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Inside The Huskies

Schools Scramble, UW Included, to Re-offer Jayden Wayne

Coaching changes caused the edge rusher some momentary angst.
Dan Raley|
Schools Scramble, UW Included, to Re-offer Jayden Wayne
Schools Scramble, UW Included, to Re-offer Jayden Wayne

A month ago, Jayden Wayne tweeted out a stark observation, almost a cry in the dark.

"All these coaches recruiting me getting fired."

Of course, that wasn't true at all — because factually nearly every top-rated Power 5 school worth it football salt is feverishly pursuing this 5-star edge rusher from Tacoma's Lincoln High School. 

That is no hyperbole either.

Yet the smart ones among those who have actually dismissed a coaching staff are doubling back and reconnecting with Wayne.

And that includes the University of Washington, which under new coach Kalen DeBoer re-offered the 6-foot-5, 243-pound junior, with the Husky scholarship proposal coming on Saturday, two days following a new one from USC's replacement coaching staff headed up by Lincoln Riley.

Wayne is a priority for Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Oregon, Clemson, Oklahoma and everyone else in the upper echelon of the NCAA football hemisphere.

Besides the UW and USC, he's received recent offers from North Carolina and Washington State. 

On Nov. 21, Wayne and his family members took an official visit to watch a game at Georgia, when Dan Lanning was still the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. Lanning, of course, has since become the Oregon head coach and no doubt has re-emphasized his interest in the terrific Tacoma tackler.

Wayne just completed his junior season at Lincoln, where he finished with 44 tackles, including 16 tackles for lost yardage and 9 sacks. For a 6-3 team that went out in the first round of the state playoffs, he also caught 18 passes for 269 yards and 5 touchdowns. 

One who is prone to muse about his future on social media, Wayne also tweeted out another interesting proposition: the NFL for him in 4 years.

That would mean he plays his senior season at Lincoln and then spends three years in the college game. 

At Washington.

Or Georgia.

Maybe Texas.

How about Alabama?

And so it goes for a player where some of his recruiting contacts are getting terminated but replaced as fast as possible, and the other schools are pointing out their coaching stability.

Anything to land Jayden Wayne and get his name on a letter of intent.

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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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