Inside The Huskies

UW Offers Football and Basketball Scholarship to SoCal Prodigy

Caden Jones is a talented prospect from the Class of 2027.

Dan Raley

Caden Jones is shown on an LSU visit.
Caden Jones is shown on an LSU visit. / LSU

Somebody out there obviously knows something about Caden Jones.

A lot of somebodies.

On Wednesday night, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound athlete from an obscure Southern California high school, at least for recruiting purposes, revealed on social media he has received a most unique scholarship offer from the University of Washington -- to play both football and basketball for the Huskies.

Jones hails from Crean Lutheran High in Irvine, enrollment 959, and named for the philanthropic couple who donated $10 million to get it started.

The kid just completed his freshman year, making him a Class of 2027 prospect.

While you won't find any recruiting rankings, analysis or stories detailing this kid's rise to prodigy status just yet, he currently holds 29 football scholarship proposals from the likes of Georgia, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Miami, Missouri, Penn State, Purdue and Texas A&M, among others.

He's big and fast for a kid his age. Real fast.

The Huskies haven't had a two-sport athlete in their two biggest sportis offerings since 2002, when Nate Robinson was a freshman who started at cornerback for the football team and at guard for the basketball team in the same school year. He never went back to football while becoming an NBA first-round draft pick.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins was an NFL-bound tight end for the Huskies, who also played as a reserve basketball forward in 2012, before concentrating solely on football.

Before that, the late Reggie Rogers doubled up and played the 1984 and 1985 seasons as both a starting UW defensive tackle and reserve power forward. In 1986, he played football only and became an All-America selection and a first-round NFL draft pick.

Now comes this young Caden Jones, who according to his UW offer posting, appears to be shooting guard and tight end candidates.

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 ifrom summer league ball show an extremely polished player with a smooth jump shot.

Jones split time on the football field between the varsity and freshman teams, and was used as a passer, rusher and receiver.

For the Crean Lutheran frosh team, he completed 68 of 82 passes for 1,098 yards and 18 touchdowns. On the varsity, he appeared in four games and connected on 34 of 53 attempts for 343 yards and 4 scores, starting once for the 8-4 Saints.

Besides taking unofficial visits to many of the major college football powerhouses so far, and posing for photos with coaches such as Georgia's Kirby Smart, Jones has been making the camp rounds. In April, he even took part in an Under Armor Next football camp in Lakewood, Washington.

In Georgia, Jones demonstrated why so many FBS programs are interested in him so early in his career. He ran a personal-best 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

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

Published |Modified
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.

Home/Recruiting