Southern California Strong Safety Has UW Among 3 Finalists

The Huskies are trying to add to their group of Rancho Cucamonga players.
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Christian Pierce, a hard-hitting strong safety from Rancho Cucamonga, California, will choose his college football destination from among UCLA, USC and Washington, he revealed on Thursday on social media. 

At the same time, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound defensive back, who played for the Rancho Cucamonga High Cougars, eliminated 14 other schools from the process, including Michigan.

It should be noted that Pierce received the Wolverines offer last September from one Courtney Morgan, now working hard to sign him for the Huskies.

Add to that, it wouldn't be surprising at all if Cam Davis and Taj Davis, the UW's earlier imports from Rancho Cucamonga, aren't in his ear, encouraging him to come north to join them. They played for rival Upland High in the Southern California city.

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Whoever gets Pierce will pick up a player not afraid of contact. He averaged 8.6 tackles per game this past season for a 6-6 team, opening with 15 tackles in a 27-19 victory over Apple Valley.

Even more impressive was his uncanny sense of finding the football and coming up with it — he intercepted 9 passes, including 3 in a 34-10 victory over Alta Loma.

It's clear when teams threw his way, Pierce wasn't interested in knocking the ball down. He finished with just 5 pass deflections.

The Huskies offered him on Dec. 15, shortly after Kalen DeBoer was hired as coach and Morgan left Michigan to join him in Seattle as his player personnel director. 

Pierce has said he expects to settle on a school this summer. 

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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.