Inside The Huskies

Huskies Turn Up As Finalist For Colorado Lineman

Reis Russell hails from the same high school that sent Roger Rosengarten to the UW.
Dan Raley|
Reis Russell took a UW spring visit in 2025.
Reis Russell took a UW spring visit in 2025. | UW

In the past, offensive lineman Reis Russell has showed up on various recruiting visits at the University of Washington by himself, accompanied by his mom or he's been in the company of his quarterback, another Huard no less.

He hails from Colorado's Valor Christian High School in the Denver suburbs, the same place that supplied offensive tackle Roger Rosengarten to the Huskies and then to the NFL.

There's something about those guys from the Rocky Mountain state who answer to the double R initials.

Yet with his perpetual grin, long flowing hair and thick 6-foot-3, 290-pound frame, Russell actually better resembles another Landen Hatchett.

So the connection between this full-service kid -- who plays center, guard and tackle -- and the Huskies runs fairly deep.

Yet while the UW has been in the middle of his recruitment for a more than a year, it appears the competition for Russell's services has become fairly high brow after he narrowed his choices to six schools.

On Tuesday, the 4-star player singled out Florida, Georgia, Miami, Oregon, SMU and Washington as his finalists plucked from 32 scholarship offers, sharing this intel with Rivals.

What recruiters see is an already physically developed and athletic lineman similar to Hatchett, who had the same sort of attention coming out of Ferndale High School, well north of Seattle, in 2023.

Plus, the talent sleuths fully understand a big guy with a football reputation who is always smiling no doubt knows they're going to have the upper hand on those who line up opposite him on defense.

The Huskies were one of the first schools to get on Russell, who a year ago set an early round of visits for Arizona, Oklahoma and Washington.

Reis Russell and Titus Huard play for the same Colorado High School and are UW recruits.
Reis Russell and Titus Huard play for the same Colorado High School and are UW recruits. | Huar

The Wildcats and Sooners, of course, are no longer in the mix for him, while a photo emerges of UW offensive-line coach Michael Switzer making a home visit to see Russell.

While anything goes in recruiting these days, with so much involved, Russell could end up just about anywhere among his half-dozen options.

The Southern schools always have had plenty of financial resources to land top talent. SMU has a history, both illegally and legally, of paying top dollar. Nothng has changed at Oregon, where money is no object.

The Huskies likely will have to lean on its longer than most relationship with Russell, plus its overall connection to Valor Christian, to reel him in.

The UW can point to the Rosengarten connection, plus to the offer it has out to Valor Christian quarterback Titus Huard, son of former Husky and NFL QB Brock Huard.

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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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