Jayvon Parker Out to Show Michigan State He's Much More Than a Walk-On

Michigan State hosted the Parker twins, Jayvon and Armon, for a handful of unofficial visits during their recruitment coming out of Fordson High School in suburban Detroit, about 90 miles from the East Lansing campus..

The catch was this: the Spartans’ wanted the defensive-line duo to walk-on with the hope they might earn scholarships down the road.

Washington, however, was much more willing to come up with scholarships for this pair, with Husky defensive-line coach Inoke Breckterfield making it clear he wanted both brothers.

On Saturday, the Parker siblings, providing both travel, return to their home state for the return match in the recent UW-Michigan State series and dozens of family and friends are expected to be in the stands cheering them on inside Spartan Stadium.

“Since they didn’t recruit me as much, I just want to get back there and show them I’m the guy you should’ve come and got,” Jayvon Parker said after Tuesday’s practice.

After Kalen DeBoer assembled his staff in December 2021, it didn’t take long for recruiting director Courtney Morgan, hired away from Michigan, and Breckterfield to identify the brother duo as their top two defensive-line targets for the 2022 recruiting class.

At the time, Jayvon Parker held only a single scholarship offer from Grand Valley State, an NCAA Division II school, before the UW entered the picture.

Illinois offered a scholarship to Armon Parker, but the Fighting Illini asked Jayvon to accept a preferred walk-on offer.

Their mother, Rita Parker, told the brothers to make separate decisions since each had different opportunities from various schools.

“The plan was always to play together,” Javyon said. “Growing up, we said we were going to be at a Power Five school together. We always played together in Little League — the goal was playing together. If something happened and we had to go our separate ways, it’s good, but the main goal was to go together.”

Once at the UW, Jayvon played in eight games as a freshman and burned through his redshirt year while Armon suffered a knee injury at home that forced him to have surgery and sit out the 2022 season. The latter is still trying to get healthy.

Throughout their first 15 months in Seattle, the two brothers remain as close as ever. This past summer, they put on a football camp together, along with senior running back Richard Newton, junior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and freshman defensive lineman Anthony James that was hosted by the Boys and Girl's Club.

On Saturday, Jayvon will show up for the game with the mindset that his performance against Michigan State will really make it clear which coaching staff made the right decision on him during recruiting.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Lars Hanson of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @LarsHanson or @UWFanNation

Have a question? Message me on Twitter!