [strength coach] Ron McKeefery to lay out our strength and conditioning program. And of course, we’ll make sure they get another photoshoot. The biggest thing that we want to do is separate ourselves with the conversations that we have with the recruit and show that we really care about them. Courtney and I really pride ourselves on our ability to connect with every family we bring on campus, and want to show that at every opportunity.”
One of the biggest things in the recruiting world right now is name, image, and likeness opportunities, and Henkle was adamant that Washington’s Montlake Futures setup is second to none. “We have a great team with Montlake Futures, and they’re an excellent connection to filter deals and make sure they’re in the kid’s best interest. We’re finding out a way to work with local companies like Nordstrom, and Montlake is a great resource for our athletes. Everyone has different values, so we try to make sure everything is catered to the kid’s individual needs. With the resources in this city, our NIL opportunities can be second to none. We give them the info of what they’re looking for, and then try to assist them as best we can to be competitive with all other schools,” he said.
A big part of the NIL push recently has been the “Loyal to the Soil” message that has been pushed by the staff. “Loyal to the Soil is tremendous for us,” he said. “We want the local guys to be the face of Seattle. We want to keep those kids home, and keep the city engaged and excited,” he said. “We want to make sure we emphasize relationships with high school coaches and in-state players… and we need to make sure we keep in-state players in Seattle.”
Henkle said that he has high expectations for the class of 2023 class, saying that the staff didn’t have much of a chance to establish a foothold with the class of 2022, and that they’re really “digging in” with 2023. So what has the school been marketing to recruits?
“We’re playing to our strengths and marketing the best parts of the university. We want to make sure we do our research, and find a way to show them why Seattle is the best fit for them both on and off the field. Courtney and I are here to use our connections and our resources to make sure these recruits are set up in the best way possible for life after football,” he said.
“We’ve done a great job getting kids up here, Premium [a 7on7 team based in Los Angeles] is visiting this weekend. A big reason Courtney Morgan is here is because of his LA connections. For example, he was able to get Darnay Holmes’ father’s 7on7 team [Proway] up on a visit last weekend,” he said. “One of our toughest tasks is making sure that we keep the best players from the west coast [on the west coast].”
So what kind of expectations does Henkle have for the 2022 season both on-field and in recruiting? he said. “We want to be competitive. Everything comes down to winning games. In recruiting, we want everyone to understand how prestigious the University of Washington is. We want to win some games, and we’re in a really good situation, and we can shock a lot of people with our coaching staff. We have a good buzz going and we’ve got to keep it up.”
Recruiting is arguably the most important part of college football, and Washington is in great hands with Henkle as the director of recruiting.
