Inside The Huskies

Huskies Extend Offer to Another Arizonan, This One from Class of 2025

Zach Thompson is a linebacker prospect with a long way to go before playing college football.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Extend Offer to Another Arizonan, This One from Class of 2025
Huskies Extend Offer to Another Arizonan, This One from Class of 2025

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Washington Huskies

Zach Thompson was one of the young guys standing along the sideline for Saturday afternoon's University of Washington closing spring scrimmage at Husky Stadium.

A real young guy.

A floppy-haired kid most likely not eligible to drive or to vote.

While others his age were chasing down autographs from the current UW players, Thompson sat for a photo shoot inside the stadium, got a tour of the place and left with a scholarship offer in hand — his first from a Division 1 school. 

Thompson is a 5-foot-11, 180-pound linebacker from suburban Gilbert High School, southeast of Phoenix.

He's from the recruiting Class of 2025, which means he just completed his freshman year of high school. He's taken visits to Utah and BYU, but the Huskies are the first to offer him.

The Gilbert High Tigers, who finished 4-6 this past season, used Thompson as a running back on offense, but his future lies as a free-flowing linebacker playing in the middle or coming off the edge.

If he continues to mature physically, he could be an ideal player to fill the UW's new Husky hybrid position, which is a combination safety and linebacker, and one that another Arizonan, Dominique Hampton, most likely will try out first next season.

Under new coach Kalen DeBoer, the Huskies have extended scholarship offers to at least eight Arizona prospects. 

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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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