Inside The Huskies

It's May Madness for Elite Football Recruit Josh Conerly

The Rainier Beach offensive lineman teases his social-media following with "big announcement."
Dan Raley|
It's May Madness for Elite Football Recruit Josh Conerly
It's May Madness for Elite Football Recruit Josh Conerly

Josh Conerly Jr. tweeted out early in the week that he had a "big announcement" coming.

On Tuesday, after keeping everyone in the college football recruiting world in utter suspense for 24 hours, the offensive lineman from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School made the big reveal.

He posted a colorful graphic of himself and different university logos to indicate his immediate intentions.

After his virtual drum roll and corresponding tease, Conerly cut his list of suitors to something a little more manageable for everyone involved.

He pared it more than in half ... to a dozen.

Well now.

Most high-level high school football players would walk on their hands, shave their heads and live on protein shakes nonstop if it would bring them a dozen scholarship offers to choose from. 

Conerly got rid of 17 schools and kept those 12 breathlessly awaiting his decision.

He can send half of his office staff home right now.

Such is the world of the heavily recruited 6-foot-5, 275-pound offensive guard or tackle for the class of 2022.

By settling on this delirious dozen, he kept the hearts and minds racing of recruiters whose careers depend on teenaged decisions such as this and kept in a giddy mood fans hopelessly addicted to the endless football Easter egg hunt. 

The winners of the latest round of Conerly's personalized May Madness were, in alphabetical order, Alabama, Arizona State, Auburn, California, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford, Texas, UCLA, USC and Washington. 

Of the Huskies, Conerly told 247Sports, "That's the ultimate for a kid in Seattle. It's just a team I’ve been around for a while, with my boy Nate [Kalepo] going there. Me and coach [Scott] Huff, we talk 2-3 times a week. We’re always on the phone. With what coach Huff is doing, I’ve seen the come-up there."

Those who were forced to take him off their mailing lists and speed dials were, in alphabetical order, Arizona, Baylor, Boise State, BYU, California, Colorado, Florida Atlantic, Indiana, LSU, Nebraska, Nevada, Northwestern, Oregon State, Tennessee, Utah, Vanderbilt and Washington State.

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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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