Huskies In Pursuit of Another Promising Anthony Jones

The Southern California edge rusher will visit Montlake next weekend.

Anthony Jones, class of 2026, is coming to the UW for a visit. / SI

Three coaches ago, the University of Washington football program held a recruiting commitment from a player named Anthony Jones that ultimately didn't pan out. Now the Huskies are working on another. They are well aware this one will be a challenge, too.

On Friday, the latest A-Jones, a 4-star edge rusher from Irvine, California, and a member of the Class of 2026 with an already sturdy 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame, revealed on social media he will travel to the UW next Friday presumably for an unofficial visit.

Coming off his sophomore season at Crean Lutheran High School -- one in which he finished with 46 tackles, including 7 sacks -- Jones counts a dozen scholarship offers so far coming from an impressive array of suitors, among them Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCLA and the Huskies.

The UW offered him on May 7, four days after conducting its spring football game. Schools can never get in too early on the precocious players.

In Seattle on the 26th @UW_Football #PurpleReign @GregBiggins @ChadSimmons_ @adamgorney @BrandonHuffman @CoachKaufusi @CoachJeddFisch pic.twitter.com/zRvI7t0iT8

— 4⭐️Anthony Jones (@Ajones2026) July 20, 2024

Now as for that other Anthony Jones, he's become a well-traveled player who remains in demand.

Memorably in 2020, wide receiver Germie Bernard, defenisve tackle Sir Mells and the aforementioned linebacker Anthony Jones, all from Liberty High School in the Las Vegas suburbs, took an unauthorized weekend trip to Seattle during the ongoing COVID pandemic in which they couldn't meet with anyone from the school.

With Pac-12 teams mandated to play in empty venues back then, the three teammates wandered outside Husky Stadium, posed together for a photo with the bronzed canine mascot statue at the entry way and watched the UW-Arizona game from a local hotel. Not too much later, each held up a scholarship offer from the UW.

However, once Husky defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski left for Texas following the 2020 season, this 6-foot-4, 255-pound Jones was the first to redirect his recruitment elsewhere and he hasn't stopped jumping from school to school in a dizzying manner.

Jones committed to the Longhorns and Kwiatkowski yet ended up signing with Oregon, appearing in two games in 2022. He transferred to Indiana, where he started four games last season. He next committed to Oregon State and coach Jonathan Smith briefly and followed Smith to Michigan State.

He has not been alone among his Liberty buddies in painstakingly pursuing a suitable college football landing spot.

Mells, a 6-foot-4, 300-pound down lineman, similarly has been on the move nonstop. He likewise turned from the UW to signing with Oregon and stayed a season, played last year for Utah State and has since transferred to Georgia State.

Only Bernard ended up in Seattle, but not for long. The 6-foot-1, 203-pound pass-catcher signed with Kalen DeBoer's UW staff, enrolled in early 2022 and abruptly asked for his scholarship release, not totally sure about those newly installed coaches. He played a season forMichigan State, transferred back to the Huskies and was a member of last season's national runner-up team, and then followed DeBoer to Alabama.

For his sake, here's hoping this latest Anthony Jones from Southern California finds the right school for his college football experience with minimal complications.

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