THE LATEST: Washington CB Jabbar Muhammad Focused on Three
Shortly after the national championship, Washington Huskies cornerback Jabbar Muhammad opted to enter the transfer portal.
In the time since he's become one of the top players available and the 5-foot-10, 185-pound cornerback spoke with Ducks Digest about his decision to enter the transfer portal and the latest in his recruitment.
"After the game I was discussing with my parents what's the best situation for me whether that's going to the NFL or coming back for another year," he said. "We decided we were definitely gonna come back to school, but with Coach DeBoer taking another job we kind of just didn't want a lot of disfunction surrounding my last year."
Muhammad plans on taking trips to Oregon, Texas and Alabama. That trio is functioning as his top group.
"That's definitely my top group. Definitely what I'm kind of focused on right now."
Despite being such a fresh name in the portal, he wants to make his commitment sooner rather than later.
"This is getting wrapped up this week," Muhammad said. "I told my dad and my brother I said this is getting done this week. As far as the recruiting thing I'm passed all that honestly. I just need to get somewhere where I can be settled in, be ready to go compete."
What will be the most important factors in his decision?
"Honestly, just who's gonna be able to contend. As a competitor you always want to be one of the last ones standing. I want to get to the final 12, the playoffs. I want to be in a system where I can be used in a variety of different ways to show my talents.
"And I want to be on a really good football team. Like I said my last year, really good teams are really important for going to the next level. And that's also what I want to do. I also want to get in a situation where I'm propelled and ready to go to the NFL."
Muhammad is clearly intrigued by what the Ducks are building and spoke about what stands out most with Oregon.
"Coach Lanning. Coach Lanning and that defensive staff are honestly just building something really good there. They got the pass rush, they got the backers. They got the DBs."
Apart from building a strong roster, the coveted defensive back pointed to the stability at the top as a plus.
"They got everything you need to be successful and like I said that's kind of like exactly what I'm looking for at the end of the day," he said. "They have stability there. Obviously with Coach Lanning turning down jobs and everything. Oregon's building something really special. They have a lot of firepower with the quarterback. They have a lot of returning players and they're gonna be one of the top teams in the country next year."
During his brief time being recruited by Oregon he's been able to get a good feel for what the Ducks are all about.
"With this process of communicating with the coaches I'm creating relationships with them, but I know the relationships going to be even better if I do decide to go there because those guys, they're hungry," he said. "They want to compete for a title. You can tell, the staff members they have. Everybody's just bought in, everybody's all in. So I just know that the relationship if I was to go there, the relationship is gonna be really good."
The Oregon coaches are all-in on being one of the best teams in the country, but they're also all-in when it comes to who Muhammad has communicated with on the staff.
"Everybody. Literally everybody. From Coach [Rashad] Wadood to Coach Tosh [Lupoi], Coach [Dan] Lanning calls me every day. I've never had that. Facetimes me literally every day. I spoke with the OC yesterday. It's wild how connected and together those guys are."
