Recruiting Update - 8/5/13

Marcus Griffin: The Bellevue High School defensive tackle received a Washington offer this past week, despite being a verbal to Washington State. He could play both defensive tackle and guard/center on the offensive line, and the Husky coaches like his versatility enough to offer him for all positions. After receiving an offer he said he would reevaluate things and talk with his family. Too early to tell if this a "committable" offer, as the Huskies are in on some better prospects (Claude Pelon, a JC for example), but you have to like the chances of a Bellevue player coming to UW. As a prospect, his best tools are his motor and strength as a run stuffer on the defensive line, though his toughness could lead him to the offensive side of the ball. Remember, current Arizona Cardinal’s offensive lineman Senio Kelemente started as a defensive tackle and ended his career as a pretty good LT for the Huskies. Ultimately, being 6’2" 300 pounds, I see a run stuffing defensive tackle. Check out his highlights here.

Jake Browning: Browning is a 2015 quarterback prospect from Folsom High School in California. After meeting Coach Sark earlier in the week, and diagramming plays with the coaches, he was given an offer. The 6’2" 185 pound prospect also has offers from the likes of Boise State, Washington State, and Utah. His dad Ed Browning played at Oregon State, so they could offer at some point and change things. Since the Huskies probably won’t take a QB in this class, the 2015 class will certainly include one. He had great stats last year, throwing for 5,248 yards, 63 touchdowns (Northern California records) with only 16 interceptions. He did all that with a 64% completion percentage. Those are very eye popping numbers for a sophomore and still being quite young, he might even grow more and end up being taller than his current listed height. He wants to commit early, as is the trend with quarterbacks, and he’s set next summer as his timeline. See his highlights here.

Matt James: The biggest news of the week was the verbal commitment of offensive tackle Matt James from Coeur d’Alene high school in Idaho. The 2^nd commit from Coeur d’Alene, he cited his friendship with teammate TE Chase Blakely, Washington’s academic prestige, and the coaching staff as the main reasons he gave a verbal. He’s going to be playing LT his for his senior year, but the coaches have told him he’ll be tried as both a defensive end and offensive tackle. Arizona State and Cal have offered him as well, but this seems like a pretty solid commitment. He’s got good size at 6’5" 275 pounds, so like most offensive line prospects, expect him to redshirt, and get a couple years in the program before he gets rotated in and get game reps. See both offensive and defensive highlights here.

In other news, CB Jonathan Plattenberg who I profiled in my last recruiting update, could commit as early as next week. He’s fresh off a UCLA visit, and it seems like a two horse race between UW and UCLA. Remember that he was ready to commit to the Huskies at the opening but backed off, and UCLA still has a great chance to land him. Expect epic UW-UCLA recruiting battles for years to come.

Next, top running back Joe Mixon trimmed his list to a top 10, and as expected the Huskies made the cut, along with Tennessee, Oregon, Florida, Texas A&M, Cal, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Oregon State. As I’ve mentioned before, expect UW to be in it to the end because of his close relationship with coaches and former teammate Darrell Daniels.

That’s all for now, but expect another recruiting update during fall camp when more kids start to set up official visits during the season. As usual, feel free to shoot me some questions in the comments and I'll see what I can dig up.