Tag: Washington Huskies Recruiting

Anquon Fegans could play a unique role in Washington’s defense

The Washington Huskies can deploy safety Anquon Fegans differently than any other team in college football.

While the Washington Huskies might not be the favorites to land four-star safety Anquon Fegans out of Thompson High School in Alabaster, Alabama, they have a sales pitch that no other school in the nation does. Thanks to defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, the Huskies can utilize the nation’s No. 92 overall player in a way unlike any other.

Fegans, who is listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, has a similar frame to one of New England’s best defensive players in recent years, safety Kyle Dugger. Matching Belichick with Fegans, if he were to commit to Washington, would be an exciting match for both.

“The scheme will fit the players,” Belichick said during his press conference last week. “Whatever they’re good at, we’ll find a way to make it work.”

If Fegans were in the room, it would be easy to ask him to play a role similar to what Dugger has done in New England and then some.

In run support, as he continues to add weight and muscle to his frame, Fegans has the chance to be the same sort of player as Dugger against the run. He can line up in the box, has great eyes and is able to identify gaps quickly before making strong tackles, wrapping up ball carriers before they can pick up a head of steam.

Where Belichick would really be able to utilize Fegans is in pass coverage, as he displays better range and ball skills than the Patriots star, while also showing a willingness to come down and play man coverage anywhere in the formation. He’s also an incredibly gifted defender in zone coverage who has become very good at baiting quarterbacks into making difficult throws.

Belichick did a great job playing to player’s strengths during his time in New England, with one of his biggest accomplishments being revitalizing the career of safety Jabrill Peppers. With the opportunity to develop Fegans and play to his strengths right away at the college level, he could help turn him into one of the best safeties in the country.

Top 10 WR prospect sets official visit date with Washington

The Washington Huskies have added a fourth official visitor ranked inside 247 Sports’ top 100 prospects.

The Washington Huskies scheduled an official visit on Friday with one of the nation’s top wide receivers, four-star Andrew Marsh.

Texas produces some of the top football players in the county and the product of Jordan High School is certainly one of them. He’s ranked as the No. 66 player in the 2025 class by 247 Sports, and as the No. 7. wide receiver.

Marsh is a dual sport standout, as he also shines in track & field, displaying an impressive 6-foot-6 high jump. He had an impressive junior season on the football field, pulling in 65 receptions for 1158 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

He holds 36 offers from most of the nation’s elite programs and has scheduled official visits to USC, Penn State, Oklahoma, and Texas along with Washington.

The 6-foot-1, 176-pound receiver has been clocked at a 4.46 40-yard dash and has already accrued an impressive collection of accolades. Some include being named an MVP at Under Armor’s All-American camp in Houston, as well as being named the District 19 6A Newcomer of the Year, a huge achievement in Texas’ premier division.

He was also selected to the District 19 6A All District team last season and will be looking to build on his strong campaign in 2024. Wide receivers coach Kevin Cummings is looking to put together a strong class in 2025 and if he can secure a commitment from Marsh, that would be a huge statement from Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff.

Belichick’s personality could turn him into an elite recruiter for Washington

Steve Belichick’s personality has shined through early on in his tenure at Washington, which could help him on the recruiting trail.

Just two months into his time as the Washington Huskies’ defensive coordinator, Steve Belichick has shown a lot of personality. After an appearance on the Green Light Podcast with Chris Long, the former New England Patriots staffer went viral during his first press conference when he was asked how he was different from his father, eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick.

“I have a job and he doesn’t, and he knows it,” Belichick told members of the media during a luncheon on Wednesday.

While that comment alone displays a vast difference from his father, he also has to take on a new challenge coming to college after spending 12 seasons with the Patriots. Recruiting is a key part of sustained success at the college level, therefore it’s a large part of every coach’s job, which Belichick said he is aware of, but still adjusting to.

“FaceTiming high school kids has been new,” Belichick said. “It didn’t feel natural at first, but I can talk to people so once I got over the mental block of doing that, I started getting the hang of it.”

Recruits seem to agree, as four-star linebacker Christian Thatcher claimed he was the first player Belichick called, and seemed to enjoy the defensive coordinator’s sense of humor.

“It was a really funny conversation,” Thatcher said. “He started with ‘I guess I have to ask you how school is and all that.’ We have hit it off really well and I can’t wait to meet him in person.”

Belichick appears to be a very promising hire for Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff, as he’s bringing one of the best defensive schemes from the NFL with him and if he can prove that he can help bring in top tier recruits too, he could quickly establish himself as one of the best defensive coordinators in the Big Ten.

Washington lands official visit with top California offensive lineman

The Washington Huskies set an official visit date with one of the nation’s top offensive linemen.

One of the best offensive linemen in the country has announced his intentions to visit coach Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies. Four-star Champ Taulealea, a product of Valley Christian High School in San Jose, California, announced his intentions to visit Seattle on May 3, while the Huskies have their spring game

The 6-foot-4 330-pound prospect is ranked as the nation’s No. 14 interior lineman by 247 Sports and played both sides of the ball last season, but should stick along the offensive line at the college level. While he primary plays tackle, he is expected to be moved to guard to fit his style of play and physicality on the field.

Taulealea is one of the most sought-after 2025 prospects and coach Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans are also in hot pursuit of his services, as he also lined up an official visit to Los Angeles on May 17

He currently holds 16 offers from some of the nation’s top programs, some of the most notable being Georgia, Florida, Penn State, Auburn and Texas, and recently won one of the top performer All-Star awards at the Polynesian Bowl Combine and Showcase. He was also selected to participate in the 2025 Polynesian Bowl.

Four-star LB Christian Thatcher is very high on the Washington Huskies

Four-star linebacker Christian Thatcher scheduled his official visit with Washington on Wednesday, and is very high on the Huskies, thanks to Jedd Fisch’s coaching staff.

As four-star linebacker Christan Thatcher wades through his 31 scholarship offers searching for his best fit at the college level, the biggest thing that he’s looking for is a strong relationship with the coaching staff. He appears to have found that in Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies, who are very high on his list.

“I love coach Fisch. I love how he treats his people and his entire staff,” Thatcher said. “I have a great relationship with [linebackers coach Robert] Bala, and I think I have the best relationship with any coach at any school with [defensive quality control coach] Aaron Van Horn, who has been recruiting me since his time at Arizona.”

In fact, Thatcher, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound prospect from Arbor View High School in Las Vegas, Nevada liked his relationship with Van Horn and Fisch’s coaching staff during their time at Arizona so much, he almost committed to the Wildcats.

“They offered me after the second game of my freshman year and we’ve had a really close relationship ever since,” he said. “I was really close to committing to them at Arizona before they left.”

Although Bala is a new addition to Fisch’s staff, Thatcher made sure to do his due diligence in researching him, including contacting some of his old high school teammates.

“Two linebackers that I played with in high school also played for coach Bala when he was the defensive coordinator at Southern Utah University,” he said. “When I asked about him, I was told that he’s the real deal as a coach and more importantly as a human, and that they still talk with him all the time.”

One other newcomer to the staff that has wasted no time developing a relationship with Thatcher is defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, who is new to the world of recruiting after spending 12 years with the New England Patriots, but getting the hang of his new role quickly.

“I’m pretty sure I was the first high school player he had to call,” Thatcher said. “It was a really funny conversation, he started with ‘I guess I have to ask you how school is and all that.’ We have hit it off really well and I can’t wait to meet him in person.”

Thatcher set his official visit to Seattle for the weekend of May 31, but it won’t be his first time on campus, as he took an unofficial visit during his freshman year.

When he meets his player host on his visit, it also won’t be the first time Thatcher encounters a Husky, as his first career high school tackle was of wide receiver Germie Bernard, who played for Liberty High School in Las Vegas.

However, the Huskies aren’t the only team in pursuit of Thatcher. He has also set up official visits with Kansas, Missouri, and Utah, and is in the process of scheduling trips to USC and Colorado too. He mentioned that Oregon is also in the mix and that he and his family are only focused on the schools that they have built the strongest relationships with over his recruitment.

While Fisch’s coaching staff has built a strong relationship with Thatcher off the field, it’s also selling the possibility of early playing time. Three Washington linebackers will utilize their final year of eligibility in 2024 and that’s something Thatcher and his family are well aware of.

“As my dad and I have done our research on rosters, the possibility of playing early is definitely important and something that we looked at with each of my top six or seven schools,” he said.

Thatcher also mentioned that he has a relationship with another one of Washington’s top targets at linebacker, four-star linebacker Matai Tagoa’i. The pair played youth football together while being coached by Tagoa’i’s father and haven’t discussed the possibility of playing together again at the college level, yet.

“We are considering a lot of the same schools and will definitely talk about that on our Washington visit, since we’re taking it at the same time.”

While there are a lot of factors that go into choosing a school, it appears the strongest relationship might be what wins the day when it comes to the blue-chip prospect, leaving Washington in a great spot with Thatcher.

“I’m so thankful for the relationship that I’ve been able to build with coach Fisch and his staff,” he said. “The fact that we’ve been talking since my freshman year and that they’ve always been so good to me is so important moving forward and is something that has put Washington really, really, really high on my list.”

Jedd Fisch has set lofty goals for himself at Washington

In a preseason press conference, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch discussed his expectations for himself and his coaching staff moving forward.

“If you don’t set goals, what are you going to achieve?” Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch said at a luncheon with members of the media on Wednesday.

From calling on all the Fortune 500 companies in the area from Starbucks, to Costco, REI, and more, Fisch stablished some very high goals for himself and his coaching staff, which starts with investing in NIL.

“Raising NIL money is the first part of our business plan,” he said. “With the way things are heading right now in college football, you need incredible donor support. Being able to take care of kids in college football is critical, that hasn’t changed.”

One of the first goals he set after arriving in Seattle was on the recruiting trail, as he wants the 2025 class to be the best in school history. While working to achieve that goal, he set another which could help entice high school prospects, by improving some of Washington’s facilities by adding an extra focus on player care.

“We want to have the best weight room we can have, the best strength and conditioning coaches, the best training room,” he said. “We want to have state of the art technology and science when it comes to taking care of players. We want to invest every part of our program into the players.”

Finally, he also wants a chance to show the UW fanbase what he and his coaching staff has to offer at the team’s annual spring game, which he dubbed “Dawgs after Dark.” Traditionally a sparsely attended event, Washington’s head coach said he wants to set a new record during the spring game on May 3.

“They tell me we’ve never had more than 30,000 people here for the spring game, so we’re hoping to get 40,000,” Fisch said.

With more resources than what was ever available to him at Arizona, Fisch might have a shot at achieving some of these goals.

Washington sets an official visit with a four-star LB from Nevada

The Washington Huskies have added four-star linebacker Chrisitan Thatcher to their official visit list.

The Washington Huskies need reinforcements at the linebacker position, as three seniors are set to use their final year of eligibility in 2024. Linebackers coach Robert Bala has wasted no time securing visits with multiple blue chip prospects and Christian Thatcher announced that he will be the third four-star player at the position to visit Montlake.

Thatcher, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound prospect from Arbor View High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, took to social media on Wednesday morning to let fans know about his plans to take an official visit to Washington on May 31, when the Huskies are hosting a lot of their other top targets.

On his visit, he will join another one of Washington’s coveted prospects at the position in four-star Matai Tagoa’i, as well as five-star cornerback Dijon Lee, four-star wide receivers Phillip Bell, Chris Lawson, and Raiden Vines-Bright, and three-star offensive lineman John Mills.

Ranked as the nation’s No. 30 linebacker by 247 Sports, Thatcher holds 31 scholarship offers and is set to take official visits to Utah, Kansas, and Missouri along with Washington. He has also received a crystal ball prediction to commit to USC, but has yet to announce any plans to take an official visit to check out coach Lincoln Riley’s Trojans.

Bala is looking to bring in at least two, if not three high school players at the position and if he’s able to earn a commitment from Thatcher along with one of Tagoa’i or Mark Iheanachor, that would be a solid class in his first year on Montlake.

Washington sets official visit date with an elite four-star wide receiver

The Washington Huskies and coach Jedd Fisch have been busy on the recruiting trail locking in multiple visits with high profile players, including wide receiver Phillip Bell.

The aggression the Washington Huskies and head coach Jedd Fisch are displaying on the recruiting trail is something that was missing under the previous coaching staff. The willingness to go after high profile players from across the country is the foundation for elite recruiting classes year in and year out.

While not every recruit will end up a Husky, the staff has locked in visits with some extremely intriguing players, including Mission Viejo High School wide receiver Phillip Bell. As the No. 17 receiver in the country according to the 247 Sports Composite, he would bring plenty to be excited about to a team that is looking for new top targets on the recruiting trail.

Bell racked up over 600 yards last season and added 7 touchdowns to go along with it. For a junior, those are very impressive numbers that he will look to build on going into his final high school season.

Playing for a team like Mission Viejo alongside five-star cornerback Dijon Lee, will only put more eyes on him in 2024 and he could see his stock rise even further.

For most high school players of his size and stature, listed at 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, one would expect him to win primarily with his speed downfield, but his game is much more nuanced than that.

He doesn’t have elite downfield speed and lacks true field stretching ability, however, he more than makes up for it in other ways. It’s rare to find a player of his age and experience who is as productive as him with release moves off the line and moves during his routes.

He understands how to use defenders’ leverage against them and exploit it, which he displays routinely on the goal line, where his team’s obsession with throwing fade routes to him pays off. Bell works his way open very quickly off the snap with excellent short-area quickness.

The strengths of his game don’t stop at release moves though, as Bell has made himself lethal after the catch weapon. The ball routinely finds him on screens and jet sweeps that allow him to make defenders miss in the open field. He displays running back-caliber vision at times as he finds creases and explodes through them.

Bell hasn’t developed a full route tree just yet, which is mostly as a consequence of his offense, but with his productivity in other areas, there should be no doubt that he can thrive going forward creating separation from college level defenders.

The final piece of his game that really sticks out is his physicality and body control at the catch point. Many players at the high school level don’t show the willingness to be as competitive as he is when going up for a ball in the air. He can struggle at times to separate on deeper routes, so these traits will serve him very well as he transitions to the college level.

The Huskies locked in his first official visit, which is scheduled for May 31. This will be a very important weekend for the team as they look to make a positive impression on numerous players considering the program, including Lee, four-star linebacker Matai Tagoa’i, and four-star defensive back Adonyss Currie.

Bell would be a massive coup for a Huskies staff that is looking to assert itself as high-level recruiters.

Four-star TE becomes latest prospect to set official visit date with Washington

Tight ends coach Jordan Paopao has done an impressive job setting up visits with some of the nation’s top prospects, and secured another on Monday.

After receiving a scholarship offer from tight ends coach Jordan Paopao early in March, it didn’t take long for four-star tight end Vander Ploog to set up an official visit with Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies coaching staff.

The 6-foot-6, 210-pound Ploog is ranked as the nation’s No. 14 tight end by 247 Sports and has set up an official visit to Seattle that will begin on May 3, when the Huskies host their spring game. Washington’s coaching staff will host some of its other top targets that weekend, including four-star wide receiver Cooper Perry and three-star offensive lineman Peter Langi.

Ploog is also set to take official visits to Arizona State, California, and Utah this summer, but it appears Washington might be the team to beat for his services at this point in his recruitment thanks to his relationship with Paopao.

“He’s into golf and I love to golf,” Ploog told Dawgman.com’s Scott Eklund after he received his offer. “We talk and our conversations are really easy. He’s easy to talk to and I really like him.”

While he hadn’t received an offer, Ploog had also built a relationship with Kalen DeBoer’s staff before it departed and took an unofficial visit to Seattle when the Huskies took on Utah in November.

“I loved the atmosphere when I was there. Seattle is a beautiful place and I loved how everyone there backs UW Football. It is a real college town there.”

Paopao is attempting to secure commitments from multiple tight ends in the 2025 class and finding a way to secure Ploog’s commitment would be an excellent building block for the rest of the class.

2025 three-Star RB Julian McMahan commits to Washington

Class of 2025 Monte Vista (CA) running back Julian McMahan committed to the Huskies on Tuesday.

Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies earned their third commitment of the 2025 class on Tuesday, earning a pledge from running back Julian McMahan out of Danville, CA.

Washington’s three commitments have all come from California to start the 2025 recruiting cycle: quarterback Dash Beierly is from Santa Ana and offensive lineman Jake Flores plays his prep ball in San Juan Capistrano.

The 6-foot-2, 195-poind McMahan is the No. 50 running back in the class of 2025, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He had mostly been recruited by Mountain West or former Pac-12 schools, holding offers from the likes of UCLA, Oregon State, Washington State, and California. Arizona had also pursued him before Fisch and running backs coach Scottie Graham left for Montlake this offseason.

The three-star recruit also plays linebacker for Monte Vista, but the Huskies see him as a running back once he hits the collegiate ranks. He averaged 6 yards a carry as a junior, with 187 rushes for 1,113 yards and 16 touchdowns.

McMahan tweeted last week that he had an official visit with the Huskies set for June 21-23. Now, he’ll make that visit already pledged to be a Dawg.