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Huskies Offer Texas Safety with WSU Connection

Paul Mencke Jr.'s father was a Cougar quarterback and tight end.
Dan Raley|
Huskies Offer Texas Safety with WSU Connection
Huskies Offer Texas Safety with WSU Connection

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Washington Huskies

Paul Mencke Jr. is a 4-star recruit from San Antonio, someone who ranks as the No. 2 safety in Texas, yet he knows his way around Washington state, more specifically Washington State.

He's the son of a former Cougars quarterback/tight end of the same name who came from Spokane and competed for playing time against Ryan Leaf and Jason Gesser and shared in the 1998 Rose Bowl.

The younger Mencke grew up in Pullman until his father took a job as a professor at Texas State-San Marcus, where he's been for the past decade.

The son currently holds 18 scholarship offers, with one of his earliest ones coming from WSU and the latest proposed to him on Tuesday by Kalen DeBoer's University of Washington recruiters.

Mencke plays for the Clemens High Buffaloes in Schertz, Texas, which is located 20 miles northeast of San Antonio and next to Randolph Air Force Base. 

For a 4-6 team, Mencke finished with 67 tackles, 3 interceptions, 3 pass break-ups and a fumble recovery.

He hangs on tight to his Northwest roots, which run up and down the Eastern Washington state line. 

“No matter what, I’m going to be a Coug for life,” Mencke Jr. told Cougfan.com. “Pullman is home, that’s my childhood, and half my family still lives an hour away in Spokane.”

His father became the WSU quarterback starter in 1998 when Gesser was injured, and he threw for 1,043 and 10 touchdowns. He finished up as a tight end the following season and caught 9 passes for 64 yards. He also played for the Cougar basketball team.

A top student with a perfect 4.0 grade average while presenting himself as a natural leader, this younger Mencke also gives off an Alex Cook vibe. Smart. Disciplined. Motivated.

Not surprisingly, he holds offers from Stanford and Duke.

Mencke recently was named MVP at the Under Armour football camp Dallas, which has helped bring him offers from the likes of Notre Dame, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

He seems to know his way around Seattle, too, retweeting posts about former Seahawks Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner.

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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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