Skip to main content
Inside The Huskies

Idaho Prospect Deals with Recruiting Intricacies

Two Husky coaching staffs have shown an interest in the tight end but not offered him.
Dan Raley|
Idaho Prospect Deals with Recruiting Intricacies
Idaho Prospect Deals with Recruiting Intricacies

In this story:

Washington Huskies

Unless his recruiting profile hasn't been updated, CJ Jacobsen — advertised as Idaho's No. 1 player — has nine scholarship offers but the University of Washington is not among them.

Louisville, Arizona State and North Carolina State have reached out to him with a firm proposal, but not the Huskies.

The UW still has shown plenty of interest in Jacobsen, coming from two different Husky coaching staffs.

Yet the 6-foot-5, 230-pound tight end from Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho, is a prime example of how recruiting is much more than just making blanket offers, hoping to see where they land.

It's a complicated process that demands a lot of posturing as well as marketing, plus position head-counting and waiting for the right moment to make a move. 

The Huskies might have more than enough tight ends on their roster, even with the transfer of the well-regarded Mark Redman to San Diego State because he was concerned the position wouldn't be featured in Kalen DeBoer's offense as it was in Jimmy Lake's.

Still, Jacobsen received birthday wishes from DeBoer's staff, this after getting a steady flow of cards and letters in the mail from Jimmy Lake's crew, specifically former tight-ends coach Derham Cato, plus an abundance of Seattle recruiting materials and plenty of memories from taking in a Husky game last October. 

Still, no UW scholarship offer.

He's been similarly feted by USC, even photographed with rock star coach Lincoln Riley, but no offer there either. 

Jacobsen might be a talented enough athlete that Huskies intend to keep on the string should anything change on their depth chart at tight end, which always is a possibility moving forward with a new staff.

UW spring football begins in two weeks and there's bound to be players leaving for the transfer portal after it's over because they don't feel they're a good fit with what DeBoer is trying to do in putting his stamp on the program. That happens. They weren't his recruits.

One of the difficult things for DeBoer was to take a long, hard look at the players the UW previously was recruiting and move on if he differed with the talent assessment. The new coach was under no obligation to sign the players who were orally committed to Lake's staff.

Right away, the new DeBoer staff cut ties with tight end Chance Bogan, who's father was a Husky linebacker, and Southern California pro-style quarterback Jackson Stratton, both of whom had committed to Lake's guys.

“It was definitely surprising," Stratton told the Denver Post of the Huskies pulling back on his offer. "It came out of nowhere. At the time, it was pretty rough because I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it all worked out. It’s perfect.”

On the rebound, Bogan ended up signing with Idaho, Stratton with Colorado State. 

Jacobsen either remains on the hook with the Huskies as a possible scholarship recipient or they've gradually moved in a different direction.

A lot of things can happen between now and next December's first signing deadline.

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Husky FanNation stories as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Husky FanNation on Facebook by searching: Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated

Follow Dan Raley of SI FanNation on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

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