Huskies Land First Commitment in 50 Years from Minnesota Player
Taking a recruiting route less traveled, the University of Washington football team on Tuesday received an oral commitment from defensive tackle Elinneus Davis, a rare Minnesota player for the Huskies.
On Tuesday, the 6-foot-3, 295-pound Davis from Moorhead High School in Moorhead, a small, border town that actually sits in a suburb of Fargo, North Dakota, chose the UW over Iowa State and his home state Minnesota.
Once he makes it official by signing a national letter of intent next winter, Davis will become the Huskies' first recruited football player from the Gopher State in 50 years.
Previously, Steve Wallin was a starting UW offensive guard who hailed from Fairbault, Minnesota, south of Minneapolis. He played two seasons during the Sonny Sixkiller era, starting eight of 11 games in 1972. Wallin transferred in after first spending a pair of football seasons with the now defunct Spokane Community College program.
Since then, the only other Minnesota player to pass through Montlake has been defensive tackle Judd Seida, who walked on at the UW in 1997 and 1998 after playing for Central Michigan. He was from Minneapolis.
Davis becomes the 17th commit for the Huskies' current recruiting class, and the seventh defensive player. He's the fourth penciled in for the future front wall, joining fellow defensive tackle Sua Lefotu from St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, and edge rushers Anthony James from Wylie East High in Wylie, Texas, and Jacob Lane from Emerald Ridge High in Puyallup, Washington.
Elinneus Davis and Anthony James, two of the UW's 17 commits, could be playing side by side as Huskies.
UW
James and Davis were two of the first players Kalen DeBoer's new staff targeted after taking over and the recruiting connection between the two high schoolers might have helped land the Minnesota prospect.
They shared the same Seattle recruiting weekend and posed together in Husky uniforms for publicity photos. James, who committed in late June, also seemed to encourage Davis to join him at the UW with a flurry of recent social-media posts.
UW recruiters offered a scholarship to Davis in early January, not long after they were hired, and were drawn to his mix of athleticism and physicality for a three-sport athlete who also competes in basketball and track. He suits up for a school that answers to the Spuds.
As the Husky recruiting footprint widens, this marks the third defensive lineman the DeBoer staff has pulled from the Midwest, joining current freshmen and twins Armon and Jayvon Parker from Detroit.
As for the UW-Minnesota connection, Davis passed on the Big Ten school that has a longstanding football history with the Huskies. The two schools have played 17 times, with the Gophers winning 10, though they haven't met since 1977, when a Rose Bowl-bound Don James team lost 19-17.
The UW, however, beat a No. 1-ranked Minnesota team 17-7 in the 1961 Rose Bowl.
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