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Elite SoCal DT Cuts Schools to 5, UW Included

Jon Ioane is such a good athlete he also played quarterback as a sophomore.
Dan Raley|
Jedd Fisch and Jon Ioane share a recruiting moment.
Jedd Fisch and Jon Ioane share a recruiting moment. | UW

Jon Ioane has been shedding schools like he does blockers, and on Wednesday the 4-star Southern California defensive tackle brought his list down to five schools, which include the University of Washington.

The 6-foot-3, 290-pound Ioane, who hails from a football family in Tustin, is mulling California, Penn State, Stanford, UCLA and the Huskies as he heads into the serious part of his recruitment, according to On3.

He might be the most interesting, if not longest pursued recruit, in the Class of 2027 for Jedd Fisch's staff.

As a sophomore in 2024, while manning the defensive line, Ioane played quarterback at times and threw for 7 touchdowns and shifted over to tight end and caught a scoring pass.

He has held a scholarship offer from Fisch's staff since April 14, 2022 -- when he was in junior high and those coaches were in Arizona.

After attending the recent UW Junior Day, he seems as interested in the Huskies as much as ever. He'll take his official visit to Montlake on June 5-7.

"They are really a program," Ioane told Dawgman.com. "They are all for each other and together on everything and they support each other and it's like a big family. They don't just say it, they live it."

In December, Ioane cut his choices to 10 schools -- and only the UW and UCLA remain from that original grouping.

In the process, he dropped Arizona State, Miami, Oregon, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, USC and Utah, and added the Bay Area schools and Penn State.

Clearly a lot of people want him, with the Huskies trying to secure a real game-wrecking down lineman for the first time since Vita Vea.

"Not many guys my size can move the way I do," he said. "I think that gives me a real edge on the others."

This past season for a 9-2 team, Ioane finished with 50 tackles, including 14 tackles for loss and 4 sacks, and added 3 pass break-ups, a forced fumble and 21 quarterback hurries while playing in 10 games, according to Max Preps.

As. sophomore, he had 52 tackles, including 9 TFLs and 8 sacks, plus 4 forced fumbles, 1 PBU and 24 quarterback hurries, again for a 9-2 team.

That season, Ioane was also nimble enough to complete 31 of 47 passes for 475 yards and those 7 scoring throws.

As a freshman, he missed the entire season with a knee injury.

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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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