A Look at Huskies' High-Priority Cornerback Competition

The position has five scholarship players actively involved in the trials, with more to come.

Dan Raley | Apr 12, 2023

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Washington Huskies

As they raced down the field, cornerback Jabbar Muhammad grabbed a handful of Rome Odunze's jersey. He shoved the University of Washington receiver a couple of times. Muhammad did everything in his power to prevent a mid-practice completion only to have Odunze still separate from him and haul in a perfectly placed pass over his shoulder in the end zone.

Such is the often difficult learning curve for the Husky cornerback corps, one filled mostly with newcomers following a shorthanded and often victimized 2022 season for this key position area — with restocking and fixing it the UW's No. 1 spring football priority, especially with the offensive line settling in place.

While the coaching staff tries to build confidence in these guys stuck on their lonely coverage islands and teach them additional pass-defense nuances, the process often has been challenging for all involved though it shouldn't be demoralizing.

The 6-foot-3, 211-pound Odunze already has been flagged as a serious All-America candidate at wide receiver and he's been playing like one this spring, just toying with anyone who tries to prevent him from making a catch, especially way downfield.

"He's an NFL guy," Muhammad said of his new teammate. "It's tough trying to battle him every day."

The beauty of Odunze is while he's enjoying the best spring of anyone, that's not quite good enough for him. After a ball sent his way on Monday fell incomplete, he bent over in the middle of the Dempsey Indoor field, pulled off his helmet and placed it on the turf for a moment, looking perplexed.

Meanwhile, the search for a pair of lockdown Husky cornerbacks continues at full speed ahead, with candidates rotating in and out while continually auditioning their skills.

LEADER IN THE CLUBHOUSE / Skylar Lin Visuals

Oklahoma State transfer Jabbar Muhammad came to the UW with 31 game appearances and 13 starts and appears to rank a solid No. 1 among the job candidates.

Elijah Jackson continues to pull a lot of cornerback reps with the No. 1 defense this spring. His work history shows 10 games played overall and starts against Arizona and Arizona State last season.

The Huskies went for immediate help in Thaddeus Dixon, who spent two seasons at Long Beach City College. He said USC and Oregon State made a strong push for him, too.

The Huskies were forced to play freshman Jaivion Green in nine games in 2022 out of necessity, when redshirting would have been much more preferable for the coaches.

Caleb Presley, considered the state's top recruit from the 2023 class, has been in spring camp and received some tough lessons against the UW's high-powered offense.

He played a lot as a redshirt freshman in 2022 and it was painful at times. He got picked on. Banks has 12 game appearances and starts against Cal and Stanford last season. He has the only Husky interception among these eight corners.

Curley "Lockdown" Reed will be a summertime arrival as a freshman from Louisiana, coming to the UW with big credentials and a great nickname.

Leroy Bryant might not have the fanfare of some of his cornerback contemporaries but he's said to be just as talented. The Californian will arrive in June. The UW has had great success with players named Bryant: Hunter, Myles and Beno come to mind.

On Monday, the corners were the first players to enter the Dempsey facility, arriving as a group at 8 a.m. They immediately began moving through two different sets of drills, stepping laterally while exchanging punching motions with a coach and catching balls lobbed high to them by another.

While this was going on, the rest of the UW team and coaches began trickling into the building, with coach Kalen DeBoer walking over to his cornerbacks for a look and jotting down notes.

Of the eight UW cornerbacks on scholarship — three holdovers, three high school signees, a JC transfer and a portal transfer — only Muhammad, the newcomer from Oklahoma State, has been a full-time starter.

For that reason, Muhammad would appear to have a strong leg up on the competition to become one of the first-teamers come Sept. 2 against Boise State in the Husky opener.

When the Huskies took the field for the first defensive set in 11-on-11 play, Muhammad and sophomore Elijah Jackson were the starting corners and remained that way throughout much of the 150-minute workout.

JC transfer Thaddeus Dixon, holdover sophomore Jaivion Green and newly arrived freshman Caleb Presley rotated in and out with the No. 2 defense.

That leaves freshmen Curley "Lockdown" Reed from Louisiana and Leroy Bryant from California to arrive later this summer and jump in the fray, plus sophomore Davon Banks, who's practicing in a limited manner after suffering a season-ending injury but still not medically cleared to do everything.

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Published Apr 12, 2023

DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.