Inside The Huskies

Batman Returns: Huskies Gain Commitment from Phoenix Safety

Rylon Dillard-Allen gives the UW its eighth 4-star pledge for 2025.

Dan Raley

Rylon Dillard-Allen gets ready for game night at Mountain Pointe High in Phoenix.
Rylon Dillard-Allen gets ready for game night at Mountain Pointe High in Phoenix. / Max Torres

A dozen men have portrayed Batman in the movies, to varying degrees of big box-office success, among them the inimitable Michael Keaton, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, Ben Affleck, Keanu Reeves and Christian Bale.

Rylon "Batman" Dillard-Allen intends to do his best portrayal of the Caped Crusader in Husky Stadium.

On Friday, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound safety from Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix committed to the University of Washington football team, choosing Jedd Fisch's program over Alabama, Texas A&M and UCLA, as predicted by some of the recruiting analysts.

Dillard-Allen becomes one of the Huskies' showpiece players for this recruiting cycle -- more specifically the eighth 4-star recruit among 24 commits for the Class of 2025, one certain to elevate the UW from its No. 17 ranking as designated by 247Sports.

After a lengthy delay, he made the reveal in his high school gym in front of classmates and family members, pulling on different.

Rylon Dillard-Allen presents a Batman image on a recruiting trip.
Rylon Dillard-Allen presents a Batman image on a recruiting trip. / Arizona

It's also safe to say that Dillard-Allen, with his super hero persona, will have the best nickname on the roster once he joins it, putting "Batman" up against edge rusher and fellow Arizonan Lance Holtzclaw's "Showtime," cornereback Curley Reed's "Lockdown," defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez's "Sea Bass," safety Kamren Fabiculanan's "Kam Fab" and offensive tackle Justin "Moose" Hylkema.

This past season, Dillard-Allen posted 43 tackles, one for a loss, and two interceptions, including a 21-yard pick-six, in six games for a 6-5 Mountain Pointe team, according to Max Preps. A transfer from Desert Vista, he had to sit out the first half of the season.

As shown in the below video posted on social media, Dillard-Allen possesses elite speed -- 4.29 seconds over 40 yards and 10.8 over 100 meters -- which would make him the fastest Husky football player since wide receiver John Ross, who similarly was a sub-4.3 guy in 2013-16. Until recently, Ross held the fastest NFL combine speed at 4.22.

Before revealing his college choice, Dillard-Allen told Andrew Nemec of Sports Illustrated's high school site that when Fisch's staff was at Arizona it was the first to offer him and their connection carried over to the Huskies. The UW made a big push for him, sending corners coach John Richardson, safeties coach Vinnie Sunseri and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick to meet with him in Arizona.

"When they were at Arizona I was the No. 1 guy on their board," Dillard-Allen told Nemec. "I was already pretty high on Washington, but those coaches left. So another staff I was close to came in and substituted their spot, so I wasn't tripping about the situation.” 

For that reason, Seattle now becomes this Batman's Gotham City.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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Dan Raley
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.

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