Inside The Huskies

Jersey Turnpike: Huskies Land Commitment from East Coast QB

Derek Zammit chooses to cross three time zones and play for Jedd Fisch and Washington.

Dan Raley

Derek Zammit, New Jersey QB, has committed to the UW.
Derek Zammit, New Jersey QB, has committed to the UW. / Social media

The ambitious Jersey-born football coach will have an adventurous Jersey quarterback headlining his 2026 University of Washington recruiting class.

Jedd Fisch's recruiters aimed high by pursuing two of the highest-rated signal-callers across the country in this cycle -- one from Los Angeles and the other just outside of New York City -- and on Saturday received a commitment from the one who was three time zones away, Derek Zammit of Wayne, New Jersey.

The UW basically zeroed in on 6-foot-4, 205-pound Brady Smigiel from Newbury Park, California, and the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Zammit ,and waited for whoever made the first move.

Smigiel, considering Michigan, South Carolina, his hometown UCLA and the Huskies, apparently wanted to drag out his recruitment longer. There's a good bet the Bruins' flirtation with Tennessee pie-in-the-sky defector Nico Iamaleava likely has him reconsidering that option.

Zammit, deemed a 4-star prospect by the all-knowing recruiting websites and coming off a 2,582-yard, 35-touchdown junior season for DePaul Catholic High School said yes first, reportedly choosing the UW over Alabama, Mississippi State and Syracuse.

"They treated me great, they treated my family great," he told Jersey Sports Zone. "I think it's a place I want to call home."

One of the big attractions to the Jersey quarterback is he is a good decision-maker, serving up just four interceptions last season over a 12-game schedule.

The Huskies hadn't had an East Coast quarterback for more than 40 years -- since Cliff McBride from Glen Cove, New York, was one of Warren Moon's back-ups -- before bringing in Michael Penix Jr. from the Tampa, Florida, area for a national championship run and now the on-the-way Zammit to see what he can do.

Zammit and the Huskies have been in serious recruiting discussions since last August 19, when Fisch's guys offered him during fall camp. He took an unofficial visit to Montlake on the first weekend of this monthl.

"I got to check out everything they have to offer there," he told Scott Ecklund of Dawgman.com. "The facilities are great and they are making improvements, too. They have everything the players have around them to be elite."

Again, Zammit's bedroom community of Wayne, which is just 20 minutes from Manhattan, is 25 miles from Fisch's hometown of Livingston, New Jersey.

They can compare accents and tastes in Jersey pop culture, and see if either one has a Springsteen or Bon Jovi music collection or the Sopranos DVD set.

To get the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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