Inside The Huskies

Huskies Send Scholarship Down Runway to Recruit Named Jett

The high school freshman cornerback currently is committed to USC.

Dan Raley

Arron "Jett" White received a USC scholarship offer just a few games into his freshman season at Orange High School south of Anaheim, not quite two weeks following the firing of Trojans leader Clay Helton.

The coaching leadership might come to an abrupt halt at the Pac-12 school at times, but not the talent acquisition.

White not only received his USC offer last September he accepted it on the spot.

The ninth-grade cornerback with the catchy nickname is that good. 

So the obvious assumption, with Lincoln Riley now in charge and entertaining White as soon as he arrived, that this would be recruiting case closed.

Not so fast.

On Wednesday night, White revealed in a social-media posting that he'd received an offer from the University of Washington, giving him 21 overall.

So why would the Huskies think they might have any shot at landing this elite 6-foot-1, 165-pounder from Southern California, who's seemingly spoken for? 

White's tweet in early December appeared to indicate he's related to Courtney Morgan, the Huskies' recruiting coordinator, though there's no independent confirmation of this that's readily available.

Either way, everyone is jumping in line to try and impress this youngster, who finished his freshman year with 35 tackles and 3 interceptions for a 7-4 Orange Panthers team. One of his pass thefts was a 90-yard pick six against Capistrano Vally High. He had 5 touchdowns overall, counting 3 scores on receptions and another on a kick return.

"First year was great but Year 2 will be a movie," White tweeted out, showing no lack of confidence.

The attraction to him is his secondary savvy and swiftness combined with his tall frame. Of course, he won't sign for nearly another three years so a lot can happen regarding his college choice, no matter what the Trojans think. 

Lincoln Riley might be in the NFL by then. Kalen DeBoer's program, and Morgan's, might be hard to resist by then. Someone else might make a successful play for him.

White mentioned how he committed two days following the death of his grandfather, who was a big USC fan. He's also posted photos of him and his teammates training by running in the sand dunes on the Southern California coast. 

Jett White at a 7-on-7 competition.
The lanky Jett White has 21 offers as a freshman / White photo

All of that would be hard to give up, the sunshine and Trojans.

"I mean, I’m from California and USC is the cream of the crop,' he said to rivals.com about committing so early to the Trojans. "It would have been silly for me not to have."

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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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