Inside The Huskies

Hero Sandwiches Huskies in Among College Finalists

The California defensive lineman has an impressive list of pursuers.

Dan Raley

Hero Sandwiches Huskies in Among College Finalists
Hero Sandwiches Huskies in Among College Finalists /

While one defensive lineman from Arizona was pledging to the University of Washington, another from California was narrowing his scholarship choices to 9, and one of them is the Huskies.

Hero Kanu is a 6-foot-5, 293-pound defensive tackle from Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, which falls between Los Angeles and San Diego, and you can bet every major college recruiter knows where it is.

Kanu, who was high school teammates with new UW edge rusher Maurice Heims last season, revealed his football finalists, which resemble a top 10 wire-service poll: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, USC and Washington.

He wrote 10 on his Twitter post when actually there were just nine college icons on the graphic prepared for him. It's been suggested that he added Notre Dame since the artwork was done.

A 4-star recruit, Kanu doesn't have a catchy nickname such as new UW edge rusher commit Lance "Showtime" Holtzclaw from Mesa, Arizona, but his first name is unusual enough to draw attention to himself. 

While Kanu might seem a long shot to come to the UW, considering the stout competition lined up for him, he traveled halfway around the world from Germany to play American football, following behind the Seattle-bond Heims. That might have some bearing on his final decision.

Kanu and Heims seemed to play off each other well at Santa Margarita Catholic, which has a transfer program that directs European footballers to the school. 

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Heims, a 3-star recruit, arrived at the UW in June and enrolled with several members of his 2021 class. 

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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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