Inside The Huskies

Breaking Down Brady Smigiel's Final Four Football Recruiting Choices

The 4-star quarterback will choose from Michigan, South Carolina, UCLA and the UW.

Dan Raley

Newbury Park High quarterback Brady Smigiel poses for a photo with wide receiver Shane Rosenthal, who is committed to UCLA.
Newbury Park High quarterback Brady Smigiel poses for a photo with wide receiver Shane Rosenthal, who is committed to UCLA. / Juan Carlo/THE STAR / USA TODAY NETWORK

College football recruiting is a strange little world, where teenagers instantly are turned into sporting gods and a battery of cold callers from websites everywhere incessantly hound them around the clock wanting to know their innermost thoughts.

Was the brotherhood at USC really unlike anything you had ever seen before? Does Texas really care about you more as a person than a player? Does Georgia have that Mercedes C-Class on order for you?

And so it goes, with 4-star quarterback Brady Smigiel from Newbury Park High School in the greater Los Angeles area reportedly sharing this week that he will choose from Michigan, South Carolina, UCLA and Washington.

This after all of the experts had forecast in a flurry that he was most likely Husky bound -- basically because he spent a weekend in Seattle looking around the place once more and taking a lot of photos for social media purposes.

It's a wonder how he can even send a text to his girlfriend these days, providing he has one, with everyone wanting a recruiting piece of him.

As for those finalists, here's what this red-headed Southern California signal-caller likely is considering as a one-time Florida State commit now trying to settle on second landing spot -- and get all of those people to stop messaging him:

1. Michigan -- The Wolverines are attempting to go from no headliner at quarterback to speak of to a stockpile of top, young prospects, with incoming 5-star freshman Bryce Underwood arriving for a season or two in Ann Arbor before he presumably would turn the keys over to Smigiel. The specter of becoming the next Tom Brady is always enticing. Blue Blood Option.

2. South Carolina -- This one is a little puzzling, though it is the SEC, which they'll inform you over and over down there is God's country when it comes to college football. The Gamecocks simply haven't produced a memorable quarterback bound for the NFL, unless you remember Steve Tanneyhill and his mullet and strong right arm. Not likely.

3. UCLA -- Smigiel faces a real tug here. Does he want to play just 35 miles from his house, in warm-weather conditions, reuniting with his favorite receiver Shane Rosenthal already committed to the Bruins, and rebuild? Or play against the Bruins in the Big Ten while at Michigan or Washington? Emotional Wild Card.

4. Washington -- The attraction here would be Jedd Fisch's "Be a Pro" campaign, where the fast-talking one can lay down the roadmap and his set of contacts for getting Smigiel to the NFL, plus tell him why he left previous jobs at both Michigan and UCLA. Hard Sell Possibility.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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