Four-star edge rusher CJ May chooses Louisville over Washington

The Washington Huskies lost out on one of their top defensive line targets on Saturday morning.

Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies saw one of their top targets, four-star edge rusher CJ May from Highland Home High School in Alabama, commit to the Louisville Cardinals on Saturday. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound pass rusher chose coach Jeff Brohm over Auburn, Syracuse, and Washington after decommitting from Notre Dame in February.

“I feel like for the past month or two, Louisville has been home for me,” he told 247Sports Tom Loy. “I have a great feeling about them. I love the situation I’m in. The coaching staff has shown me a lot of love. This has been a great recruiting process, but I’m happy to be heading to Louisville.”

May immediately becomes the highest-ranked recruit in Brohm’s 2025 class as the nation’s No. 146 overall player and No. 17 edge rusher according to 247Sports. Defensive line coach Jason Kaufusi has four defensive linemen committed in Washington’s class and May would have been the cherry on top of a group that is mainly comprised of underrated prospects with high upside.

Washington already dipped into Alabama once in the 2025 cycle to acquire the services of three-star defensive lineman Caleb Smith and the coaching staff’s efforts to add May as well show that Fisch is trying to establish deeper recruiting roots in the South and all over the country as part of the move to the Big Ten.

If the Huskies are looking for other edge rushers to add to the 2025 cycle, two California prospects to keep an eye on are four-star Alhassan Iddrissu and three-star Jewelous Walls from Modesto Christian and Pittsburg High School respectively.