Inside The Huskies

UW Picks Up Commitment from Oregon Defensive Tackle, Once a Big Secret

Dominic Macon is a late bloomer from the Portland area.

Dan Raley

Dominic Macon from Happy Valley, Oregon, has committed to the UW.
Dominic Macon from Happy Valley, Oregon, has committed to the UW. / UW

Dominic Macon was supposed to be a big secret. The recruiting websites said he held no Power 4 offers entering April. He played defensive tackle for a high school southeast of Portland that didn't even exist three years ago.

However, word finally got out and football recruiters from places such as California, San Diego State, Oregon State and the University of Washington finally got wise and made a bid for this prospect from Adrienne C. Nelson High School in Happy Valley, Oregon.

The 6-foot-3, 295-pound Macon even showed up two weeks ago at the Magic City Showcase, a one-day recruiting event in Birmingham, Alabama, at historic Legion Field, and auditioned in SEC country, threatening to blow the cover full off his cadre of football talents.

Somehow Jedd Fisch's Huskies, and not Kalen DeBoer's Alabama Crimson Tide or someone else tied to that football-crazy corner of the country, still managed to pull a commitment out of the big Oregon kid, who revealed his decision on Tuesday morning.

Macon is the seventh commit picked up by the UW since hosting last weekend's big official visit recruiting event. He received an offer after taking part in the Huskies' Top Dawg camp earlier this month.

Early reports on Macon, a 3-star recruit for the Class of 2025, detail him as having exceptional power and quickness for a defensive-line candidate.

It might have been a coincidence, but the UW put No. 90 on him for his publicity shots during his official visit to Montlake. That's a jersey that once belonged to the Huskies' greatest defensive lineman, Steve Emtman, the 1992 No. 1 overall NFL draft pick, Outland Trophy winner, Lombardi Award winner and consensus All-America selection. Maybe Fisch's staff was trying to channel some of those same vibes.

Emtman wasn't widely recruited either in coming off a farm in Cheney, Washington, with only the Huskies and Washington State pursuing someone who would become a monster player on the college level.

Macon's high-level athleticism is further supported by the fact that, as a junior, he won the Oregon 6A heavyweight wrestling championship, finishing a perfect 33-0.

Not bad for a new high school with just three graduating classes since opening its doors in a renovated middle school in September 2022, established to take the pressure off an overcrowded Clackamas High School. It was named for Adrienne Nelson, the first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. District Court in Oregon.

Now comes Macon, trying to make a name for himself as a late-bloomer football player and give Nelson High someone else to celebrate in an increasingly happy Happy Valley.

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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