Inside The Huskies

Huskies On Mission To Land Mission Viejo Defensive Lineman

JD Hill will choose between Washington and West Virginia next week.
Dan Raley|
JD Hills has the UW and West Virginia as his two finalists.
JD Hills has the UW and West Virginia as his two finalists. | Utah

Six months ago, Jayden "JD" Hill received his first college football offer from Northern Arizona and he committed to the Lumberjacks, seemingly content with the Big Sky school.

It's not clear if they said he could eventually inherit Alex McLaughlin's old locker, but he was going to Flagstaff.

Well, a lot has changed since then for the 6-foot-2, 270-pound defensive tackle/edge rusher from Mission Viejo High School, which is located on the sound end of Los Angeles proper.

The 3-star recruit de-committed from NAU on September 15.

Hill, all of a sudden, was pursued by a flurry of bigger schools, among them Washington, Miami, Arizona State, UCLA, Colorado and others.

On November 20, after he visits Montlake this weekend, he will choose between the Huskies and West Virginia. The UW offered him 13 days ago.

What Jedd Fisch's staff and the Mountaineers see is an extremely quick defender with a low center of gravity who knows his way to the backfield.

Entering a Friday night playoff game against powerhouse Mater Dei (7-2), Hill has piled up 99 tackles, 13 sacks, 18 quarterback hurries, 2 forced fumbles, an interception and a blocked field goal for his Diablos (9-1).

In three varsity seasons, this high achiever from Orange County has accumulated 38.5 sacks.

In particular, Hill drew a lot of attention to himself with a 13-tackle. 5.5-sack outing in a 53-14 victory over Folsom and its touted quarterback Ryder Lyons, who is committed to BYU.

Besides a fierce pass rush, he brings plenty of enthusiasm and personality to what he does, another positive check mark.

Following a rugged 7-3 victory over Santa Margarita early in the season, Hill was asked by the Orange Country Register newspaper about the challenge the other side, a team full of transfers, presented when it said it was going to rely on its rushing attack to decide the game.

That got the defensive lineman revved up all over again as he stood under the bright lights of a stadium emptying out near San Luis Obispo.

"As soon as we heard they wanted to run the ball down our throats, we emphasized closing that gap, all gaps, everything.," he said. "We used that as a mentality -- we tried to fight the offense. Like transfers don't mean nothing. It's all about heart, it's all about the games, it's all about the physicality. We proved that today. So shout out to my D-line."

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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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