Inside The Huskies

Big Weekend Helps Huskies Land Commitment from Las Vegas WR

The UW reconnects with Liberty High School, where it has had a complicated recruiting history.
Dan Raley|
Big Weekend Helps Huskies Land Commitment from Las Vegas WR
Big Weekend Helps Huskies Land Commitment from Las Vegas WR

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Washington Huskies

The University of Washington football team scored seven times against Michigan State, making the stadium siren sound like a high-speed pursuit.

When it was all over, the Huskies came away with a 39-28 victory and they got their man — actually landing at least a pair of 2024 recruiting commitments, impressing them with the big-game atmosphere.

On Sunday, the first pledge came from Landon Bell, a wide receiver from Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada, who had Michigan State among his choices. A short time later, edge rusher Jaxson Jones from Yuma, Arizona, committed to the UW. 

If any of this sounds the least bit familiar, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Bell lined up last year opposite Germie Bernard, a touted receiver once signed to the UW who now plays for Michigan State. Everyone was in Husky Stadium on Saturday.

After the UW put up 503 yards of total offense, threw four touchdown passes and beat the Spartans badly, one had to wonder if Bernard felt a tinge of remorse for abandoning his scholarship and leaving Seattle last January.

In another year, Bell can tell Bernard what it's like to be a receiver in Kalen DeBoer's high-powered and so far unstoppable offense through three games in Seattle.

Bell and Jones are the Huskies' first two commits for the 2024 class.

A 3-star recruit, Bell has 21 catches for 196 yards and a score in five outings this season, this after catching 24 balls for 302 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore in 2021 while playing opposite Bernard.

The Huskies appear to have mended its recruiting connection with Liberty High in the Las Vegas suburbs. Besides Bernard, two other teammates of Bell's in defensive tackle Sir Mells and outside linebacker Anthony Jones decommitted from the Huskies and both signed with Oregon, all reconsidering because of multiple coaching changes in Montlake. 

Of course, the Huskies still have a Liberty High grad in Troy Fautanu, now a highly regarded sophomore starter at left tackle.

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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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