Inside The Huskies

Will Caleb Presley Do What Budda Baker Did?

They're two talented defensive backs from the Seattle area, originally pledged to Oregon, with the latter ending up at Washington.

Dan Raley

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Nearly nine years ago, the Seattle-area safety went on KING-TV and announced he was flipping his recruiting commitment from Oregon to the University of Washington. 

It was a huge development for new Husky football coach Chris Petersen, who was on the job for barely two months when he experienced this program-changing moment.

Budda Baker, a 4-star prospect from suburban Bellevue High school and pledged to the Ducks for all of 18 days, admitted he might have been a little hasty in his decision and simply needed time to get to know the incoming coaching staff. A day later, he signed a UW national letter of intent. 

"It wasn't for me, I think," Baker said in 2014. "I was just thinking about straight up football at Oregon. I wasn't really thinking about anything else. I also thought I don't think I could live in Eugene for four years."

Now here comes Caleb Presley in an eerily similar situation, at least according to social-media missives flying right and left. 

Local kid. Four-star recruit. Oregon-bound unless something changes. 

From urban Rainier Beach High School, Presley is a touted 6-foot, 180-pound cornerback — three inches taller and six pounds heavier than Baker as a recruit — who committed to the Ducks this past July 5.

Five months later, Presley has announced he will take an official visit on Friday to the UW, six days following the Huskies' rousing 51-33 Apple Cup win over WSU and almost a month after the UW rallied to beat Oregon 37-34 in a thriller in Eugene.

Earlier this week, he tweeted a shout-out to the UW coaching staff, obviously touched by their actions yet in a posting since taken down, for acknowledging his mother who struggles with a brain condition.

As he appears now to be wavering some on his college choice, Presley has heard from UW recruits such as Texas edge rusher Anthony James and California linebacker Deven Bryant, who have let him know on Twitter that they're watching.

Presley and James both will play in the All-American Bowl, a high school all-star game, on Jan. 7 in San Antonio, Texas.

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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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