Jayden Wayne Has Become One of America's Most Wanted
Jayden Wayne.
He's officially the most heavily recruited football player to come from the state of Washington.
In just the past 21 days, Wayne has been everywhere. Seen everything. Been on the most elaborate pigskin tour of America.
It's as if he's Bruce Wayne, driving the Batmobile, speeding over mountain passes as fast as he can go, taking sharp turns with parachutes, turning on the thrusters whenever on the interstate straightaways.
Or Palladin, from one of TV's earliest Westerns.
Have big guns, will travel.
Monitoring his Facebook account, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound edge rusher from Tacoma's Lincoln High School — he's part of the class of 2023, coming off his sophomore year and still a baby — just looked over Notre Dame and Michigan.
Everywhere he goes, there's a recruiting service minion standing right there to get Wayne's immediate visit reaction and it's always the same.
Enjoyed it. Loved it. Awesome. I'll be back.
However, he doesn't say which uniform he would be wearing on his return visit.
To his credit, Wayne is as polite and respectful toward everyone who he encounters while these people are as obtrusive and as hard sell as you can get in giving him the full-blown recruiting spiel.
Did you know Tuscaloosa is America's most livable city? That South Bend is the sister city to North Bend, Washington?
His first offer came two years ago from Oregon — he was out of elementary school, right? — so naturally the Ducks think he's a lock for Eugene.
He began this month-long trek across America at the University of Washington when the calendar flipped over to June, removing all pandemic-related recruiting restrictions.
It was unofficial, so he might have dined at Dick's Drive-In that day.
USC nailed down Wayne for a visit with his dad. Hope they didn't try to use O.J.'s Heisman as a recruiting carrot.
Did you know you could become the second-most famous Trojan player named Wayne, as in John?
That pilgrim was a USC offensive lineman named Marion Morrison before he took up acting and nicknamed Duke who ended up getting let go by the Trojans in 1928 after he broke his collarbone body surfing. Luckily, Hollywood was nearby.
This Northwest Wayne has 30-plus offers so far and he's barely been through the Lincoln lunch line.
Correct us if we're wrong, but he went to Alabama, Auburn, Clemson and Georgia early on this month, pulling on a uniform and engaging in some sort of camp exercise at all or most of these little slices of Southern heaven.
He next stopped by Texas to let Steve Sarkisian how much we miss him up here in the Puget Sound region and to try on a cowboy hat. He didn't get out of that state until he had got an eyeful of Texas A&M.
Wonder if he knows Sark's slogan at the new job is, "All Gas, No Brakes," which is what the coach did to get out of Seattle and the UW?
It must be fun being America's most wanted man. Guilty of being extra large for what he does and supremely agile. Always on the run from recruiters who won't take no for an answer. A poster guy waiting to happen at every athletic department he wanders through.
Yes, Wayne knows about "All Gas, No Brakes." I think that's what he calls his recruitment now.
Oh, and Wayne is not anywhere near done in exploring these bastions of higher education and cathedrals of college football.
He's due to arrive in Miami this week.
Crockett and Tubbs will be at the airport to pick him up in a Ferrari — or in a cigarette boat.
The meal should be good on this venture.
Ever had alligator?
Tastes just like chicken.
Which is what you can't be if you're going to be wined and dined and recruited by everyone from Nick Saban to Jimmy Lake.
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