Inside The Huskies

Southern California Two-Sport Prodigy Visits UW -- Twice

Caden Jones holds offers from both Husky football and basketball.

Dan Raley

Caden Jones on a UW basketball visit a week after taking a Husky football visit.
Caden Jones on a UW basketball visit a week after taking a Husky football visit. / UW

You can almost picture Jedd Fisch and Danny Sprinkle digging their heels into the ground in that narrow space between Husky Stadium and Alaska Airlines Arena and each pulling on one of Caden Jones' arms in a furious tug-of-war.

Not only do these University of Washington coaches have to battle untold schools for the services of this multi-talented Jones -- a 6-foot-3, 185-pound pro-style quarterback and a shooting guard from Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, California -- they have to compete against each other after presenting him with dual scholarship offers.

Over the past week, Jones from the Class of 2027 twice visited Montlake, arriving for a football tour on July 26 and returning seven days later to meet on Friday with the UW basketball staff.

May the best Husky coach win over this Southern California wunderkind -- or maybe they can both reel him in and learn to share.

Having played only as a high school freshman, Jones currently doesn't have much in the way of recruiting rankings, deep analysis or news stories detailing his instant rise to prodigy status just yet, but he holds 31 football scholarship offers from the likes of Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, Miami, Missouri, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue and Texas A&M, among others.

As a ninth-grader for Crean Lutheran, he played in 19 varsity basketball games and averaged just 1.6 points and 1.6 rebounds, according to Max Preps. However, his recent video posts from summer league ball show an extremely polished player with a smooth jump shot and the ability to dunk the ball.

Jones' athleticism, at such an early age, appears to be well off the charts. He's spent the summer mixing AAU basketball tournaments with football camps, attending a couple of the latter in Oregon just last week. He gets the ball out in a hurry in the football settings. He recently was timed in 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

While it seems that most schools are pursuing him for football, the UW remains the one outlier encouraging him to play two sports on the college level as the legend of Caleb Jones continues to grow.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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