Husky Stadium home of Washington Huskies football.
This is the time of the year when all the Washington Huskies sports are recruiting for 2023. This is especially true for football. Saturday, we reviewed offensive players that Washington made offers to. Today, we move to the other side of the ball.
Before jumping into the 2023 recruiting update, a quick word about this year. The Washington Huskies football team still has room to add players to this year’s team from the transfer portal.
Recently cornerback Jacobe Covington and running back Caleb Berry, who redshirted last year, transferred out. Those departures leave six player scholarship spots available this year. Don’t be surprised by a few late additions to the roster.
There are several defensive positions of need. With Covington leaving, defensive back depth is a must. Also among the priority spots are the defensive line, edge rusher, and inside linebacker. Based on the number of scholarships offered to defensive players, new Huskies Head Coach Kalen DeBoer is putting a premium on defense.
We now look at each defensive position for the 2023 recruiting class. How many recruits the Huskies will sign won’t be known until later this year or early next.
One of the best edge rushers in this class is local product Jayden Wayne from Lincoln High School in Tacoma. He is a five-star recruit, so all the major schools are after to get him. As of now, the University of Miami is at the top of his list, but It would be great if the Washington Huskies could find a way to keep him home.
Outside of Wayne, Washington’s top choice is Brady Nassar from Pleasanton, California. A third player is Anthony James, who committed to Texas A & M. However, he was in attendance at the Huskies’ spring game, so there is a chance he could flip, though the chances of that are small.
The Washington Huskies have made offers to 20 players. But at this point, none are close to committing to Washington.
Their top target is Gavin Geweniger out of Scottsdale, Arizona. There is plenty of competition to land Geweniger. Although Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State have also given him offers. So far, he hasn’t shown any interest in any of them.
Another player the Huskies offered is Amos Talalele from Santa Clara, California. He is likely going to be hard to sign for the Huskies since he is one of the few four-star players out there. California Golden Bears, Oregon, and USC have Talalele on their radar as well.
Among the 20 offers, one, five-star, and five, four-star players remain uncommitted, so there is still cause for optimism.
Starting with the good news, Deven Bryant from Bellflower, California, committed to the Huskies on May 8.
At the top of Washington’s linebacker wish list is three-star rated Michael Montgomery from Seattle’s Garfield High School. Oregon is also interested in Montgomery, as is Arkansas. Victory Johnson is next in line to Montgomery. The San Diego native is one of seven linebackers UW made offers to from California. He doesn’t have a lot of offers, so coming to Washington might be in the cards.
Jordan Whitney received an offer last week. Recently, he narrowed his choices to Arizona and UW, but he is familiar with new Huskies’ linebackers coach William Inge who recruited him while at Fresno State. A true speedster, Whitney is on his school’s track team as a sprinter. The Huskies are looking for linebackers with speed. Depending on how many linebackers they sign, UW could move Whitney to safety.
Washington put out offers to six recruits; however, two of them have already committed elsewhere. Christian Pierce from Rancho Cucamonga, a three-star recruit, committed to USC, and RJ Jones, a classmate of linebacker Deven Bryant, committed to Cal.
Kodi Decambra is a four-star recruit from high school football power Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas. He has the Huskies at the top of his wish list but is also considering Arizona and Oregon. Since the Huskies have four other uncommitted safety recruits remaining, they likely will have to look for other safeties or move someone over from cornerback.
The Huskies have 17 players offered who have not committed anywhere yet. Their number one target is four-star, local player Jasiah Wagoner from Spanaway Lake High School. It won’t be easy to keep him home as Wagoner has offers from Notre Dame, Texas, and most recently, Oklahoma. In Washington’s favor is the amount of NFL cornerbacks they recently put into the NFL.
Another local player and four-star recruit is Caleb Presley from Rainier Beach High School. It won’t be easy to keep him home. Alabama shows high interest in Presley along with Michigan State. We can’t forget the Oregon Ducks would also love to snag Presley.
Washington offers out to four other, uncommitted four-star cornerbacks. Unfortunately, none have a huge interest in coming to Washington.
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