UW Tries to Tempt Another Alabama Edge to Come North

C.J. May has Huskies among his final four choices.

C.J. May was a recent UW visitor from Alabama. / UW

Highland Home, Alabama, is home to C.J. May.

It's a tiny town of 1,349, give or take a soon-to-be relocating 4-star edge rusher, situated on U.S. State Route 331, and found a couple of hours north of the Gulf Coast and 30 miles south of Montgomery.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound May is the University of Washington's latest deep dive for talent into a football-crazy state that hired away its coach in Kalen DeBoer six months ago to run the vaunted University of Alabama football empire. This seemingly has the Huskies determined to pull as many recruits out of there to somehow make up for the pain and suffering.

Last week, the UW received an oral commitment from 6-foot-5, 240-pound edge rusher Caleb Smith, a 3-star recruit from Parker High School in Birmingham.

On July 12, May, who de-committed from Notre Dame in February, will choose from among Auburn, Louisville, Syracuse and Jedd Fisch's Huskies.

C.J. May plays for Alabama's Highland Home Flying Squadron. / SI

According to the Notre Dame message boards, and not confirmed, May possibly was encouraged to move on from the Fighting Irish because he kept his recruitment open following his pledge and the coaching staff in South Bend was not real enamored by that. Former Husky coach Chris Petersen was known to do the same thing.

Either way, May is considered such a talent he currently holds 23 scholarship offers, with seven SEC schools among them in Georgia, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Arkansas and South Carolina.

The Huskies offered him in April and recently had him to Montlake for a recruiting visit.

For his 2A Highland Home High team, May finished his junior year with 54 tackles, including 10 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks, plus 6 pass break-ups, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries and a pick-six interception that went for 39 yards.

The quaintly nicknamed Flying Squadron put together a 10-2 this season, with losses to Reeltown and Comer both ending up with identical 21-14 outcomes.

The recruiting analysts predict May, after his Notre Dame dalliance, will end up close to home, playing for Auburn, which is 80 miles away once you get through Luverne, Troy and Tuskegee, and merge onto Interstate 85 from his Sweet (Highland) Home, Alabama.

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