Inside The Huskies

Huskies Trying to Pull Corner, QB Out of Same SoCal School

Evan Mack and Caden Jones, both 4-star prospects, hail from Crean Lutheran High.
Dan Raley|
Evan Mack from Crean Lutheran has a UW offer.
Evan Mack from Crean Lutheran has a UW offer. | Mack

For two years now, University of Washington football recruiters have spent a lot of time and effort in pursuit of quarterback Caden Jones from private Crean Lutheran High School in Southern California.

So it's not all that surprising that Huskies might have spotted something else they liked at a place in Irvine that caters to a 1,125-student enrollment.

Making the rounds, Husky coach Jedd Fisch and cornerbacks coach John Richardson not only recently made contact again with the 4-star Jones, they spent time with Evan Mack, a 4-star cornerback for Crean,

Jones and Mack, in the recruiting Class of 2027, each have dimensions that go 6-foot-3 and 180-185 pounds.

Each is a basketball player of note, with Jones holding both UW football and hoop offers.

Mack, however, is advertising himself only as cornerback prospect so far and, because of his elite status at the position, probably has made a wise decision.

He comes off a junior season for Crean in which he had 49 tackles, 2 interceptions and 10 pass break-ups for a 10-1 Crean team that made the playoffs.

With Jones at quarterback, the coaches made sure that Mack got together with him on offense a few times, with the defensive back catching a pair of passes for 29 yards.

As a sophomore, Mack played for Wilson High School in Long Beach and was even better in coverage. He finished with 48 tackles, 3 interceptions and a weighty 17 PBUs for a 9-5 Wilson team.

During his freshman year in 2023, he was more of a Wilson pass receiver than corner, catching 24 passes for 576 yards and 7 touchdowns.

By now the recruiters know all of these details well.

Mack holds 21 offers so far, with his list of suitors also including Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, BYU, California, Kansas, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, SMU, Tenneessee, UCLA and USC.

The Huskies offered him on May 14 last year, right after spring ball ended, and had him up for a fall visit on October 25 for the Illinois game, which they won 42-25.

There was some thought that Mack might be best suited as a basketball player at Wilson High, but that apparently is no longer the case.

The UW would be more than satisfied if it came out of this recruiting cycle with a Crean package deal that involves a QB and a corner.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
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.

Home/Recruiting