Inside The Huskies

Conerly's Pick 6: Rainier Beach Lineman Names Finalists

The touted Seattle offensive lineman keeps local football fans hopeful.

Dan Raley

Josh Conerly Jr., Washington state's biggest football recruiting prize, on Monday narrowed his choices to six schools, revealing them in a social-media posting for all to see.

Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, LSU, Penn State and Texas.

None of them made it. 

They were the rejects. 

As Conerly said in his message, recruitment closed.

Considered a top-of-the-line 5-star prospect, the 6-foot-5, 275-pound offensive lineman from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School instead sifted through his 30-plus offers and settled on Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, USC and Washington.

Conerly will make his final determination close to the February 2 signing date.

For the Huskies, it's not a solid commitment, but it's a small victory just the same, remaining in the game for the services of the Rainier Beach High big man even with a coaching change. 

In this case, new UW recruiting coordinator Courtney Morgan had a prior relationship with Conerly at Michigan, his previous stop, and it has carried over.

A player such as Conerly, who played just a dozen miles down the road from Husky Stadium at the South Seattle high school, can make or break the UW recruiting class, no matter how big it is.

It will be a litmus test for how well Kalen DeBoer's new staff is being received locally, especially after Jimmy Lake's recruiters whiffed on 5-star edge rusher J.T. Tuimoloau and 5-star wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, who both play for Ohio State. 

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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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